Branstad: Iowa might need to revamp delegate process

DES MOINES - Iowa's political parties should consider revisiting their presidential selection structures, Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday.

Branstad's comments come amid the criticism of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and others that the system is rigged in favor of the political establishment to the detriment of outsiders.

Trump and Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders have raised concern about how delegates are being apportioned to the national conventions where the parties' presidential and vice presidential nominees will be decided this summer.

Sanders has won seven of the past eight Democratic contests but trails front-running Hillary Clinton. She has support from 'super delegates” who are designated from party officials separate from the state-by-state caucuses and primaries.

On the Republican side, Trump contends the system is 'rigged” to keep him from reaching the delegate total he needs to secure the party's nomination in his battle with Ted Cruz.

Branstad said Iowa's system is more problematic for Democrats who have a 15 percent viability requirement for candidates in its delegate selection process and allow elected and party officials to be 'super delegates.” These topics probably will be the subject of a Democratic Party review panel, but the governor added that elements of the GOP system that also could be reviewed.

'The process has evolved to the point where now I think the public more and more feels it needs to be democratic with a small ‘d' so that it really reflects the will of the people that participate and vote in caucuses and primaries,” said Branstad, adding that he thinks 'the parties need to modernize and adjust their rules as time goes on.”

But for this year, Branstad said candidates in both major parties 'have to live by the rules that are in place.”

During Monday's weekly news conference, Branstad said he would like to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention, but he would not tip his hand on which Republican he might support in Donald Trump does not win the party's presidential nomination on the first ballot.

'Let's wait until the state convention before we make that decision,” Branstad saids in discussing prospects for his possible participation in what could become the first open GOP national convention since 1976. Branstad was an alternate delegate at that convention in Kansas City, Mo., which ultimately chose Gerald Ford as the GOP candidate. He had ascended from vice president after the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974 following the Watergate scandal. Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 general election.

'If I'm nominated (at the May 21 state convention to be a national delegate),” Branstad said, 'I will be happy to share my candid opinion.” He said he favors a candidate who would focus on reducing the national debt, bolstering national security and improving the agricultural economy.

At last weekend's GOP district conventions, 11 of the 12 people chosen delegates for the national convention pledged to back Cruz in the second round.