Day after the debate

CEDAR RAPIDS – Twenty-five days out from Election Day Gov. Chet Culver and his challenger, former Gov. Terry Branstad, see nothing but victory ahead.

“The truth is, things are going very well for us,” Branstad, a Boone Republican who served four terms as governor, said after debating the incumbent in Cedar Rapids Oct. 7.

“I feel great,” Culver, a first-term Democrat from West Des Moines, said. “We're moving. The momentum is out there. We've won two debates in a row now.”

Culver believed the second of three scheduled debates with Branstad was the game-changer he needed to turn around a re-election campaign trying to erase a double digit deficit in the polls. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll and Iowa Poll showed Branstad leading Culver by 18 and 19 percentage points, respectively. In the case of Rasmussen, polls going back to February show Branstad's lead has increased.

If nothing else the debate, which erupted into cheering and clapping at times, may have helped erase a perceived enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans.

Culver Campaign Manager Donn Stanley thinks it may have more to do with fatigue than a lack of enthusiasm.

“We went through not just the 2006 elections, but the presidential, and from the caucuses to the end, Iowa was at the center of that and I think people were fatigued and a little discouraged that we weren't making as much progress as quickly as we hoped,” Stanley said.

Now, with the election at hand, “they are coming around,” he said. “They see what's at stake. People are just focusing now on the dramatic difference it would be to turn the clock back and give up 12 years of progress” under Democratic governors.

Culver doesn't feel an enthusiasm gap.

“We had 400 people at Teamsters Hall in Cedar Rapids the other night. That's largest rally I've ever been associated with four weeks out from an election,” Culver said.

Absentee ballot numbers are exceeding the campaign's goals, especially Democratic-leaning counties, according to Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky.

Her counterpart, Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn, doubts Culver can change the outcome of the race.

“I think Iowans have a pretty good idea of who Terry Branstad and Chet Culver are,” he said. “If the for the better part of the last year they have said they want Branstad to return, I don't imagine that will change.”

As the campaign goes on, Culver said, “People starting to see the real Terry Branstad.”

“These things are catching up to Terry Branstad, so he's trying to run out the clock,” said Culver, who labeled Branstad a “serial promise-maker and a habitual promise-breaker” when it comes to job creation.

Culver is “getting desperate,” Branstad said.

“He's leveling all of these personal attacks” and trying to hide his own record by citing national rankings on Iowa's economic conditions, Branstad continued.

“But Iowans know what the real situation is here,” he said, “and I think Iowans remember that I worked day in and day out to bring companies to Iowa. Real jobs and real companies.

“People are looking for leader with experience who will focus on good jobs and restore prosperity and leadership in education,” he continued. “That's what I wanted to focus on tonight and I think we were able to do that.”

Branstad and Culver are scheduled to meet again Oct. 21 in the Des Moines Register-Iowa Public Television debate.