Culver to deliver upbeat Condition of State speech

The final stop of outgoing Gov. Chet Culver's “thank you Iowa” tour will be a televised farewell address to the newly seated 84th General Assembly Tuesday.

The one-term Democrat said he plans to use his fourth and final Condition of the State address to thank Iowans for allowing him to serve them for four years as governor and eight years as secretary of state, to thank legislators for working with him the past four years on a number of accomplishments, and “to wish the new leaders here in the Capitol the best luck in the world.”

“I really am sincere about how grateful I am to have had the chance to serve,” Culver said in reflecting on his time as governor. “We've left the state in better shape than we found it.”

Much of the state already has heard Culver's message during his eight-stop exit interview last week.

Culver said Tuesday's address to a joint convention of the 84th General Assembly will be an upbeat message about Iowa's current position and prospects for the future. The speech will be carried live on statewide Iowa Public Television.

“There's a lot of good news. a lot of very positive signs of continued recovery,” Culver said Monday after presiding over his last Executive Council meeting.

Aides said the governor will focus on promises that were made and promises that were kept during his four-year administration which will position Iowa for sustainable growth and success.

“The condition of our state is strong; we've made the tough decisions; and we've kept our promises to the people of Iowa,” Culver, 44, will tell today's assemblage, according to excerpts of his speech issued Monday. “We delivered.”

Included in the promises are helping Iowa's children both through health reform and making universal preschool available, creating a broad renewable energy industry, bringing top businesses to Iowa that created more than 20,000 good-paying jobs, and helping retrain Iowans through workforce development program that were especially important during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, he said.

“These efforts have allowed Iowa to lead the country out of the recession. Thirteen of our 19 largest companies just reported double-digit stock gains in 2010, and we are the only state in the nation to post 14 consecutive months of sustained economic growth. These positive signs, coupled with our $950 million surplus, clearly show the strength of Iowa's economy,” Culver will tell Iowans.

He said he also will talk about the efforts to respond to and recover from the worst natural disaster ever to hit Iowa in 2008.

“We've accomplished a great deal together and moved our state forward these last four years, despite governing through some very challenging times for this state,” he said.

Culver, who will join the ranks of Iowa's unemployed on Friday when Republican Terry Branstad is inaugurated for an unprecedented fifth, four-year term after defeating Culver in the Nov. 2 election, said he was reworked his resume and hopes to land a position in the private sector dealing with renewable energy.

“It's a little rough right now but I've got it in pretty good shape,” Culver said of his resume. “I'm going to go through that process and have interviews and all that fun stuff.”

The outgoing governor said he is looking forward to having more time to spend with his family, coaching his son's football team next fall and becoming a private citizen again.

At the same time, he said, “I'll miss the opportunity to make a difference every single day. I'll miss the chance to really be able to roll up my sleeves and have an opportunity to really shape public policy. I hope to find other ways to have a voice and be involved. I'm going to get out there and find a different way to contribute. I'm optimistic that I'll find a good fit.”

As a side note, Culver's office said the governor and Governor-elect Branstad “do not wish to provide undue distraction from the duties assigned to each as part of an orderly transition. Therefore, Governor-elect Branstad will not be in attendance at (Culver's) Condition of the State address Tuesday, and Gov. Culver will not participate in inaugural activities on Friday.”

The 2010 election marked the first time in nearly 50 years that an incumbent governor was defeated in a re-election bid. It also marked only the second time that Iowa voters returned a former governor to the state's highest executive office. Branstad previously served as Iowa's governor from 1983 to 1999.