Branstad Handles the Vander Pout

Terry Branstad deserves credit for remaining calm, in public. But it's gotta be driving him crazy.

He comes off the sidelines, jumps in to a competitive, multicandidate Republican gubernatorial primary, raises the bucks and leads the pack. On primary night, he cracks 50 percent in a three-way race and beats second-place Bob Vander Plaats by 9 points. That's not close, folks.

But Vander Plaats withholds his support and asks for a meeting. By all accounts, BVP demands that Branstad make him his running mate. Branstad refuses, and picks state Sen. Kim Reynolds.

Vander Plaats goes on WHO radio Friday and blames everything from Rod Roberts to El Nino for his defeat. It couldn't have been his own faulty campaign, anchored to a magic executive order than can make the Iowa Supreme Court disappear. He smacks the party “establishment” and says he may run as an independent.

Yet, he still blesses a failed push at Saturday's state GOP convention to make him Branstad's mate. And the fact that 44 percent of delegates voted to reward this Vander Pout must keep the levelheaded party chair Matt Strawn up nights.

So we know, despite some practice, Vander Plaats doesn't know how to lose.

But we've also learned Branstad still knows how to win.

Branstad, smartly, doesn't want to end up like Jim Nussle, who made Vander Plaats his mate in 2006 in an effort to please the GOP's religious conservative base. "He was chosen as the lieutenant governor candidate last time and it didn't work," Branstad said in Cedar Rapids Thursday.

Nussle bought into the “Bush playbook,” which President. Bush used to win Iowa in 2004 by driving up turnout in conservative Northwest Iowa. Bush's margins in places like Sioux County eclipsed John Kerry's wins in urban areas.

Nussle tried the whole campaign to fire up his fickle base. He was still out campaigning in deep red western Iowa in the final days, while Culver was running down the center. Culver won by 100,000 votes. Nussle won only two counties in his own Eastern Iowa congressional district.

It was a great Democratic year, and Nussle was part of a very unpopular Congress. But Culver cruised because he wooed independents and even a few Republicans. That's how you win big in Iowa.

That's also how Branstad used to win, and how he wants to win again. He knows it may be a good year for Republicans, so he has a chance at getting independent votes and even some disgruntled Dems. There's a chance to win big, and winning big means getting things done. Pandering to Vander Plaats and the culture warriors could jeopardize that strategy.

And it's those voters in the middle who may save Branstad if Vander Plaats does mount a challenge from the right.

So tactically, Branstad has played it well, so far. Now, about your record ...