Out in Greene County, Iowa

Ah, those “golden memories” Iowans have about Terry Branstad’s 16 years as governor

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
September 21, 2009
COOPER, IOWA

Former Governor Terry Branstad’s flirtation with running for that office again – nearly 12 years after he left Terrace Hill and nearly 16 years since he was a candidate – was a bad idea when we first started hearing about it in mid-summer.

It’s an even worse idea now as autumn begins.

I say that despite the Des Moines Sunday Register just having reported new Iowa Poll numbers that political columnist Kathie Obradovich says provide a “green light for Branstad.” And I say that even though when Branstad was serving an unprecedented four terms and 16 years as governor, I was one of his most outspoken supporters. I’m an active, loyal Republican who still really admires Branstad’s careeer of public service and his subsequent success in leading the renaissance of Des Moines University as its president.

But as for him running for governor again? Enough is enough.

However, mine is evidently a minority opinion. Here’s what Obradovich wrote in leading off her Register column on Sunday:

“If former Gov. Terry Branstad still has doubts on the political level about running again for governor, the Iowa Poll numbers released today should incinerate them. Iowans enjoy golden memories of Branstad’s performance as governor – 70 percent approve of the job he did as governor…”

She goes on to report that “48 percent of Iowans say it’s a good idea for the Republican to run in 2010,” and “60 percent of Republicans think it’s a good idea for Branstad to run. Only 26 percent of Republicans say it’s a bad idea and the rest are unsure.”

His “favorability rating” is four points better than current Governor Chet Culver, the Democrat who is wobbling his way through the last year of his first term.

All that is good political news for Branstad, if he wants it. It certainly is flattering for him.

But think bigger, people.

Branstad’s possible candidacy for governor, and the public’s slobbering endorsement of it, is really a stinging indictment of Iowa itself. It is even a worse black eye for the Republican Party of Iowa.

If I were a young Iowan age 40 or younger, I’d be asking myself right now what it says about my own career opportunities, if we’ve got Baby Boomers refusing to leave the stage like this.

That’s one thing a Branstad candidacy for governor represents.

He is 62 years old. (Yes, so am I, but I’m semi-retired, not running for anything and thrilled to be watching the next generations take over leadership in all areas of life.)

One person who has reportedly been giving Branstad big time encouragement to run for governor again is retired insurance executive Gary Kirke, of West Des Moines, who is about 66. The “Draft Branstad” effort, which is already running radio ads all over Iowa, is headed by former state legislator Sandy Greiner, of Keota, who is 64. Branstad himself asked a former political ally Richard Schwarm to go out and do some contact work across Iowa and determine what the climate would be for political and fundraising success. Schwarm was state chairman of the Republican Party back in 1994, and I think he’s about 60 years old.

What a Grand OLD Party!

Is there anybody 40 or younger who is involved in counseling Branstad about this campaign? Anybody under 30?

In fact, those questions raise another one – does the Register’s Iowa Poll, which is conducted by telephone, include people who use only cell phones? No, it doesn’t, I’ve learned.

Ann Selzer, president of the highly-respected survey firm Selzer & Co., the Des Moines company that conducts the poll for the Register, today told me, “This poll did not include cell phone numbers. We will eventually make that change, I suspect. For now if we get the age distribution right, the kinds of things we measure do not suffer in their absence.”

Hmmm. But let’s look beyond whether the opinions of younger Iowans were sufficiently represented in the Iowa Poll. And let’s also look beyond the terrible signal that I believe a Branstad candidacy sends to those younger Iowans.

There is the additional matter of what a mockery the speculation and his possible campaign are of the Republican Party of Iowa.

First, it screams about what a woeful job Republican Party leadership did from 1999, when he left office as one of the state’s most successful politicians ever, through 2008. Democrats re-took control of the state, elected two governors and also ended the Republican majorities in both the Iowa Senate and House. There was so much squabbling going on within the Republican Party that recruitment of good young candidates was sidetracked. For several years, there was little to no communication between the top Republican elected officials, like U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressmen Tom Latham, and the officers of the state party organization.

But early in 2009, the Iowa GOP elected a new slate of party officers, and they are younger, fresher and more savvy about today’s politics than those they succeeded.

State chairman Matt Strawn, of Ankeny, is 35 years old. He is an Iowa native, an attorney, a former Congressional aide, a partner in the Iowa Barnstormers football team in Des Moines, and an energetic and eloquent leader. We may have screwed up, as a party, making him chairman because he’d be an excellent candidate for governor himself right now.

Strawn and the other party officials, including members of the State Central Committee, have done an amazingly good job of traveling all over the state the rest of 2009, helping rebuild and re-energize many Republican county organizations that had fallen apart or were demoralized. They’ve also been effective at identifying and encouraging many younger people who are now, or likely will become, strong candidates for state offices.

Also earlier this year, there have been six Republicans who have announced their campaigns for governor. They range in age from 33 to about 60. They’ve been working long and hard traveling the state, introducing themselves, speaking to all audiences that invite them, trying to raise money – taking all those difficult time-consuming steps that are required. I think there are two or three of them that could beat Governor Culver in a general election race.

So, the six are out there, beginning to distinguish themselves from each other and beginning to gather supporters across the state.

Then Big Foot sends word that he’s considering running again, and poof! You can imagine how quickly the fundraising has dried up for the six announced candidates. Potential supporters suddenly began drawing back, too. If Branstad decides to get in the race, everybody thinks there’ll be this big rush to coronation by the party faithful.

Again, I’ve watched, written about and admired Terry Branstad throughout his career.

And here’s what I think we get if he runs for governor again, and especially if he won in the general election:

-- We get someone who is older, and indeed has some nice additional experience since he was governor.

-- But like most of us 62-year-olds, Branstad is nostalgic, he’s more set in his ways than he used to be, and, probably, when provoked, he’ll be more irritable than we remember him.

-- We won’t see the same high energy we saw in him from the 1970s through the 1990s. He was a dynamo then. No one could out-work him. There are other, younger, stronger dynamos now.

-- Branstad doesn’t have any experience as a candidate or an office holder in the more partisan, rougher and often nastier political environment of today.

-- He’d bring a long record to office with him. A lot of it is a very good record. So good, in fact, it’d only be natural for him to want to protect and enhance those “golden memories” that so many Iowans have about him, per the Sunday Register’s poll story. Some of his record is, of course, very controversial, too. There will be a whole lot for critics to pick at.

-- It’ll be one more sign that in a lot of ways, Iowa wants to live in the past. I don’t think that’s true, but that won’t stop a whole lot of columnists, analysts and commentators from babbling about it. And when they’re babbling, the far-flung public is reading, listening and watching.

-- We’ll have one or two generations of younger Iowans throwing up their hands and saying, “Wait a minute – you’ve been telling us this is our time! What’s up with this now?”

Branstad should do everybody a favor and end this speculation about him getting in the governor’s race, and end it right now. He should announce that he will not be a candidate for governor.

And if he won’t, then Chairman Strawn should immediately line up some influential Republicans, go to Branstad and tell him to get out.


You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.