This week, Terry Branstad and Auditor David Vaudt toured the state on their "Truth in Budgeting" tour (or, as we call it around the office: the "Cooked the Books" tour) but they didn't seem to do a whole lot of talking about the budget.
The truth about the Branstad budgeting tour is that he wants to raise gas taxes at the state level and raise property taxes at the local level.
Branstad inadvertently admitted that he would raise the gas tax. Then, he adopted a more extreme position on illegal immigration, seemingly embracing the Arizona immigration law. Based on his comments, he wants to put extra responsibilities on local governments, which would run up costs and force local governments to raise property taxes.
The Des Moines Register did an in-depth comparison of the size of the state's budget and number of employees and found that Culver has actually trimmed the size of the state budget. It totally undercuts Terry Branstad, who likes to knock on Governor Culver for reckless overspending and growing the size of the state's budget. He even makes that same point in one of his ads.
Governor Culver and Lt. Governor Judge have also been touring the state. Both have helped promote new IJOBS projects in Cedar Rapids and southern Iowa. Lt. Governor Judge also met with local activists in Ames and Osceola to discuss our campaign.
Governor Culver also toured Genesis Health Center, the largest health care facility in the Quad Cities, and spoke with health care professionals there. He delivered an important message to the audience: if Terry Branstad is elected, he will turn backwards and reinstitute the stem cell ban in Iowa. That's just another reason why Terry Branstad would be bringing back a past we can't repeat.
On Monday, we'll announce our fundraising numbers from the past financial quarter. Our campaign truly appreciates all of the support we have received. On to November!
Have a great weekend.
Thanks,
Ali Glisson
Communications Director
Culver/Judge Campaign
Branstad's views shift with situation, civil rights activists say
Des Moines Register 7-16-10
By JASON CLAYWORTH
A transgender speaker and advertisements for a gay marriage advocacy group appeared on the campus of Des Moines University while Terry Branstad was its president, posing a stark contrast to the gubernatorial candidate's recent statements on the campaign trail, civil rights advocates said this week.
The head of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland also said Branstad personally welcomed her group to campus, where the group helped teach a course at the university that includes abortion lecturers.
Branstad, a Republican, recently voiced support for a process to eliminate marriage rights for same-sex couples.
The former governor has also said in campaign speeches that he favors cutting off state money to Planned Parenthood, the state's largest contraceptive provider, although none of the money is used for abortions.
Branstad's campaign dismissed the criticisms that he has done an about-face since trying to relaunch his career as governor. His former role as university president required him to welcome people with differing views, partly to encourage a free exchange of ideas, spokesman Tim Albrecht said.
But civil rights and choice advocates weren't satisfied with the campaign's differentiation between his role as a university president and candidate for governor.
"I don't think there's any other explanation other than it was for political expediency," Jill June, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said about Branstad's support to eliminate payments to her group. "One cannot possibly know where he stands on these issues because it appears he practices situational ethics."
Branstad, who was Iowa governor during much of the 1980s and 1990s, was the president of Des Moines University from 2003 through 2009.
Calls to a university spokesperson were not returned Thursday. It was not apparent what type of policy the university has in place to outline rules or rights that groups have to campaign or hold events on campus.
In some cases Branstad played little or no role in activities that took place on campus, acknowledged Justin Uebelhor, communications director for One Iowa, a civil rights advocacy group. For example, an advertisement in a newsletter for the group's political events was likely done primarily by the school's diversity committee, he said.
A call to the head of the diversity committee was not returned Thursday.
One Iowa is the state's largest civil rights organization supportive of same-sex marriage. The organization helped promote a visit to DMU from Christine McGinn, a plastic surgeon who specializes in transgender surgery. McGinn, who transformed from a man in 2000, is an activist and speaker on gender variant issues.
"I think, overall, he had some very progressive policies in place for welcoming LGBT people," Uebelhor said, referencing the acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Albrecht disagreed that Branstad has sent mixed messages on the campaign trail or as president of DMU.
"Governor Branstad does not share the views with everyone who spoke at DMU, and believes that marriage should be reserved between one man and one woman because the family is the cornerstone of society," Albrecht said.
Gov. Chet Culver, during his first run for governor in 2006, said he personally believes marriage should be between one man and one woman. He has recently said that his personal views shouldn't infringe upon the civil rights of other Iowa families.
Culver said Thursday that the issue is yet another example of Branstad getting caught playing politics.
"There are two faces on Terry Branstad," Culver said. "On every issue - gas taxes, immigration, marriage equality - he flip-flops all the time. He's done it for 25 years, and that's something that Iowa voters need to understand."
Culver, Branstad differ on stem cell use
Cedar Rapids Gazette 7-15-10
By Chris Earl.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver is bashing Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad on the issue of stem cell research.
During a visit to the Quad-Cities area Wednesday, Culver called stem cell research a key tool into some of the most debilitating diseases. He later said Branstad "does not believe in that kind of research."
Culver told about three dozen people at a voter education forum sponsored by Genesis Health System that he wants to move forward, not backward.
Iowa lifted the ban on embryonic stem cell research in 2007. Culver accused Branstad of wanting to put the ban back in place.
That assertion is being disputed by Branstad's spokesman Tim Albrecht, who accuses the Democrat of fear mongering. Albrecht said Branstad supports adult stem cell research, where he says the "real promise" lies.
Branstad's default mode: us vs. them
Des Moines Register 7-15-10
Posted By Rekha Basu
In May Terry Branstad declared that even children who are U.S. citizens should be denied in-state tuition if their parents are here illegally.
"Children of people that are here illegally should not get the benefit of in-state tuition at any of our colleges or universities," Branstad said in a debate.
But three days later, after learning that stance could be unconstitutional, the former governor and current Republican nominee for governor backtracked.
"If they are born here, they are legal residents," Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said. "If they are, they should be afforded every opportunity as every legal resident of the state."
It's noteworthy that Bob Vander Plaats' one of Branstad's opponents for the GOP nomination, had taken the same hard-line stance in the debate.
Now, evidently concerned about a possible independent run by his conservative nemesis, Branstad is saying police in Iowa should be allowed to check people's immigration status when stopping them for any reason, a la Arizona. Even though immigration is a federal, and not a state responsibility.
Whether he means it or not, Branstad is using immigration as he has used same-sex marriage, as a rallying cry to the right of the party. It's unfortunate he seems to care so little about the impact on gay or immigrant Iowan, or the prospects for ethnic profiling even of those here legally.
Recently I was on a panel about race when a fearful young Latino man raised his hand and asked if it might really happen that U.S. citizens of Latino could be persecuted. I told him not to worry, that that wouldn't be constitutional.
But once again, Branstad has chosen, to borrow a phrase from Polk County Sheriff Bill McCarthy, to "demagogue" an issue in a way that hurts and threatens different communities.
Some will shrug it off as just campaign politics. But how people choose to campaign says much about who they are. Even as governor, Branstad was known for pitting groups of Iowans against each other. Then, it was native-born Iowans against people who had moved here from someplace else in the United States - like Tom Vilsack. Now it's immigrants and gays.
Divide and conquer still seems to be his default mode.
'Winsome' Reynolds an insulting choice for Iowa
Carroll Daily Times Herald 7-15-10
By Doug Burns
In the brilliant 1960 movie "Inherit the Wind," the William Jennings Bryan character, sweating with religious fervor, allows a truth to emerge amid his hubris, albeit accidentally and embarrassingly.
"I do not think about things I do not think about," says Fredric March's Bryan during questioning in the iconic film portrayal of the Tennessee Scopes Monkey Trial.
And so it is with Republican nominee for lieutenant governor Kim Reynolds in 2010. She doesn't think about things she doesn't think about.
Reynolds, with her peppy cadence, image-maker glasses and colloquialisms (she's all "boots" and "blue jeans," mind you) was packaged with a big bright red-state bow for western Iowa conservatives as something of a Sarah Palin understudy. Coming from Clarke County, Reynolds is just close enough to Missouri to pull off those "you betchas" and "how's that workin' for ya" with Palinesque drawl and Real America aplomb.
Team Branstad, its ranks swelled with cynical Des Moines political pragmatists, recently sent the Osceola state senator - halfway through just her first term in the Legislature - to appeal to social conservatives, those who backed Sioux City business consultant Bob Vander Plaats and Carroll's own Rod Roberts - men with strong if not unquestioned credentials among ideologues, movement people.
Reynolds looks the part of a social conservative as they're being cast today, and with a nod from U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, at the GOP state convention, the activists gathered at Pizza Ranches in western Iowa had every reason to take it on faith that this rural gal is a true-believer, part of the tribe.
Only she isn't.
Moments into an interview with the Daily Times Herald on abortion and gay marriage, Reynolds revealed an inescapable fact: she hasn't thought deeply about the two most defining and divisive social issues of our time.
She equivocated on abortion: It's murder but not really like other murders, goes the Reynolds line of reasoning. And she shockingly opened the door to civil unions, saying she could support such legal arrangements between gay couples, vacuuming every last trace of helium
out of the argument that the homosexual lifestyle runs afoul of the Bible and poses dangers to Iowa's culture.
Of all the "conservatives" I've interviewed in 20 years, Reynolds is far and away the least sure-footed on the foundational questions of the movement.
Apparently down in southern Iowa all that conservative Republican candidates have to say to prove their ideological mettle is that they're "pro-life" and "pro-family." Cheers, votes and no questions asked, thank you.
We may as well have been posing questions in Portuguese when we asked Reynolds whether she believes gay people are born that way or can change?
Her eyes told the story. She's never thought about it.
Many Republicans in Iowa see Reynolds' comments as further if not definitive evidence of what they've suspected for years: GOP gubernatorial nominee Terry Branstad is a lip-service-paying moderate who views social conservatives (western Iowa for that matter) much the same way many Democrats do African-Americans. Screw 'em. Where else are they going to go?
"So, if you give (conservatives) someone who looks like Sarah Palin, and you hold the meetings at a Pizza Ranch and you patronize these people, cause they only went for these guys because they were a Baptist minister or because they had some theological similarities, not because they seriously considered the issues," said Des Moines Christian radio show host Steve Deace, who spent segments of his WHO broadcast parsing our interview with Reynolds.
Just a few years ago, Reynolds was a county treasurer. She can speak fluently about courthouse matters, such as how one can obtain a driver's license or use a website to pay various annoying fees and bills.
To be fair, when she spoke at the Pizza Ranch here in Carroll, Reynolds sounded like a fantastic Republican candidate for Carroll County treasurer, and if Reynolds lived here and sought that office, and I were Democrat Peggy Weitl, I might not be so quick to toss this newspaper's want-ads section.
But Kim Reynolds a beat of Terry Branstad's flawed heart away from the Iowa Governor's Office?
It's an insult.
Genuine conservatives have every right to demand a candidate with some intellectual ballast who would embrace questions on abortion and gay marriage as jumping-off points to advance deeply held convictions.
Comparing Kim Reynolds to Sarah Palin is unfair. To Sarah Palin. Say what you will about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, but she has core conservative beliefs.
Reynolds' predecessor in the state Senate, Jeff Angelo, now a Mediacom cable official living in Ames, says Reynolds has the skills to be governor, should something happen to Branstad, 63.
Angelo said Reynolds is a "bona fide" social conservative. But that's not what really drives her politics, he said.
"There isn't like a burning drive in her belly with regard to one issue," Angelo said in a phone interview. "She just wants to make government work."
For his part, Rod Roberts, who continues to burnish his reputation for class, endorsed the Branstad-Reynolds ticket in declining a chaos-inspired nomination for lieutenant governor from the right at the state Republican convention after Branstad had announced Reynolds as his choice.
"You know, there's that effervescence that's distinctive about her temperament and personality that makes her very winsome," Roberts said in an interview.
Roberts, of course, meant this as a compliment to Reynolds, as in she's simply "cheerful." That said, his use of the word "winsome" to describe Reynolds is spot-on, whether this pastor known for his exacting use of language meant to lay it out there or not.
Winsome, according to Webster's first reference, is defined as "generally pleasing and engaging often because of childlike charm and innocence."
That's what we have with Kim Reynolds.
This is an irresponsible choice on the part of Branstad, who went for cheap optics and identity politics over substance and statesmanship.
Iowa home sales up in June
Radio Iowa 7-15-10
by Pat Curtis
Home sales across Iowa rose 16.9% in June compared to May. Carey Jensen, president of the Iowa Association of Realtors, says 4,136 homes were sold in the state last month. That's up 19% from June 2009, when 3,476 were sold.
The average sales price last month of homes in Iowa was $152,672.
"Sales prices are up, the inventory in up and days on the market is down," Jensen said. "So, all of those things are good indications for home sellers that the market is on the road to recovery and stabilizing."
The average number of days houses spent on the market in June was 93. That's down 15 days from June 2009.
Culver brings health-care message to Q-C
Quad City Times 7-15-10
Ed Tibbetts
Iowa
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver touted stem cell research in the Quad-Cities on Wednesday as a key research tool into some of the most debilitating diseases, but he said Republican Terry Branstad "does not believe in that kind of research."
"I want to move forward, I don't want to go backwards," Culver told about three dozen people at a voter education forum sponsored by Genesis Health System.
The governor took a variety of health-care-related questions at the 45-minute session.
He said his difference with Branstad on the issue is a key difference in this year's election.
The state lifted the ban on embryonic stem cell research in 2007, with the Senate approving it by a two-vote margin.
"My opponent wants to put that ban back in place," Culver said.
"Governor Culver is using desperate fear-mongering to distort Terry Branstad's record," responded Tim Albrecht, a Branstad spokesman.
The former governor supports adult stem cell research, which is where the "real promise" lies, Albrecht said.
In his remarks, Culver did not make the distinction that it was a ban on embryonic stem cell research that the state lifted, but a spokesperson said that's what he was referring to.
"If we truly want to conquer some of these debilitating diseases, we need every tool in the toolbox in terms of research," Culver said. "We need to push the limits of discovery."
Genesis already has hosted Branstad for a forum. It was before the June 8 primary.
Culver also touted accomplishments in the health-care area during his first term, saying access to health care has been expanded for thousands of Iowa children.
He also said 8,000 people in the state have quit smoking. Iowa has raised cigarette taxes as well as banned smoking in most public places.
Also Wednesday, the governor said he will ask the legislature to restore the cuts he ordered last year in Medicaid payments to providers as part of his across-the-board spending reductions.
Culver said the state ended up with more money at the end of the 2010 fiscal year than expected and that could provide a revenue source. He estimated that for the rest of this fiscal year, it would cost the state $12 million.
Medicaid payments are a sizeable, and growing, part of the state's budget.
Culver said he expected the rolls to continue to grow, in part because of the economy.
Doug Cropper, the chief executive of Genesis Health System, said during the forum that Iowa should take a leadership role in revising how it pays for Medicaid services.
"We'd much rather work with you to get paid for population health and for wellness rather than for volume," he said.
Before the forum, Culver got a demonstration of the advanced technology Genesis is using.
He was on hand for the hospital's announcement that Hospitals & Health Networks magazine recognized Genesis as one of the 100 "most wired" hospitals and health systems in the country.
Iowa govt. workers at 16-year low
AP 7-13-10
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The number of workers in Iowa state government has dropped to the fewest number in 16 years.
According the state's administrative services department, Iowa had 18,444 employees as of June 30,down 2,071 jobs from a year ago. The number is the lowest since 1994, when Republican Terry Branstad was governor.
However, the number of state workers will grow by about 1,000 soon. The Department of Management has authorized filling about half of the 2,067 jobs vacated by employees who accepted early retirement this spring.
Political ads by Branstad, who is seeking a return to the governor's office, have hammered Democratic Gov. Chet Culver for growing state government in his first term.
Ali Glisson, a spokeswoman for Culver's campaign, says the new employee count "totally undercuts" Branstad's arguments.
Branstad rejects Culver gas-tax claim
Des Moines Register 7-14-10
by Tom Beaumont
Republican nominee for governor Terry Branstad said today he had no plans to suggest raising Iowa's gas tax, despite Democrat Gov. Chet Culver's claim that his GOP opponent was quietly backing a fuel-tax hike.
"We don't need an increase in the gas tax at this time," Branstad said in a Des Moines Register interview.
"I'm certainly not advocating an increase in the gas tax. I think this is not the time this should be done," he added. "I have said philosophically, I support a pay-as-you go system, not a borrow system."
Branstad was responding to the Culver campaign's accusation that comments he made in Atlantic to reporters on Monday constituted tacit support for a gas tax increase.
In a Sioux City Journal story, Branstad said: "But, it's a user fee, as opposed to a general tax, and I believe in a pay-as-you-go system, not doing it with borrowed money," he added. "I don't think it's something that we ought to be looking at at this time, but I'm not saying that down the road that we wouldn't look at something."
Culver campaign spokeswoman said in a press release: "Terry Branstad admitted yesterday that he would raise the taxes again. The gas tax is a tax on drivers- Iowans driving to and from work and a tax on businesses that are moving their products throughout the state."
Branstad defends possible gas tax increase
Iowa Independent 7-13-10
By Adam B Sullivan
Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad said once the economic recession is over, he'd be open to considering a fuel tax increase in order to pay for transportation projects. That's a move his Democratic opponent, Gov. Chet Culver, has staunchly opposed.
Branstad talked to reporters at a campaign stop in Atlantic Monday. The Sioux City Journal reports:
"But, it's a user fee, as opposed to a general tax, and I believe in a pay-as-you-go system, not doing it with borrowed money," [Branstad said]. "I don't think it's something that we ought to be looking at at this time, but I'm not saying that down the road that we wouldn't look at something."
Lawmakers pushed for a gas tax increase in early 2009. That debate produced a unique political situation: Many Democrats in the legislature joined with Republican state Auditor David Vaudt and Republican Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey to support the gas tax hike, but Democrat Culver and Republican legislative leadership vowed to block it. Culver eventually promised to veto tax increase legislation.
Branstad has received criticism for the sales and gas tax increases Iowa saw during his first tenure as governor. But this campaign season, tax cuts have dominated the Republican's campaign talking points. During the primary, he garnered the endorsement of Iowans for Tax Relief.
Very early in the primary season, fellow GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Rants said Branstad had already committed to increasing the gas tax.
State worker levels at 16-year low
Des Moines Register 7-13-10
By Jason Clayworth
The number of employees in the executive branch of Iowa's state government has dropped to its lowest level in 16 years.
This adds new talking points to the governor's race debate about which candidate has grown or cut the size of government.
Iowa had 18,444 employees as of June 30, the end of the state's fiscal year, according to data from the state's administrative services department. That's down 2,071 jobs from a year ago and is the lowest level since 1994, five years before former Gov. Terry Branstad left office.
However, that count will soon rebound by about 1,000 workers. Culver's Department of Management has authorized filling about half of the 2,067 jobs vacated by employees who accepted early retirement this spring.
A 20-year examination of executive branch employment by The Des Moines Register shows a pattern of jobs shrinking when governors order across-the-board cuts during times of recession, then growing back. The peaks and valleys have been similar under Branstad, a Republican, and his two Democrat successors, Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver.
TV ads by Branstad, a four-term former governor, have hammered Culver for growing state government in his first term.
Ali Glisson, a spokeswoman for Culver's campaign, said the new employee count "totally undercuts" the Branstad campaign's arguments.
"They keep talking day in and day out that Chet Culver has been fiscally irresponsible, but when you start looking at the numbers, you see that Gov. Culver has managed the state well."
Most of the jobs that were cut this year are due to an early retirement incentive that will save an estimated $89 million even after about 1,000 of the positions are refilled, mostly with employees who make far less than the employees who left.
The state job numbers represent executive-branch employment, the departments that come directly under the authority of the governor, such as the departments of human services, corrections and natural resources. The executive branch numbers exclude university jobs, controlled by the Board of Regents, and jobs in the judicial and legislative branches.
Jeff Boeyink, Branstad's campaign manager, took issue with some of the numbers. Information from the Legislative Services Agency shows the number of state jobs has grown by 13,000 in the past 20 years, he said.
However, those jobs numbers represent authorized but not necessarily filled positions across state government, said Dick Oshlo, the director of the state's management department. The employee count released by the Department of Administrative Services counts actual people in jobs within the executive branch and compares them consistently going back 20 years, he said.
Boeyink also argued that, under Culver, the state has used hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money to balance the budget. The amounts used are larger under Culver, but tapping funds outside the general fund to pay for state services isn't unique.
The state's overall general fund budget has shrunk from $5.89 billion in 2008 to an estimated $5.28 billion this year, according to information from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.
Figures from the agency shows that $725 million of the state's expenses in the fiscal year that began July 1 are considered one-time sources of income. Much of that money comes from the federal government, some in the form of stimulus money to keep the state from making deeper cuts in areas such as education and human services.
Boeyink noted a report from state Auditor David Vaudt shows "true total" expenses of $6.37 billion, a figure that factors in outside money filtered into the general fund.
Lawmakers used one-time sources ranging from $259 million to $557 million in the eight years previous to the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Legislative Services Agency said.
"Certainly the budget has grown but, more importantly, big portions have been paid by one-time revenue sources - sources that will not be available next year," Boeyink said.
Had Iowa's general fund budget kept up with inflation after the last full fiscal year that Branstad was in office, taxpayers this year would spend almost $600 million more than the current budget, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculation.
Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford said the argument about growing government could be "lost in the arithmetic" to many voters. A lot depends on how the campaigns use the information, he said.
"The partisans will take the set of numbers that they care about that reinforces their positions, but for the average person it may be a wash," Goldford said.
The size of Iowa's budget has been a dominant issue discussed by each candidate while campaigning.
Branstad has outlined a goal to cut state government by 15 percent over five years, although he hasn't said how those cuts would be made. Some education and human service advocates have previously warned that cuts almost certainly would hit education and human services, since those areas make up the majority of the state's spending.
Spending in Branstad's 16 years as governor averaged $1,700 per person, according to information on his Web page. The site says spending "ballooned" to $2,000 per person during Culver's administration.
Some areas of government were hit harder by early retirements than others, which in turn has affected some services for Iowans. About 600 employees in the human services department took early retirement.
One result is increased caseloads for employees overseeing eligibility for welfare and food stamps. One employee now helps service around 500 cases, up 40 percent from three years ago.
Roger Munns, a spokesman for the department, said the increased case-loads mean some families will have to wait longer before they are deemed eligible for assistance. The department has become more efficient as a way to partly absorb the employee losses, he said.
"There are efficiencies that are making the work faster," Munns said. "We don't want to send the message that we are sounding the alarm, but of course there is a strain. You don't lose hundreds of people without having an impact."
Basu: Has Branstad noticed Iowa has changed?
Des Moines Register column 7-11-10
REKHA BASU
In so many ways, Iowa is a more accepting and progressive place than it was 20 years ago. There's greater appreciation for newcomers and the differences they bring, whether they crossed state borders or the globe to get here. There's more commitment to the environment, and to living in a healthier balance with nature. From animal welfare to the passage of laws protecting children and senior citizens in institutions, there is at least a growing awareness of the vulnerable.
But in one area, progress has been more rapid and visible than others. In my early days here, most gay people I knew were closeted. Now most gay people I know are married - to their true loves. Even many Iowans uncomfortable with that fact have learned to live and let live since last year's state Supreme Court ruling recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
That is why it's so disturbing that Terry Branstad won't leave it alone. The Republican nominee for governor is still promoting changing the Iowa Constitution to deny gay people that right.
When he campaigned on it before the Republican primary, some figured he'd give it up after winning the nomination. Candidates tend to play to the base of their parties in primaries. But with conservative primary rival Bob Vander Plaats still flexing his muscles and Branstad evidently trying to secure the base, this non-issue continues to be waved over Iowans' heads.
Hundreds of same-sex couples have married without the sky falling - just as interracial couples did after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that legal ban 43 years ago. Judges and county recorders have figured out how to make it work. So have families. Branstad should, too.
Does he need reminding that he is playing with real people's lives and emotions, including the couples who have legally married since the ruling? Does he consider that, if elected, he would be expected to be everyone's governor, nor just that of straight, conservative Iowans?
Evidently his running mate, Kim Reynolds, isn't even allowed to think for herself, but must march in ideological lockstep with him. When she so much as suggested being open to civil unions, Branstad's spokesman swiftly rebutted, saying she shares Branstad's view against them.
Friday's story on Branstad promoting a constitutional amendment was next to one on two federal rulings in favor of same-sex marriage, striking down the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act. Judge Joseph Tauro wrote that Congress' only purpose in passing the law was "to disadvantage a group of which it disapproves." As governor, Branstad signed Iowa's version of the same law.
Much has changed in the 11 years since he left office. Even the leaders of the Presbyterian Church have now agreed to let gay people be clergy. A majority of Americans under 34 think same-sex marriages should be legal.
Yet Branstad clings to the days when equal rights were mischaracterized as "special rights" and people lived in fear of being outed.
Is that what he believes in his heart? Didn't being the president of a medical school expand his thinking and awareness of these issues? Or does he just think it's the way to win election?
Either way, continuing down that polarizing path, whether in the campaign or - should he win election - as governor, would drag Iowa back through bitter, rancorous territory, churning up old antagonisms we don't need. Branstad should move on, focus on the economy, jobs and other paths to progress, and allow and encourage Iowans to do the same.