Former Republican governors praise Palin pick

Former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray says GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has jolted the party from something of a political slumber.

The Alaska governor’s star-is-born speech at the Republican National Convention gives Republicans a winning spark, Ray said.

“I hope you realize that this campaign has turned a corner,” Ray said. “The Republicans are going to do far better than we thought a week ago.”

State Rep. Rod Roberts (left) speaks with former Gov. Terry Branstad

Ray, who served as governor for 14 years, joined another former Republican governor, Terry Branstad, who served 16 years, at a local fund-raiser for State Rep. Rod Roberts, R-Carroll.

“I think a lot of people that weren’t too enthusiastic about McCain are a lot more enthusiastic now with her on the ticket, so I think Governor Palin was a good choice,” Branstad said.

Roberts is seeking his fifth term in the Legislature. About 200 people, including Democrats and independents, attended the event at the Swan Lake State Park Conservation and Education Center. Roberts is running unopposed.

Billed as “30 Years of Wisdom” — based on the combined service of Ray and Branstad — the event functioned as a retrospective on the two leaders’ years at Terrace Hill.

But both Ray and Branstad, in remarks to the audience and in interviews, were quick to laud the top of their party’s ticket, presidential candidate John McCain and Palin.

As McCain was just hours from his acceptance speech Thursday during the Roberts event, the former governors focused primarily on Palin’s mercurial emergence as a force in the party.

“I’m very impressed,” Branstad said of Palin. “She’s a very intelligent, gutsy woman. She’s done some exciting things.”

Branstad said Palin deserves accolades for correcting political corruption in Alaska.

“She’s even had the guts to take on the oil companies to build this pipeline for natural gas,” Branstad said.

“She’s for drilling, but she also wants the state, not the oil companies, to control the pipeline.”

For his part, Ray centered on her role as a catalyst for the party.

“She brings some experience the other candidates don’t have, and she does it delightfully,” Ray said. “But she does it firmly and she accomplishes what she sets out to do. So I think she’s going to be a real plus.”

The governors spent most of the evening with reflections on their service.

Branstad talked of the challenges of coming into office in the early 1980s and quickly dealing with the farm crisis. In his first four years, 38 banks in the state closed and land values dropped 63 percent.

He recalls speaking to a joint session of the Legislature when lawmakers were holding small white crosses to symbolize the death of the family farm.

Branstad said he devoted himself to economic development in the ensuing years, and he retains a remarkable memory of ground-breakings and other developments in the Carroll area.

Both discussed their support of transportation funding for non-public-school students, a major boost to Kuemper Catholic High School.

Branstad enjoyed consistent electoral success in Carroll County in the days when voters were more in line with a Democratic tradition, he noted.

“I could say this is my favorite county, but I say that in every county I go to,” Branstad joked.

Branstad noted that both he and Ray had weekly and sometimes daily press conferences.

“While we were governors we were more accessible to the press,” Branstad said.

Ray started his remarks with compliments for former Lt. Gov. Art Neu, of Carroll, who was in attendance.
“I’m not sure whether you were my assistant or I was yours,” Ray said.

One of Ray’s significant accomplishments as governor was his aggressive role in helping to settle refugees from Southeast Asia in Iowa in the Vietnam War era.

Ray met with then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to secure necessary waivers to locate the refugees in the Hawkeye State.

“We have been the beneficiaries,” Ray said. “Iowans can be proud of what they did. If you help people for the right reason, you’ll benefit.”

One of the challenges Branstad said he faced in office was reconciling his deeply held beliefs about the perils of gambling with a growing desire among the population to see it legalized.

He vetoed a lottery before finally agreeing to one that he believed would be effectively regulated. In the days surrounding the veto, Branstad said, he was booed at a University of Iowa football game and a rodeo in eastern Iowa. Thousands of Iowans sent him spent lottery tickets from Illinois to show the governor they were crossing state lines with dollars that could stay in Iowa.

At the end of the evening, Ray, who said he was eager to get back to his home in Des Moines to watch the McCain speech, appealed to Republicans to stick together on the issues of national security, fiscal responsibility and  small government, and not allow controversial social issues to divide the party this election.

“We should not let superficial issues interfere with what we have to do,” Ray said.