Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he expects a change in leadership within state Republican Party after once again losing seats in the state legislature.

Gronstal and House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, participated in a post-election online chat with voters Wednesday sponsored by The Des Moines Register.

Responding to a question about what the election means for the Republican Party of Iowa and its leadership, Gronstal said a change is definitely coming.

“The Republican Party is expected to name a new state chair. And my Republican sources are saying that Senator Wieck, the Senate Minority leader, and Rep. Rants, the House Minority Leader, will face leadership challenges after losing seats last night.”

Rants said the GOP needs to continually re-evaluate how it approaches elections and early voting but did not respond directly to Gronstal’s claim.

“The election day has stretched from 24 hours to 24 days. I will credit the Democrats in their ability to get low propensity voters in the bank before they turn lose the negative ads. The Rs have to find a way to replicate it. We’ve prided ourselves for too long on a 72 hour turn out program, that wins on Election Day, but doesn’t bank enough votes before hand.”

Throughout the chat, the two legislative leaders sparred over the state budget and priorities for the January’s session. Rants told readers 2009 will be the toughest budget year since the 1993 floods, which Gronstal said just wasn’t true.

“Again, that message of “the sky is falling” didn’t sell with voters, mostly because it isn’t true. Democrats will balance the state budget and I bet that we’ll do it without raising property taxes, like Rep. Rants and his fellow Republicans did when they were in control.”

Rants responded with, “I bet you raise [property taxes] in the first 30 days.