Stories

As GOP gubernatorial hopefuls try to draw distinctions from their Republican rivals, the Iowa Democratic Party continues to co-opt their critiques with the hope of weakening potential challengers to incumbent Gov. Chet Culver.
The latest attack was delivered in Dubuque by state Rep. Chris Rants against former Gov. Terry Branstad. Rants said he spoke earlier in [...]

The latest Iowa Poll by The Des Moines Register finds Gov. Chet Culver losing to both former Gov. Terry Branstad and Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats in hypothetical head-to-head campaigns.

In order for Iowa to become the “economic engine of the Midwest,” the Hawkeye State should phase out its income tax, according to GOP gubernatorial hopeful Christian Fong.
It’s a theme he’s returned to repeatedly over the last few weeks, first in a series of town halls, then in a blog post on the conservative Hawkeye [...]

With former Gov. Terry Branstad’s tentative entrance into the already crowded field of Republican gubernatorial candidates, conventional wisdom dictates that several lesser-known hopefuls will likely exit the race.
Branstad has high name recognition and will undoubtedly be able to raise a huge campaign war chest quickly, which will likely drain resources and attention from his opponents.
But [...]

He may not “officially” be in the race, but former Gov. Terry Branstad is already getting his share of attention from a chief rival for the 2010 GOP gubernatorial nomination, Chris Rants.
Rants has started a new feature on his campaign Web site that pulls old newspaper articles that “pre-date the Google” and publishes them for [...]

Incumbent Democratic Gov. Chet Culver would lose to former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad by five percentage points if the election were held today, according to the latest Research 2000 poll.
The October poll of 600 likely voters commissioned by the liberal blog Daily Kos found Branstad bests Culver 48-43 in the hypothetical matchup, with a margin [...]

Ending months of speculation, former Gov. Terry Branstad filed papers Wednesday morning to form a gubernatorial campaign committee, the first step in a potential run for governor in 2010.

An independent audit commissioned by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has found questionable spending, poor bookkeeping and poor oversight of funds the state received from the federal government as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

The audit, released the same day as an audit of the state’s film tax credit program, focuses mostly on four years in which Gov. Chet Culver oversaw Iowa’s elections as Secretary of State.

While attacking the methods used by Gov. Chet Culver to balance the budget, GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Rants took the opportunity to turn his attention to one of his potential Republican primary opponents, former Gov. Terry Branstad.

The war of words between Republican gubernatorial hopefuls Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants has moved from press releases to the airwaves, with both men defending their positions on the show of controversial radio host Steve Deace.