Just got word that western Iowans will finally be able to see Terry Branstad in a public event. Branstad still remains in the coy “exploratory” candidate committee phase even while having hired campaign staff, so we know he’s running for the 2010 governor position sought by five other Republicans as well. Branstad will meet with the Sac County Republican Party Central Committee tomorrow night in Sac City, then on Dec. 14 he’ll speak at the noon meeting of the Sioux City Downtown Rotary Club.

Branstad’s schedule released by communications director Tim Albrecht also includes stops through mid-December in Fort Dodge, Centerville, Kalona and Cedar Rapids. After joining the stage with the other GOP candidates for the first time on Nov. 7 in Des Moines, Branstad is ready to rachet up his public appearances. The other men in the race to unseat first-term Democratic Gov. Chet Culver are Sioux Cityans Chris Rants and Bob Vander Plaats, state lawmakers Jerry Behn and Rod Roberts and Cedar Rapids insurance executive Christian Fong.

It will be interesting to see how Branstad is received here — whether it’s as the Alpha Male who’ll crowd out the rest of the field en route to a primary victory that some envision or as the guy on dicey terms with social conservatives over his perceived inability to take a sufficiently tough stance against gay marriage.

Blasted John Deeth, beating me to the punch with a post of plentious sagacity. Iowa City-based Deeth not only has his original JohnDeethBlog site, but lately he’s moved onto periodic posts for The Des Moines Register. Two nights ago in handling what I’m hoping (please!) is my last time raking leaves in 2009, my mind went to 2010 gubernatorial politics and the Republican field. I was thinking how if the large GOP field isn’t settled by the June primary, Bob Vander Plaats would be the favorite in a special convention to pick the nominee.

I dawdled on that topic for a post, but Deeth laid that thought out similarly here. Give it a read, I’m essentially in agreement. As said in this blog previously, in his third attempt in running for governor, Vander Plaats enjoys a strong constituency of supporters who won’t want to move to another candidate. I’ll put that at 30 percent, perhaps 35 percent, that the Sioux City management consultant can lock-it-in count on. I don’t believe any other candidate, Terry Branstad included, has such a rabid core of supporters.

There could be a field of three or four from among Vander Plaats, Branstad, Chris Rants, Jerry Behn, Christian Fong and Rod Roberts still going come June, and if the primary doesn’t result in one of the candidates amassing the 35 percent threshold in the primary, I posit that Vander Plaats would have the advantage in the convention. Vander Plaats might want to hope for the biggest field possible to ensure no one gets 35 percent in the primary. On the other hand, the smaller the field, the more likely it is that someone like Branstad or Rants could squeak out a 36-to-38 percent win.

These special conventions are rare but interesting, as evidenced by the summer 2002 event in Denison that included horsetrading before then-State Sen. Steve King emerged with  the Iowa 5th District Congressional GOP nod.

Just about the time polls close in Iowa tonight, a prime political event in the neighborhood will be wrapping as well. A forum for GOP gubernatorial candidates will be held about five miles southeast of Ida Grove, where the Ida and Crawford County Republican Parties will be cooperating to host five candidates in a Morton building on an acreage. The field includes everyone who plans to run for governor save former Gov. Terry Branstad — Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants of Sioux City, state lawmakers Jerry Behn and Rod Roberts and Cedar Rapids insurance exec Christian Fong. And the political parties landed a nice ‘get’ to moderate the event, as Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn will handle those duties.

The event is called Barn(get it?)storming for Governor, and Rachel Law of rural Correctionville is pleased she’ll be able to take it in. Law, who’s on the Ida County Republican Party Central Committee, said she hasn’t settled on a candidate she’d like to see win the governorship a year from tonight. She particularly wants to hear the five men talk about taxation, education and their views of the 10 percent across-the-board budget cut for Iowa agencies, as recently ordered by Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.

You might recall a week ago tonight, four of the five candidates (Roberts, Vander Plaats, Behn and Rants) shared the stage for a governor debate at the Sioux City Convention Center.

UPDATE: Behn had farmwork to do — given the wet weather, the harvest  has been very slow — and did not attend the Ida/Crawford GOP event.

Will he run for the 2010 governor spot? Certainly.

Here’s the key quote made late yesterday by former Gov. Terry Branstad, after journeying  from Iowa City (after the Hawkeyes defeated Indiana) to Wilton to speak at a fundraiser for Republican State Rep. Jeff Kaufmann: “This is a Saturday we’ll always remember — the day the Hawkeyes set a record nine straight wins… and the day I had the opportunity to re-enter the political fray.”

Wait, did Branstad in any way cite the Iowa State football program?

Woodbury County Republican Party Chairman Brian Rosener this morning confirmed State Sen. Jerry Behn of Boone can’t work around some conflicts and won’t be present tonight in the county party gubernatorial debate at the Sioux City Convention Center. Former Gov. Terry Branstad also is saving up his first appearance with the other candidates for Nov. 7 in Des Moines, so that leaves a field of four: Sioux Cityans Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants, Christian Fong and Rod Roberts.

The event is a fundraiser for the party at $10 per head, and Rosener said a few hundred might attend. “We certainly hope there are a lot of people out to see where these guys stand on the issues,” he said.

The topics will be the economy, state budget, taxation, education and marriage, on the day that same-sex marriage hits six months in Iowa. Rosener said the 90-minute event will involve a debate-style format, so while there will be time limits on answers, if the back-and-forth gets instructive, the candidates will be allowed to keep going. “We want it to flow a little bit,” he said.

Rosener said he’s disgruntled over the state of the state budget, with K-12 schools and law enforcement being included in the 10 percent across-the-board budget cut Democratic Gov. Chet Culver announced earlier this month. Rosener said state auditor David Vaudt and Republican lawmakers warned the budget was too plump in a time of recession, yet Culver didn’t insist on racheting back the budget during the session. Waiting until the early October state revenue estimate indicated a crisis was poor leadership by Culver, Rosener said.

“This state of Iowa is in such a critical situation,” he stated.

Dave Price of WHO-TV in central Iowa has the goods, leading the reporting pack in learning that former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad on Friday will announce he’ll seek the governorship again in 2010. The foregone conclusion is now at hand.

Finally, we can move past all the will-he speculation and query Branstad on what he plans to do for the state, and Republicans can decide if he should be the nominee to take on Democratic Gov. Chet Culver. Additionally, candidates Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants of Sioux City, state lawmakers Jerry Behn of Boone and Rod Roberts of Carroll and Cedar Rapids business executive Christian Fong can sharpen their sights on Branstad. Or pitch themselves as lieutenant governor candidates, if you buy the logic (and polling) that Branstad is the odds-on GOP pick.

Imagine my surprise this morning during the hourlong Woodbury County Board of Supervisors meeting with seven agenda items. During a discussion on county workers moving to a new payroll documentation system, at 10:23 a.m., the door swung open and Doug Gross walked in. Yes, Doug Gross — Des Moines attorney, the 2002 Republican gubernatorial candidate and former key official during Terry Branstad years as governor. He was present to talk on behalf of the city of  Salix, since an Interstate 29 interchange could be moved by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

After the meeting, Gross, who isn’t beloved by social conservatives for his push to widen the GOP tent, agreed to talk  2010 gubernatorial politics. It made me think back to  October 2002 when, in one of my first duties at The Journal,  I was on a three-person panel querying Gross and Gov. Tom Vilsack in a debate set in Sioux City.

Q: Do you fully back Branstad entering the race?

Gross: “I worked for him, I was his chief of staff, so if Terry Branstad wants to get into the race, I’m fully supportive. Now, I have done some (2009) analysis and looked at the race, and in head-to-head competition he is the only one that beats (Gov. Chet) Culver, and he beats him like a drum. So obviously he would be the strongest candidate, if he decides to run.”

Q: So what are you doing to push (Branstad) toward the race?

Gross: “I’m not trying to push him toward it at all. From a personal standpoint, I’ve not been the one saying, ‘Hey, you need to do this,’ because  he’s a good friend of mine, he’s got a great job (as Des Moines University president) and I don’t think he owes us anything. But that doesn’t mean he won’t do it, because Terry Branstad is driven by his commitment to the state and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he decides he wants to do it. If he does, I’m going to be 100 percent behind him.”

Q: So Sandy (Greiner) formed the Draft Branstad PAC and you’re not a part of that organization whatsoever?

Gross: “No, I am not. I did the Iowa First Foundation, where we did a lot of the analysis about, OK, what is the lay of the land, what do Republicans need to do to get back in control. It is pretty clear (Branstad) would be our best candidate, I mean from a political standpoint. But I divorce that from the personal matter, where he is a good friend of mine and I’ve not taken a position of urging  him to run.”

Q: To state that, where do Republicans need to go to in order to be good in 2010 in elective office?

Gross: “To win? First of all, the issue environment should be such that it will be a great Republican year. It is the midterm for as Democrat incumbent president, the voters are really focused on economic issues that are important for Republicans — jobs, economic development, the fiscal issues, taxes and government spending — those are all issues that are all right in the Republicans’ wheelhouse. The key is having candidates who can appeal to the public on those kinds of issues. And my concern — I’ve been pretty outspoken about this — is that it is fine for us to be socially conservative — I happen to be (socially conservative) myself, in terms of those issues — but those are not the issues we should lead with. We should lead on the economic issues, because those are the ones we can win with.” (more…)

There is virtually no doubt former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad will run for governor again. After a summer of talk that he would return to politics, Branstad formed an exploratory candidate committee last week, which is tantamount to running. Then this morning we settle in with news that Republican Party of Iowa executive director Jeffrey Boeyink will join the Branstad team in the role of campaign manager.

O.Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa has an interesting post this morning on her talk with a Branstad colleague. She tries to pin down how soon an official announcement on the Branstad 2010 guv candidacy will be unveiled. Seems a case of reading between the lines,  her pointed questions and the responses by Richard Schwarm.

Soon enough all this speculation will be cast aside and we’ll have Branstad in the race. Then the speculation topic will become which GOP governor candidates will drop out, as Branstad is seen by many as having the best chance to unseat Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.

Had a lengthy chat with Iowa Congressman 5th District Steve King on a host of topics, including the status of health reform, energy legislation dubbed “cap and trade” and his leadership of the Conservative Opportunity Society. I also queried him on politics back in Iowa, including the gubernatorial position that he’s long eyed, yet never pursued.

King was aware former Gov. Terry Branstad yesterday morning formed an exploratory governor candidate committee and said he expects Branstad will shortly get fully in the race.  He said that will be an act of complete “altruism” by Branstad, since he’ll have nothing to personally gain by serving as governor again.

King said Branstad “has the political capital and he understands the fundraising stream, and that gives him an advantage over the other candidates.” The field  includes Sioux Cityans Chris Rants and Bob Vander Plaats, state lawmakers Rod Roberts of Carroll and Jerry Behn of Boone and Christian Fong, a business executive from Cedar Rapids. But King noted lots of officeseekers who are given little chance have moved into the House where he serves.

“I am among them, ” King said, noting the view that some didn’t expect King to advance out of the June 2002 GOP congressional primary. He won the party nomination in a special convention after the primary didn’t settle the matter.

“I don’t want to rule anybody out. But I do think Governor Branstad will be well-positioned,” King stated.

That didn’t take long. The Iowa Democratic Party has a video posted on YouTube poking fun at news this morning that Terry Branstad has formed an exploratory governor committee. Undoubtedly the IDP had the piece in the pipeline for weeks, as Republican Branstad did nothing to squelch the summerlong speculation he would re-enter politics and seek a fifth governor term.

Of course, the Iowa Democratic Party has to be concerned with the re-electability of Chet Culver amid financial questions of programs under his leadership as secretary of state (the Help America Voter Act) and governor (the Iowa film tax credit program). Iowa State University Professor Steffen Schmidt says Branstad is likely the Republican with the best chance to oust Culver.

But for now the political party with a large voter registration advantage is roasting the Branstad candidacy as backward-looking move.  Watch the video if you care to relive images of Olivia Newton-John in leg warmers, “Miami Vice” in dayglo glory, Papa Smurf, Rubik’s Cube and the truly appalling “Super Bowl Shuffle” with Wayfarer-wearing QB Jim McMahon.