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.

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.

Next week will be an important period for candidate forums. More short-term focused will be the Oct. 29 evening forum at city hall for the five Sioux City Council candidates, John Fitch, Tom Padgett, Ian Rappolt and councilman Jim Rixner. That session should provide fodder for making candidate voting decisions in the Nov. 2 election.

But the forum that could draw more attention is the Oct. 27 Woodbury County Republican Party forum and fundraiser to which seven 2010 gubernatorial candidates have been invited. Those extended opportunities to speak are Sioux Cityans Bob Vander Plaats and Chris Rants, Cedar Rapids business executive Christian Fong, state lawmakers Rod Roberts of Carroll, Jerry Behn of Boone and Paul McKinley of Chariton, and one more guy you may have heard of, former Gov. Terry Branstad.

Branstad on Friday, of course, made news by resigning his position as president of Des Moines University while still not announcing if he’d run for governor in 2010. He’s formed an exploratory committe, hired staff for that committee and quit his job — you do the math. Branstad said he’s going to travel all 99 counties to get input in making his decision.  Could this provide the opportunity to see Branstad stand alongside other candidates?

Woodbury County Republican Party Chairman Brian Rosener of Bronson is enthused about the possibilities the forum holds to get a big field of candidates. He’ll have a handle on who will attend in a few days, but this afternoon said he expects at least four to be on  hand. Rosener said the event will be the biggest for the county party in 2009, so he’s hoping for a big turnout by those providing $10 to witness the forum.

“We are coming at it with the viewpoint that Iowa is in pretty critical condition or heading that way,” Rosener said.

He said people need to hear where the candidates stand on methods to improve the shaky state budget situation, while learning about positions on social issues like same-sex marriage, which became legal in April following an Iowa Supreme Court ruling. Same-sex marriage is an important issue for 2010, Rosener said, since “it is a social issue as well as a judicial issue.”

(The original post excluded Padgett’s name in the list of candidates, while including Rixner twice. My apologies.)

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.

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.

Yesterday morning I sat at the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors meeting and spoke with a political junkie about Iowa Gov. Chet Culver’s September/October woes and when former Gov. Terry Branstad would make his decision on whether to run for governor in 2010. We both agreed Branstad would enter the race; I opined it would come after Des Moines University President Branstad got the go-ahead from the DMU board.

Anyway, as I settle into desk and pull up email at 8:30 a.m. here, an e-mail dated 7:19 a.m.  announcing Branstad’s decision to run for governor (there’s also a tweet to that effect on Twitter) is the eye-opener. (Sorry, but the e-mail with subject line “Three ways to be a winner in tough economic times” isn’t pulling me in.) Sandy Greiner of the DraftBranstad Political Action Committee, formed this summer, advises the endeavor to push Branstad back into the political ring has paid dividends.

“Today is a great day for future generations of Iowans as Governor Branstad takes the next step toward deciding to run for governor of Iowa… The Draft Branstad campaign generated support from Iowans young and old, who are looking to the future of  Iowa and I am pleased to say your work has payed (sic) off as Governor Branstad takes the next step to run for governor. However, it is not time to stop recruiting. It is time to speak louder and recruit harder,” Greiner writes.

Is that an agonized groan from Rod Roberts in Carroll, Chris Rants here in the city, Christian Fong in Cedar Rapids, Jerry Behn in Boone or even Bob Vander Plaats, who is over in England visiting his son who attends Oxford?

Of course, it should be pointed out  Branstad is “only” forming an exploratory committee, not the full-on candidate committee. But this summer I asked Roberts (when he formed his exploratory committee) when was the last time a person formed an exploratory committee and then didn’t go all in? He couldn’t think of an example.

Fong was the last candidate I’ve spoken with extensively, in his Sioux City stop two days ago. He said he had every expectation Branstad will join the GOP 2010 field and said there’s no way he’d leave once Branstad did. However, Fong did say there would be some shrinkage before the June 2010 primary, figuring three or four would be the max number of guv candidates.

The fundraiser tonight by the  Monona County Republican Party in Mapleton will draw a crew of 2010 governor candidates. Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats is overseas visiting his eldest son at Oxford University, but three other candidates will be on hand — State Reps. Chris Rants of Sioux City and Rod Roberts of Carroll and Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong, who stayed in the area after visiting with about 10 people in his first Sioux City public event since candidacy launch.

Roberts said the events typically see gubernatorial candidates regurgitating stump speeches, but he and Rants try to launch new campaign ideas.  Roberts talked about the grueling campaign schedule he keeps even 13 months out from the general election, basically having one event per day. For instance, he was in Johnson County yesterday to speak to county party officials and University of Iowa Young Republicans, then stopped in Des Moines for an Iowa House GOP caucus meeting.

At the Monona County Fall Rally, Rants is itching to air a new failing of Iowa Gov. Chet Culver — news the Secretary of State office in his tenure failed to properly account for federal Help America Voter Act money. On the heels of the film tax credits financial failings, Rants said, “This is just the next example to come along on how Chet Culver cannot manage the public’s money.”

It’s been 12 days since the flawed functioning of the Iowa film tax credit story broke. In my first post on the topic, I debated whether to use the word scandal to describe some questionable use of the credits, then just went with it. Now I see  Republican (technically exploratory) gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts of Carroll has upped the ante, affixed a -gate to the word, going full on with Filmgate. You know, Watergate, Troopergate, Plamegate, heck even Kanye(West) gate is new this month, where we can’t get enough of the suffix -gate.

The other day The Iowa Republican site took Roberts to task for failing to forcefully enter the film tax credits discussion. Roberts may have come belatedly to the conversation, but he coined Filmgate.  In his press released e-mailed around this morning, Roberts asks where Democratic Iowa Gov. Chet Culver was when filmgate took place, as “self-interested film producers exploited a state program that was intended to boost the state’s economy,” including purchase of Range Rovers in two cases.

Roberts said Culver firing (or asking for the resignations of) Iowa Department of Economic Development personnel doesn’t cut it, that Culver should give “an admission of personal responsibility for the Filmgate scandal.”