Terry Branstad Officially enters Iowa Governors Race

January 19th, 2010 |

Author: Vast

This morning the unofficial entry of former Governor Terry Branstad into the 2010 Governors race for the state of Iowa becomes official. Odds are good that he will win the heavily contested GOP primary. Craig Robertson of the Iowa Republican reported this morning that a leaked internal GOP poll had Branstad in a comfortable lead.

Hill Research Consultants Survey dates:

1/10 through 1/12

N=750 Iowa Republicans who are very likely to vote in the June 8 primary

Here are the top-line results: Four Way Primary Test

Terry Branstad 63% Strongly 42%

Bob Vander Plaats 18% Strongly 10%

Christopher Rants 04% Strongly 02%

Rod Roberts 02% Strongly 00%

This of course has made Bob Vander Plats and the Iowa Family Policy Center, who has thrown all of their Anti-Marriage Equality cards into Vander Plats pledge to sign an unconstitutional executive order overruling the state supreme court and stopping same sex marriages from occurring in the state until the group can get an amendment before voters to strip away my civil rights even if such an amendment is in violation of the US Constitution. Yet another reason why the Proposition 8 trial is so important to both sides.

I’m pretty certain that Branstad will win the GOP primary. I’m not ready to make any predictions about Branstad’s chances against Culver except to say that I think the race will be very competitive. I won’t vote for Branstad as he has all ready stated that he is in favor of a amendment to the state constitution banning same sex marriage, but I am very curious to see what his ideas on improving the state economy are and I’m interested in how he will run against his own record. Iowa Democrats are all ready working on digging up all the dirt they can on the former Governor and even plan to follow his campaign bus around the state with their own “Terry vs Terry” campaign.

If your wondering about the picture, it’s from 1984 when Branstad attended the recommissioning ceremony for BB-61, USS Iowa. He was in his first term at the time, with 3 more in front of him. Now he is trying to convince Iowans he deserves a 5th term after having been out of office since Jan of 1999.