The ad, which will run statewide on network and cable, can be watched here.

In conjunction with the ad’s release, Branstad 2010 campaign manager Jeff Boeyink released the following statement:

“While the Culver campaign is trying to mislead and misdirect Iowans about Terry Branstad’s outstanding record of achievement, Governor Culver cannot hide from results of his failed leadership. Nowhere is that failed leadership more evident than in regards to the plight of Iowa’s unemployed and his inability to articulate a plan to stimulate Iowa’s economy and create new jobs.

“Governor Branstad took office at one of the most challenging times in our state’s history, facing an unemployment rate of 8.6%. Working with Iowans, Governor Branstad led Iowa out of that dark place, helped create nearly 300,000 jobs for Iowans, and left our state with an unemployment rate that was the lowest in the state’s history at that time.

“With news this week of another major Iowa employer laying off 1,000 hard working Iowans, it is time to bring back Terry Branstad’s proven ability and effective leadership to help grow the economy and create new jobs for the more than 115,000 Iowans currently seeking work.”

The script of the ad is as follows:

Chet Culver likes to say unemployment was highest in state history when Terry Branstad took office. He’s exactly right.

And by the time Terry Branstad left, unemployment was the lowest in state history and Terry helped create nearly 300,000 new jobs.

Chet Culver? Under him unemployment has nearly doubled to 6.8%, the highest in 24 years and Iowa has already lost more than 30,000 jobs

Iowa on Terry Branstad, or Iowa on Chet Culver?

Any Questions?

SOURCES:

Unemployment                                  Total

Month / Year                     Rate                                       Employment

¹January 1983                    8.6%                                      1,291,400

¹January 1999                    2.7%                                      1,558,900 (+267,500)

¹January 2007                    3.6%                                      1,602,600

²May 2010                          6.8%                                      1,571,600 (-31,000)

¹Iowa Historical Labor Force date, Iowa Workforce Development:

http://www.iowaworkforce.org/lmi/laborforce/etables/2005_1976seaavgr.pdf

²May Iowa Unemployment News Release, Iowa Workforce Development:

http://www.iowaworkforce.org/news/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=81

View the post here.

Secretary of State Mike Mauro just had a news conference to announce the party registration changes that resulted from the June 8 primary. Bad news for Democrats.

Republicans had big gains, going from 607,567 registered on June 1, 2010 to 644,838. That’s a gain of 37,271, according to Mauro’s math.

Democrats, during the same period, dropped from 710,017 to 699,972, a loss of 10,045. Ouch. Democrats had an over 100,000 advantage over Republicans before the primary. Afterward, their advantage was down to about 55,000.

Read the full post here.

Pushed in large part by a competitive three-man gubernatorial Republican Party primary held June 8, from June 1 to July 1 the GOP  picked up 37,271 in voter registration, while Democrats dropped 10,045. The  current totals for active registrations sits at 661,115 for Democrats, 615,011 for Republicans and 683,817 registered as No Party.

That registration change for the GOP is a prime pleasing subject here at lunch hour amongRepublican Party leaders on Twitter. And it has got to be concerning for Democrats (particularly Iowa Gov. Chet Culver in his re-election bid)

Read the entire post here.

That’s the shocking, shocking assertion coming from the Branstad campaign, backed up with real numbers from the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency.

I really meant to get to this last week. Extra work and the holiday intervened. But clearly, this is a charge we’re going to hear over and over again throughout the campaign. So let’s have a look.

Read the full post here.

Reynolds, a state senator from Osceola, was on her first day of headlining campaign events in counties where the Republican nominee for governor, running mate Terry Branstad, finished second to Vander Plaats in the GOP primary.

“We’re hoping that we can get in touch with the county campaign chairs that he had,” Reynolds said after meeting with about 40 Adair and Union county GOP activists at Nodaway Diner in Greenfield.

“We’re working hard to get everybody’s vote. But that means reaching out to his supporters, listening to them, hopefully allowing them an opportunity to get to know me.”

With less than four months until Election Day, the Iowa GOP remains somewhat unsettled. In the June 8 primary, Branstad won the three-way contest with 50 percent of the vote.

Vander Plaats, who won 41 percent of the vote, carried 24 of Iowa’s 99 counties, including Adair, where Reynolds campaigned Tuesday.

Vander Plaats has not endorsed the former four-term governor. Nor has he ruled out an independent bid for governor since losing the nomination for lieutenant governor at the state Republican convention in Des Moines on June 26.

Vander Plaats did not return telephone messages on Tuesday.

Vander Plaats had campaigned as the stricter social conservative, criticizing Branstad in part for not taking a stronger position against same-sex marriage. Branstad supports a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, but has refused to embrace Vander Plaats’ plan to sign an executive order halting the practice until a referendum on an amendment.

A meeting after the primary between Branstad and Vander Plaats did not go well, Vander Plaats said in a radio interview last month. Vander Plaats said he failed to persuade Branstad to take up his idea of the executive order.

Reynolds said after winning the nomination that she would begin reaching out in parts of the state where Vander Plaats beat Branstad.

On Tuesday, she stressed Branstad’s message that the Iowa’s economy, the employment outlook and state budget are paramount issues. But Reynolds, a freshman senator in the GOP minority, also noted before taking questions from the group at the lunch spot that she had tried to advance the marriage amendment.

“We got to 24 who signed off on that. We needed 26,” Reynolds said, referring to the number of senators who supported a debate of the marriage amendment resolution this year. “So, elections matter. They do make a difference. We need to get additional people in there that will support that.”

Read the full post here.

More recently, Iowa Democrats have held a big advantage over the Republicans.  Following the 2008 general election, Democrats had an 111,000 advantage in registered voters.  A margin of that magnitude seemed insurmountable, but the registration numbers following the June 8^th primary seem to indicate that Iowa Republicans are finally moving in the right direction by cutting that number in half.

Secretary of State Michael Mauro held a press conference yesterday to announce a significant change in party registration.   Mauro said, “As of July 1, there are just over 55,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. One month prior to that, Democrats maintained an advantage of over 100,000.”

Mauro said he held the press conference in an attempt to add a little context to rapid swing in voter registrations towards Republicans.  While Mauro provided some good information about the 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial primaries, he failed to explain just how Iowa Democrats were able build such a large voter registration advantage in just two election cycles.

A quick look at the voter registration data from the Secretary of State’s office shows that Iowa Democrats were able to build their massive voter registration advantage in just one phenomenal year – 2008.  In January of 2008, there were 606,209 registered Democrats.  Just one month later there were 664,658 registered Democrats.

What caused the massive shift was the epic battle between Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Iowa caucuses.   However, Democrats were not finished adding to their advantage after the caucuses.  They then added 34,000 more registered voters that fall, and another 10,000 on Election Day.  At the end of 2008, an outstanding year for Democrats across the county, they had a huge lead in registered voters.

What has Republicans excited about this fall is that they were able to create the same size voter registration bump in a statewide primary that the Democrats got during the media frenzy over Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008.

It was good that Secretary of State Mauro wanted to add context to the registration numbers, but he should also be sounding the alarm to his fellow Democrats that a likely Republican tsunami is headed their way, and it could make landfall on November 2^nd.

The improved voter registration numbers are welcome news to Republican candidates running for statewide office, but the area in which these numbers will have the greatest impact is in legislative races.

Read the full story here.

What do you think? Did Culver do what he had to do with his across-the-board cuts? Or should he have worked with state legislators to make selective cuts instead that could have spared some of the cuts to schools?

Poll Problems: I don’t usually address polls that come from WHO-TV’s competitor, KCCI. But the company, Research 2000, that produced the station’s most recent polls has found its way into a mess right now. There are claims the company was less than authentic with its polling results in a way that greatly benefited some Iowa Democrats.

Read the full post here.

As some of you know Rod was nominated for Lt. Governor on the floor of the convention by Linda Harrington of Lee County.  That was seconded.  Prior to that the Lt. Governor nominee, State Senator Kim Reynolds was nominated by Congressman Steve King and Bob Vander Plaats was nominated by Representative Dwayne Alons (R-Hull).

All three were called behind the stage to determine whether or not they accepted the nomination and all three were given the opportunity to speak.  Rod was able to speak first and he said that on June 8th the voters made their decision and they chose former Governor Terry Branstad, he then said, “I respect that decision. Branstad has the right to choose his own lieutenant governor. I endorse both Terry Branstad and Kim Reynolds. I respectfully decline the nomination.”

That demonstrated that he is a statesman.  This shows that he is a man of integrity.  This is a mark of humility, which is an attribute that I would readily ascribe to Rod Roberts.

Read the full post here.

The energy and conviction with which she delivered her nomination speeches (she had to give two when Bob Vander Plaats accepted a nomination and forced a vote) were electrifying a roomful of delegates who wanted new energy.

Read the entire post here.

Read the full post by clicking here.