The Hawkeye – Branstad goes on offense

Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad doesn’t spend a lot of time defending his 16 years as the state’s chief executive.

He is more comfortable on the offense, whether that’s attacking his opponent Democratic incumbent Gov. Chet Culver or unveiling more aspects of his vision to get the state back on track. In fact, the two often complement each other in Branstad’s campaign rhetoric.

“I think I have the experience and the ability to put together the right team to do that,” Branstad said of flood recovery during an interview with The Hawk Eye on Tuesday. “I think Gov. Culver has failed to choose good people to run the departments and agencies. You’ve had this revolving door and the turnover.”

The two governors – Culver is finishing up his first term and Branstad held the office from 1983 to 1999 – managed the state during times of economic hardship but also during periods of historic flooding. Both also have been critical of the other’s handling of those situations.

Culver has criticized Branstad for not enacting long-term recovery strategies after the 1993 flood, which in turn made the 2008 disaster worse. Branstad counters with the slow pace of recovery and growing the bureaucracy after 2008.

“I think what happened because of the mismanagement of the film office, the Department of Economic Development, which was in charge of the state’s position on the flood thing has been almost paralyzed about making decisions,” Branstad said, adding that sometimes the state’s chief must simply push forward.

When asked whether he did enough on long-term recovery, Branstad said improvements were made where the flooding was the worst after the July 1993 flood; in 2008, it just hit a different watershed.

“The challenge is when you do have a disaster is maximizing the federal and the state resources and making the decisions to get the resources,” said Branstad, who is also critical of the state’s stimulus program to begin to address the recovery.

Instead of seeing the Iowa Infrastructure Investment Initiative, or I-Jobs, as a necessary investment in flood recovery, Branstad said the bonding program is basically “robbing money” from the state’s infrastructure fund for future years. The state will pay out more than $50 million a year for the next two decades to pay for the program.

“After the flood, I think there are a few major projects that there may be some justification for doing, but I don’t think you do it indiscriminately. That’s what I object to,” Branstad said. “We’re going to go out and spend $875 million without a specific plan and without setting priorities, and that’s what was done. That’s what doesn’t make sense.”

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