Branstad Blinks During Conservative Staring Contest

Former four term governor Terry Branstad is running to get his old job back. Who can blame him? Governor Chet Culver is not very popular these days and the Branstad team figures it will be easy to position Branstad as the steady hand in a general election against Culver. The problem, Branstad needs to win the Republican primary first and conservatives, especially social conservatives, are not going to support a candidate who ignores them.

Branstad’s soft underbelly was exposed after a meeting with some conservatives this week. As reported by Jason Hancock in the Iowa Independent yesterday, some left underwhelmed. Attending were Mike Demastus, a pastor at Fort Des Moines Church, several Christian pastors, conservative blogger Shane Vander Hart, Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center, Kim Lehman of Iowa Right to Life, Steve Scheffler of the Iowa Christian Alliance, and former Des Moines School Board member Jonathan Narcisse.

(That sound you just heard was a sigh of relief from Iowa Democrats that Jonathan Narcisse continues to align himself with Republicans.)

Demastus wrote in his blog that, in essence, Branstad said, “we’re on the same team. I think the same way you do about these issues. Even if you don’t hear me talk about them, they are important to me privately.” Branstad told the group he would not campaign openly against Iowa Supreme Court Justices who ruled in favor of equal marriage and Demastus wrote, “he said that privately he feels that way but he cannot publicly do something like that. WEAK!”

Vander Hart expressed disappointment in Branstad’s response to the group’s questions about gay marriage, “(Branstad) said it is ‘not going to be a central issue’ and that we ‘have to use finesse, and not overplay our hand.’ He also said that in order to win the election we ought ‘not wear our conservatism on our sleeve.’” Vander Hart went on to blog, “I can understand wanting to make the economy a central theme, but an unwillingness to address restoring traditional marriage at all in his campaign is a mistake.”

(Those next sounds were Branstad trying to put the lids back on two smelly cans of squirming worms.)

First, this meeting is evidence social conservatives are not going to sit quietly in the corner and accept Branstad’s assurances he is one of them and once he is moved back into Terrace Hill he will work behind closed doors to implement all that is conservative. These two bloggers are among a group more willing to support a candidate who may lose, but proudly voices social conservative issues at every stop on the campaign than they are making a deal with one who says what he needs to say to get elected, but supports these same issues in the end.

Second, Branstad got caught trying to make a backroom deal before he even turned the ignition of the campaign bus. In the day of blogs, Twitter and Facebook it is harder for a candidate to give a wink and a nod to one group in a closed meeting and then climb to the podium and speak in expansive terms to appease the broader populace. Branstad has a decision to make. Is he going to speak straight to Iowans about how he intends to govern, or is he going to join these conservatives and continue the GOP’s march to the right? If he chooses to join the right in order to win the primary in June, he will pay a certain price in the general in November.

Fewer and fewer Iowans identify themselves as Republicans these days. I believe this is true because many feel uncomfortable with the social stances the Party has taken. Others will say the dwindling numbers are because the Party does not represent these social stances passionately enough. There is a struggle among Republicans over the very tenets that will define the Party in the years to come. Governor Branstad may have learned this week that he is going to have to take a side in this fight. One thing is sure, he will lose votes for whichever decision he makes.

Author’s Note: It is important for me to disclose that I count Governor Branstad as a personal friend. I was a paid consultant for his 1994 reelection campaign and have worked and socialized with him numerous times since he left office. As I do for all who enter the arena, I applaud him for entering this race. By doing so, he has opened himself to intense public scrutiny and what sounds an awful lot like scoffing from friends like me for limited personal return.

This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.