Republican legislators retain control, say it’s a mandate

At last count, Republicans have retained majority control of the Iowa House and Senate, and House Republican Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City says that means the G-O-P has a mandate to govern, just like Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack. Rants says Iowans elected a Republican legislature because they have some concerns about the Governor’s spending priorities. He says the republicans spent a lot of time talking about capping spending and taking property taxes off of automatic pilot. He says they’ll also focus on economic development. This morning, Governor Vilsack announced he would shake up his administration and refound the Department of Economic Development. Rants says that’s long overdue.Rants suggests that Vilsack name Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Debi Durham director of the Department of Economic Development. Durham, like Rants, lives in Sioux City, where she has been president of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce for the past six years. The Governor says he wants to work in a “bipartisan” fashion with legislators on some key issues, and Rants says Republicans are willing to work with him, to a point. Rants says they’ll have some fights, and some agreements, and they’ll take things issue by issue, case by case.