A statement issued this morning seems to confirm former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is going to seek a fifth term as governor. 

Branstad, a Republican, has been president and C.E.O. of Des Moines University since 2003.  The university issued a statement which talks about Branstad in the past tense, saying he “was the 14th president” of the osteopathic school.  The university release invites Iowa media to attend a “Branstad announcement” on the Des Moines University campus at one o’clock on Friday. 

Branstad served four terms as Iowa’s governor, leaving office in January, 1999, and earlier this week a campaign manager was hired to take the reigns of the Terry Branstad 2010 Committee.

Patti Yungclas of Webster City has been on the Des Moines University Board of Directors for 24 years. “It’s been kind of an up and down because we don’t want to lose him because he’s been a wonderful president of our university and we’ve certainly come a long way,” she says.  “But, you know, he has a feeling that we’ve got to do something to save our state, so what can I say.  I’m just proud to know him and we’ll wait ’til Friday and see what he says.” 

Yungclas is a Republican who’s been active in Hamilton County politics for years.  Yungclas says something is going to have to be sacrificed if Branstad seeks the governorship, and it seems to her like one of those sacrifices will be Des Moines University. 

“But that’s one of my loves and I hate to see him go, but, you know, we’ll survive and we’ve survived a lot of things,” Yungclas says.  “And he’s brought us a long way and he’ll still be a friend of the university, I’m sure.” 

Branstad will face a handful of other Republicans who are seeking their party’s 2010 nomination for governor.  Bob Vander Plaats, a Sioux City consultant; Chris Rants, a Sioux City legislator; Christian Fong, a Cedar Rapids businessman; Rod Roberts, a legislator from Carroll; and two other legislators have been campaigning throughout the state, appearing at candidate forums and speaking to G.O.P. groups.

(Pat Powers of KQWC in Webster City contributed to this report.)