Governor Chet Culver is raising questions about a campaign promise made by his Republican opponent, Terry Branstad.
“There’s been a stunning development and it has to do with Terry Branstad’s promise to cut the (state) budget by 15 percent…And then on the 15th, just on Thursday, Terry Branstad said that the budget would not necessarily be smaller. Can you believe that?” Culver said this weekend, laughing. “It’s another broken promise from Terry Branstad. What more would you expect?”
Branstad said in January he would reduce state spending by 15 percent over five years, but Branstad told reporters last week that doesn’t necessarily mean the budget will be 15 percent less, because state tax revenues may increase during that period.
Culver made his comments Saturday night during the Iowa Democratic Party’s annual fall fundraiser. Culver’s running mate, Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge, showed the crowd a series of photographs to poke fun at Branstad running mate Kim Reynolds. The slide show was designed to suggest Branstad is keeping Reynolds out of public view.
“It would have been fun to debate Kim. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, however,” Judge said. “I had faith that Terry would eventually let her debate if we kept talking about it, but you know what? He let us down one more time.”
Earlier this month Reynolds said she was focused on visiting each of Iowa’s 99 counties before the election and talking with individual voters and probably didn’t have time to debate Judge.
Listen to the speeches Judge and Culver made Saturday: JudgeCulver
Listen to the 44-minute-long keynote address Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell delivered at the 2010 Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Des Moines: Rendell