Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley says he’s focused on his reelection in 2012 and isn’t willing to speculate on what he might do in 2014. Republican Governor Terry Branstad’s four-year term will be ending then, plus 2014 is the year Democrat Tom Harkin has to decide whether to seek another six-year term in the U.S. Senate or retire.
Braley’s publicly on-the-record, urging Harkin to run again. “I think the best thing for the state of Iowa is for Tom Harkin to seek reelection in 2014 and to not lose the wealth of experience that he has brought to this state,” Braley says. Would Braley run for governor in 2014?
“I’m certainly not going to address that today because I’m working hard to get reelected in the first district of Iowa,” Braley says. Braley, though, says “a lot of people are really concerned” about where Governor Branstad is steering the state. “It was a very high-profile campaign promise of the governor to create 200,000 jobs in his first term. Where are they?” Braley says. “That’s what I think people will be asking in the next election.”
Branstad, who served as governor for 16 years in the 1980s and ’90s, sought reelection to a fifth term in 2010. During the 2010 campaign, Branstad set a goal of creating 200-thousand new jobs by 2015. Braley made his comments during a weekend appearance on Iowa Public Television.