Culver enjoys victory’s glow amid the Republican gloom

Font Size:

By Todd Dorman and Dan Gearino | Thursday, November 9, 2006 1:36 AM CST | () comments

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Governor-elect Chet Culver, center, speaks during a news conference as Gov. Tom Vilsack, right, looks on Wednesday at the Statehouse in Des Moines. Culver defeated U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle.

DES MOINES — Democrat Chet Culver basked in the glow of his big victory in the race for governor Wednesday while Republicans were left to sift through the rubble of their Election Day hopes.

Standing in the ornate Statehouse office he will occupy in January, Culver vowed to reach across the aisle to Republicans as he crafts his first legislative agenda.

“We want to create one Iowa,” Culver said at a late morning news conference with outgoing Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack. “We will get to work immediately.”

Across the aisle, Republicans were left to sort out what went wrong. They came into Tuesday’s vote determined to take back the governor’s office and at least hold their slim majority in the Iowa House.

Instead, Culver routed U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle by 9 percentage points and nearly 100,000 votes. Democrats seized a commanding 30-20 majority in the Senate and a 54-45 lead in the House, pending final results in a handful of tight races.

“It hasn’t happened in 42 years,” said Doug Gross, a Republican who ran for governor and lost in 2002. “It’s very big. It’s very significant, especially in a state like Iowa that’s so politically divided.”

Bush playbook fails

Nussle backers put their faith in the playbook used by President Bush to carry the state in 2004. In that year, high turnout among core conservative Republicans, especially in western Iowa, neutralized Democratic victory margins in urban counties.

But 2006 played out much differently, according to election returns. On Election Night, nervous Republicans watched Culver build a big early lead and waited in vain for western Iowa votes to turn the tide.

Nussle did lock up western Iowa, but he failed to get the needed margins. His victory margin in Sioux County was up more than 1,000 votes from what Gross drew in 2002, but it fell short of the campaign’s expectations. Nussle won Pottawattamie County by less than 1,000 votes, far short of the 7,500-vote win Bush got in the county two years ago.

“I think it was a case of

Congressman Nussle not being well-known in the western side of the state,” said former Iowa House Speaker Brent Siegrist, a Republican from Council Bluffs.

Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Christian Alliance, said he believes conservatives were motivated to back Nussle. But he also said GOP troubles in Washington hurt turnout.

“I think we’re just plain fed up with Republicans in Congress, the arrogance of power,” he said. “It had nothing to do with the governor’s race. It had everything to do with the tone in Washington.”

Culver carries Bush counties

Some GOP voters turned Culver’s direction. Culver carried 28 counties Tuesday that Bush won in 2004. Most are in rural areas, including a cluster that covers much of the southern part of the state.

Louisa County, in southeastern Iowa, went for Culver, even though its voters backed Bush in 2004 and Gross in 2002. Culver voters also helped re-elect the county’s Republican state representative, Tom Sands of Columbus Junction.

Culver “came off as a very personable, down-to-earth Iowa boy. And he did that despite the fact that he was raised in Washington,” Sands said.

Hancock County, in northern Iowa, also went for Culver after voting for Bush and Gross.

“In the past, we’ve viewed this as pretty much safe Republican territory,” Hancock County GOP Chairman Brian Jones of Britt said.

Those Democratic gains helped offset the fact that Culver lost in 11 counties that Vilsack won in 2002.

Nussle loses 1st District

GOP strategists hoped Nussle would do well in his northeast Iowa congressional district, but the opposite happened.

Nussle was trounced in the three largest counties in the district, Black Hawk, Dubuque and Scott. He won only two counties in the district, Butler and Delaware. His margin in Delaware, his home county, was a mere 51 votes.

Nussle lost the 1st District by 17 percentage points.

While Republicans studied the numbers, Democrats shifted their focus Wednesday to Culver’s transition.

The governor-elect will set up his transition headquarters in the Lucas State Office Building and has $100,000 in state money to pay transition costs. Culver promised to swiftly name a transition team with members from across Iowa.

But during a speedy, seven-minute news conference, Culver declined to get into specifics about his transition plans or his legislative agenda. The Democrat, who currently serves as Secretary of State, said he will have more to say on those subjects in the coming days and weeks.

Todd Dorman can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or todd.dorman@lee.net.

Election Results

Iowa gubernatorial election results by percentage by congressional district:

District  Culver   Nussle

1st                           58                        41

2nd                         60                        38

3rd                          54                        45

4th                          54                        45

5th                          43                        55

State                      54                        45

2006 IOWA

ELECTION WINNERS

Teachers — The Iowa State Education Association has backed Democrats for years with hopes of a Statehouse sweep. Now that it’s a reality, the state’s largest teachers union will have big expectations.

Unions — Union leaders will get a fast minimum-wage increase, but changing workers’ compensation rules and other workplace laws will be far more complicated.

Environmentalists — Critics of large-scale hog lots will find more Statehouse sympathy for their call to toughen livestock regulations.

Tom Vilsack — Iowa’s current Democratic governor campaigned hard in the final weeks for Chet Culver and raised his own political stock by helping paint the Capitol blue.

2006 IOWA

ELECTION LOSERS

Iowans for Tax Relief — The GOP-leaning anti-tax group is both loved and feared by Republican lawmakers for its financial and organizational strength. But Democrats are unlikely to embrace its conservative tax agenda.

Business groups — The Association of Business and Industry, the National Federation of Independent Business and other Republican-leaning, pro-business groups likely will have less pull with Democrats in charge.

Social conservatives — New abortion restrictions and a constitutional gay marriage ban are not on the Democratic agenda. But loosening restrictions on embryonic stem cell research is likely.

Gambling opponents — Culver has said he favors putting new casinos in Fort Dodge and Ottumwa. Although that decision is in the hands of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, it is unlikely Democrats would step in to stop expansion.