With the busiest part of the campaign season just ahead, Lt. Gov. Patty Judge said Thursday she and the governor are just beginning to spread their message.
"Iowa is better off than almost any state in the nation," Judge said, defending criticisms that the Culver Administration is largely responsible for the state's perceived economic troubles. "It's not perfect. Unemployment is still too high."
Overall, she and Gov. Chet Culver will remind the state's residents what has been accomplished over the last four years, and what the priorities will be for the next four years, she said. Those include education, access to quality and affordable health care, jobs and civil rights.
She alluded to a recent effort to remove a number of Iowa Supreme Court judges by saying the judicial system needs to be protected and that it has worked very well.
At the same time Judge was touting what the Culver Administration has done, she also took some shots at Culver's Republican opponent, former Gov. Terry Branstad. In particular, she took issue with his recent plans to turn the department of economic development into a public/private partnership.
"When Terry talks about dismantling the Department of Economic Development and doing a model where you turn that over to private business, I'm not sure he really has a good grasp of what's going on," Judge said. "The idea of turning that over to private industry to shepherd state dollars is not acceptable to the governor or me."
The Branstad campaign defended its proposal for a new economic development model.
"This is coming from an administration that has saddled us with $1.7 billion in debt through its so-called I-JOBS initiative that has yet to produce long-term jobs as a result," said Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht. "Terry Branstad's commitment to transparency, openness and accountability will be applied to the new Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress. The Culver/Judge Department of Economic Development has become so scandal-ridden and dysfunctional that it's time for an effective manager in the governor's office once again."
Judge said long-term jobs have come to the state through the department's efforts. In the last 36 months, more than 260 companies have come to Iowa and created 20,000 new jobs, she said.
The governor's office has been under a great deal of criticism due to some money mismanagement scandals in several offices including within the Iowa Film Office, a wing of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. Judge said those scandals have proven the governor can act decisively and has renewed the administration's focus on oversight and accountability.
"We've certainly learned the importance of that," she said. "You can't always know everything that's going on at every moment, but when you understand you have a problem, you have to take action."
Culver has done just that, Judge said.
Judge believes Gov. Culver can beat the anti-incumbency wave that she acknowledges is sweeping the nation and even tried to push some of that discontentment onto the Republican challenger. She pointed out Branstad has served more terms as governor than Culver.
"So maybe he's the incumbent in this race," she said.