Branstad-Reynolds Campaign Office to Open Saturday: How to Get Tickets

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will open campaign headquarters in Urbandale Saturday.

The Branstad-Reynolds team hasn’t formally announced re-election plans, but there’s little doubt they will run, the Des Moines Register reports.

The “Republican Victory 2014 Office” at 2775 86th St. will open at 5 p.m. U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Iowa State Auditor Mary Mosiman are expected to join Branstad and Reynolds at the celebration.

Tickets are free and may be obtained at www.iavictory2014.eventbrite.com or at the door. Guests may also RSVP at (515) 421-4570 or by emailing their names and guests’ names to info@BranstadReynolds.com.

Branstad already is the longest-serving governor in U.S. history.

He served from 1983-1999, then in 2010 unseated Chet Culver, a Democrat, who served from 2007-2011. Branstad was first elected at age 36, the youngest chief executive in Iowa’s history, and when he left office in 1999, he already held the distinction of serving longer than any governor in the state.

Assuming that he completes his term on Jan. 9, 2015, he will have compiled 7,303 days in office (19 years, 11 months, 29 days), or 24.5 percent longer than any governor in U.S. history, according to a study from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

New York’s George Clinton served more than 20 years as governor, but the study only looked at governors in the post-U.S. Constitutional period. More than a decade of Clinton’s 20-plus years as governor were served before New York achieved statehood.

Longtime political and statehouse reporter Mike Glover has speculated that if Branstad is re-elected in 2014, he might resign in mid-term and turn the reins over to Reynolds, making her the first female governor in the state’s history.

Currently, Iowa and Mississippi are the only two states in the U.S. who have never elected a woman as governor. Iowa is also among four states that have never sent a woman to U.S. Congress.

“Ever mindful of his legacy, playing a key role in bringing the state its first woman governor would likely appeal to him,” Glover, formerly an Associated Press writer, wrote on his Iowa Horserace blog. “He does, after all, care about his role in the history books.”

That has some conservative activists planning a coup at the 2014 summer convention, when the lieutenant governor choice will officially be ratified.