Pinning Nelson vote on Branstad?

It's the story of a nine-year-old campaign endorsement, a vote on the Senate floor and a long-term political friendship between an Iowa Republican and a Nebraska Democrat.

Clashes over the Senate health care bill apparently have no bounds.

In Iowa, governor hopeful Bob Vander Plaats criticized former Gov. Terry Branstad, a fellow Republican, on Monday for endorsing Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson in his 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

That endorsement, Vander Plaats said, helped Nelson eke out a 15,000-vote victory over his opponent, which gave him his first Senate win and put him in the position to advance the health care bill last Saturday.

“Ben Nelson gave Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid the vote he needed to get the 60 votes to steamroll Republican opposition,” said Vander Plaats.

“Whatever happens from here on out, Terry Branstad is going to have to accept some responsibility, because he was a very active supporter of Ben Nelson in his first campaign for the Senate.”

Nelson's vote was one of 60 that moved the health care bill to the Senate floor for debate. Nelson has said he would not vote to pass it in its current form.

Branstad, who is exploring a run against current Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, does not favor the Senate's health care bill, spokesman Tim Albrecht said.

“It spends too much money we don't have and does nothing to create the jobs we so desperately need,” Albrecht said.

The political bromance between Branstad and Nelson developed during the eight years — 1991 to 1999 — that they were governors at the same time.

There were serious times spent promoting ethanol, as leaders in the Governors' Ethanol Coalition. There were not-so-serious times, including a 1998 Omaha Press Club show performance in which they took to the stage to sing a song about being lame-duck governors.

That same year, at a dinner in Council Bluffs, they reminisced about times past, such as when Nelson bagged more pheasants than Branstad during a western Iowa hunting trip.

“I think the chemistry between Ben and me is also exceptionally good,” Branstad said in 1998. “We have, basically, the same values. We think a lot alike. We are both very practical, pragmatic people.”

Two years later, Branstad stood with Democrat Tom Vilsack, then the Iowa governor, to endorse Nelson's Senate candidacy.

“If he were in Iowa, he'd probably be a Republican,” Branstad said in 2000.

With those words, Vander Plaats said Monday, Branstad assumed some responsibility for Nelson's actions as a senator.

But that is something that spokesmen for both Branstad and Nelson found hard to swallow.

“Gov. Branstad is registered to vote in the state of Iowa and is in no way responsible for Sen. Nelson's election,” said Albrecht, Branstad's spokesman.

Jake Thompson, spokesman for Nelson, agreed.

“It's a big stretch,” said Thompson.

Contact the writer:

444-1310, elizabeth.ahlin@owh.com

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