Last night Republican Governor Terry Branstad and Jack Hatch, the Democratic challenger, met in Sioux City for their third and final televised debate. The hour-long event gave Hatch’s low-budget campaign perhaps its final chance to make an impression with voters and Hatch came out swinging, criticizing Branstad’s priority of cutting property taxes and questioning Branstad’s job creation claims. “We can’t afford four more years of Terry Branstad and his promises kept or broken,” Hatch said. Branstad dismissed what he referred to as Hatch’s “wild accusations.” “And the state of Iowa is on the right track,” Branstad said.

Hatch says it’s time to cut income taxes for middle class Iowans. “You know we’ve done a lot of corporations,” Hatch said. “We haven’t done very much for the people who work for them and that’s going to be my focus in the next four years.” Branstad defended the bill he signed which has begun reducing commercial and industrial property taxes. “And I’ve had people all over Iowa say: ‘Thank you for doing something that was promised for 30 years and you’ve finally delivered,” Bransad said. “The Iowa commercial and industrial property tax is going down.”

Sioux City journalists who moderated the debate also focused attention on an issue important to the host city for last night’s event: completing the expansion of Highway 20 to four lanes. Hatch says Iowans are “expecting to have better roads.” Branstad says it will likely take a combination of things to get this and other projects done, including federal funding and perhaps a shift to charging the state sales tax on gasoline purchases to raise more funds at the state level.

In 2010, Branstad promised that if he was elected he’d create 200-thousand new jobs in Iowa within five years. Last night Branstad was asked how many jobs have been created since he returned to the governor’s office in January of 2011. “I’m proud to say that we’ve been working on this every day since we came into office and in a little over three and a half years, we’ve created 150,900 jobs,” Branstad said. “…We have created more jobs in less than four years than the previous two governors did in 12 years.”

Hatch says that’s “close…to lying.”” He’s created less than 80,000 jobs…Even a fifth grader knows you have to subtract those jobs that were lost,” Hatch said. “And what about those 80,000 jobs that were lost? Are they not important? I’m going to be a governor who focuses on those lost jobs as well.”

Halfway through the debate, the candidates were asked to cite something they admired in their opponent and the two offered “respect” to the other for putting their name on the ballot. Branstad then looked past November 4th. “I think working together is important,” Branstad said. “Once the election’s over, we need to recognize we all are public servants. We need to serve the people of Iowa.”

Hatch says he’d put the “people’s business” first if he’s elected. Hatch is a long-time state legislator from Des Moines who told the audience last night he first came to Iowa to attend college at Drake University, then stayed after graduation. Branstad, who is seeking his sixth term as Iowa’s governor, said in his closing statement that he “grew up poor” on a northern Iowa farm, where he learned to work hard at an early age.

A Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register “Iowa Poll” conducted last week found Branstad holding a 15-point lead over Hatch. The debate was broadcast live on K-T-I-V T-V and K-S-C-J Radio and co-sponsored by the Sioux City Journal and the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce.

(Radio Iowa)