Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

November 15, 2009

Culver Sinking Fast in Iowa

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver's (D) job approval "has fallen to a critical new low, and former Gov. Terry Branstad (R) poses a major potential threat to Culver's re-election," according to a new Iowa Poll.

Just 40% of Iowans say they approve of the job the first-term Democrat is doing -- a 10 point drop since mid-September -- and only 34% of Iowans think the state is headed in the right direction.

In matchups posed to likely voters, Branstad crushes Culver by 24 points, 57% to 33%. Culver also trails businessman Bob Vander Plaats, a fiscal and social conservative who remains little-known to most Iowans.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade on Wall Street as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he also served as a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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