While most of the reaction to Republican gubernatorial nominee Terry Branstad's pick of state Senator Kim Reynolds (R-Osceola) as his running mate was positive, at least one key special interest group is still not ready to jump on board the four-term governor's bandwagon.

Iowa Family PAC Board Chair Danny Carroll said Thursday that "at this point nothing has changed" when it comes to the group endorsing a Branstad/Reynolds ticket.

"As far as the Iowa Family PAC is concerned, our expectations remain the same, whether it be the nominee for governor Terry Branstad or his lieutenant governor. We are looking for leaders who will take a strong position in defending life and marriage and the family."

Governor Chet Culver's campaign has launched its first ad of the general-election season, and it's aimed directly at Republican gubernatorial nominee and former Governor Terry Branstad.

The ad, called "Cooked," focuses on former Republican State Auditor Richard Johnson's assertion that Branstad "cooked the books" and "kept two sets of books." The ad also says: "Branstad doubled state spending, raised the state's sales tax, raised the gas tax, [and] even wanted to tax Social Security."

The ads are the first Culver has run since November 2009, when he ran ads called "Balanced Budget" and "Stronger Than Ever" that focused on state spending and recovering from the 2008 floods and the national recession.

Branstad campaign manager Jeff Boeyink defended Branstad's record and said the ad offers no positive vision for the future.

Keep in mind while watching coverage of the Rod Blagojevich trial that reporters in the courtroom have a far keener understanding of what is going on than do the jurors. Their perceptions are not necessarily the same as the jurors' views. So their coverage may not match up to how the case will turn out.

For most of the jurors, this is their first time in a real courtroom. Unlike most of the reporters at the trial, this experience is all quite new to all but two of them who have served on juries before. And, unlike most of the reporters, they have limited knowledge of what the trial is all about and the context of the charges.

Most of the jurors know little of Rod Blagojevich and his administration except for their skimming of the local news and maybe seeing him a time or two on TV entertainment programs. One juror admitted that she checks the news "only for the weather."

Anyone with a a hint of common sense knows you can't spend (borrow and consume) your way out of debt into financial recovery, let alone prosperity. Secondly, the most recent jobs report indicated that of the 431,000 new jobs created via the stimulus bailout, 390,000 were government jobs, mostly for the Census Bureau, leaving a paltry 41,000 new jobs created in the private sector, which is the only sector that pays its own way. Furthermore, most of the 390,000 employed in the Census Bureau will be laid off this summer, because those jobs are coming to an end. This is hardly recovery.