Dems Behind 'Conservative' Attack Ads Against Iowa GOP Gubernatorial Candidate

A Democratic operative has owned up to trying to disparage Iowa Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad by linking him to President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an effort to undermine his candidacy against a more conservative primary opponent.

Branstad defeated his Tea Party-backed opponent Bob VanderPlaats in the June 8 primary and now leads -- in some polls by double-digits -- in the race against incumbent Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.

That head-to-head matchup apparently worried the former Iowa Democratic state party chairman Rob Tully, who formed Iowans for Responsible Government, which organized the ads to paint the former governor as a friend of Democrats and give VanderPlaats a leg up in the primary.

One ad by the group said Branstad, who governed from 1983-1999, "would make Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi proud."

"When it comes to health care, Terry Branstad sounds a lot like Barack Obama," a separate mailer reads.

The more than $770,000 spent blasting Branstad came from the Washington-based Democratic Governors Association, whose political director Raymond Glendening maintained that Branstad is a liberal who now wants to reinvent himself as a Tea Party conservative.

"Terry Branstad saw which way the political winds were blowing and he knew his record of undisciplined and reckless spending would be vulnerable to an attack from the right," Glendening said in a statement to Fox News. "We saw an opportunity with this political hypocrisy and took advantage of it. Branstad continues to run a false and deceptive campaign, and he is not who he says he is."

But Branstad Campaign Manager Jeff Boeyikn said the ads didn't achieve their purpose. He also called on Culver to explain his role in their creation.

"A shadowy, out-of-state-funded group attempted to infiltrate the Republican primary for governor with distortions and smear tactics," Boeyink said in a written statement. "Chet Culver should come clean about his, and his campaign's role in the creation and functioning of this deceptive front group."