Following up on this post, I’ve been looking through the list of 1,040 county co-chairs for Governor Terry Branstad’s re-election campaign. Many former state lawmakers and most of the current Republicans in the Iowa legislature signed on in their home counties. I would expect all the sitting GOP legislators to cooperate with the Branstad campaign, because down-ticket candidates stand to benefit from a strong showing for the governor next November. However, four of the 24 Iowa Senate Republicans and fourteen of the 53 Iowa House Republicans have not signed on.

Follow me after the jump for details on which legislators signed on as Branstad-Reynolds volunteers and which are conspicuously absent. I have a few theories about why some people ended up in each group, but some choices surprised me.

UPDATE: Some of the absent names may simply have been unable to respond to the governor’s campaign in time to be included in today’s release. For example, Iowa House Majority Whip Chris Hagenow contacted me to clarify that he is co-chairing the Branstad-Reynolds campaign. I will continue to update this post as needed.

Of the 24 current Iowa Senate Republicans, the following twenty are county co-chairs for the Branstad campaign:

Dan Zumbach

Tim Kapucian

Mike Breitbach

Roby Smith

Mark Chelgren

Sandy Greiner

Amy Sinclair

Jake Chapman

Charles Schneider

Joni Ernst

Ken Rozenboom

Jack Whitver

Jerry Behn

Bill Dix

Mark Segebart

David Johnson

Nancy Boettger

Randy Feenstra

Bill Anderson

Hubert Houser

These four Senate Republicans did not sign up:

Kent Sorenson

Dennis Guth

Rick Bertrand

Brad Zaun

Given Sorenson’s recent disgrace, I wouldn’t blame the Branstad campaign for not wanting to associate themselves with him. But in any event, Sorenson was a huge Bob Vander Plaats backer during the 2010 GOP primary. He famously vowed never to vote for Branstad, even in a general election. Sorenson is also close to other Iowa Republicans who haven’t been in the governor’s fan club, such as talk radio host Steve Deace and the Ron Paul faction in the Iowa GOP leadership.

Dennis Guth was first elected to the Iowa Senate in 2012, having defeated a more mainstream Republican in the primary. He’s one of the more “out there” social conservatives in the legislature.

Rick Bertrand is an ambitious guy, already Senate minority whip in his first term. He’s also up for re-election next year in a district Democrats will target. I was surprised not to see him on the Branstad-Reynolds list. No idea what is going on there. He is among a group of very socially conservative Senate Republicans, but so are a bunch of people who are county co-chairs.

Brad Zaun is among the longest-serving Iowa Senate Republicans and was the GOP nominee in the third Congressional district in 2010. Maybe he felt Branstad wasn’t sufficiently supportive of his unsuccessful campaign against Representative Leonard Boswell, or maybe he has other reasons not to be a big fan of the Branstad administration. Earlier this year Zaun criticized the habit of governors naming big campaign donors to the state Board of Regents, but he didn’t follow through on his threat to vote against all of Branstad’s nominees.

Of the 53 current Iowa House Republicans, the following 39 40 (see update below) are county co-chairs for the Branstad campaign:

Dawn Pettengill

Walt Rogers

Sandy Salmon

Lee Hein

Quentin Stanerson

Dean Fisher

Larry Sheets

Bobby Kaufmann

Dave Heaton

Tom Sands

Guy Vander Linden

Linda Miller

Jarad Klein

Clel Baudler

Jack Drake

Rob Taylor

Ralph Watts

Peter Cownie

Jake Highfill

Greg Forristall

Mary Ann Hanusa

Mark Brandenburg

Cecil Dolecheck

Julian Garrett

Chip Baltimore

Gary Worthan

Pat Grassley

Dan Huseman

Megan Hess

Jeff Smith

Linda Upmeyer

Henry Rayhons

Matt Windschitl

Dwayne Alons

Rob Bacon

Dave Deyoe

Tedd Gassman

Ron Jorgensen

Kraig Paulsen

UPDATE: Chris Hagenow provided this comment: “I was out late last week, and didn’t reply in time for the release, but I am on the list.”

I might have guessed that two of the state representatives named above would opt out. Alons was a prominent Vander Plaats supporter during the 2010 gubernatorial primary. He even put Vander Plaats’ name in nomination for lieutenant governor during the 2010 Iowa GOP state convention.

I also wouldn’t have picked Gassman as a Branstad-Reynolds team player, because he is pretty far out there and marches to his own (very odd) drum. But he has agreed to lend a hand in Winnebago County, where Branstad’s home town of Forest City is located.

The following fourteen thirteen Iowa House Republicans are not on the Branstad co-chair list, at this writing:

Mark Lofgren

Chris Hagenow (see update above)

Steve Olson

Joel Fry

Kevin Koester

John Landon

Chuck Soderberg

David Maxwell

Mark Costello

Josh Byrnes

Brian Moore

Jason Schultz

Tom Shaw

Greg Heartsill

Let’s work from most surprising to least surprising opt-outs.

Lofgren is leaving the Iowa House to run for Congress in the second district. I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t want to work closely with the governor’s campaign, which will have far more resources for GOTV than Lofgren will ever have. Perhaps there’s some backstory here. Branstad may be privately recruiting another candidate in IA-02 or encouraging Iowa Department of Public Health Director Mariannette Miller-Meeks to challenge Dave Loebsack for the third time.

Chris Hagenow, Steve Olson, and Joel Fry are all on the Iowa House Republican leadership team. I would expect anyone in their position to lend a hand to the governor’s re-election bid. Don’t know what’s going on there. UPDATE: Hagenow is co-chairing the campaign; Olson and Fry may be in the same situation–willing to co-chair but unavailable to confirm when first contacted by the Branstad campaign.

Kevin Koester and John Landon both represent parts of Republican-leaning Ankeny. I can’t think of any obvious reason they wouldn’t sign up to help the Branstad-Reynolds campaign. Landon won the GOP nomination in his district through a bit of intrigue, and maybe there’s some reason he is not on good terms with the governor’s team. (For instance, people in Branstad’s circle may have been backing a different candidate.)

Similarly, I am not aware of any bad blood between Branstad’s people and Chuck Soderberg, Mark Costello, or David Maxwell.

Josh Byrnes and Brian Moore both represent House districts that voted for Barack Obama. Both also backed the Democratic position on Medicaid expansion. So naturally, they wouldn’t be the most enthusiastic Branstad backers in the House GOP caucus.

Jason Schultz, Tom Shaw, and Greg Heartsill are among the most socially conservative state lawmakers. They co-sponsored the most extreme version of the “personhood” bill, as well as supporting a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. They were among a group of lawmakers who threatened to withhold funding from Des Moines Area Community College over co-sponsoring the 8th Annual Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth–but then again, so were several state representatives who are on Branstad’s list of co-chairs.

Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread.