CHICAGO -- The incumbent governor of Iowa and a former governor of South Dakota won the Republican gubernatorial nominations in their states on Tuesday.
In search of his fourth term in Iowa's highest post, Gov. Terry Branstad, 47, defeated U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy with about 5,000 votes to spare according to Tim Waddell, deputy for election and public affirs in the office of Iowa's secretary of state.
The hotly contested race set a record for voter participation in a Republican gubernatorial primary by attracting 300,000 citizens to the polls, Waddell said.
Grandy, 45, chose to run for governor nor instead of seeking a fifth term as a congressman. Before entering politics, Grandy portrayed Gopher Smith in the television series "The Love Boat."
In the Nov. 8 general election, Brandstad will face state Attorney General Bonnie Campbell, 46, who won the Democratic primary. Campbell won about 80% of the vote, defeating Bill Reichardt, a 63-year-old Des Moines businessman, Waddell said.
Waddell said the final primary results wold be compiled by next week.
In South Dakota, former Gove. William Janklow won the Republican bid with 45% of the vote, defeating incumbent Govt. Walter Miller, who had 46% of the vote, according to a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office.
Janklow, 53, was a two-term governor between 1979 and 1987. The South Dakota Constitution limits a governor to two consecutive terms. If Janklow is elected in November, he would be the state's first governor to serve more than two terms.
In the November election, Janklow will face Jim Beddow, 52, who won the Democratic primary, defeating Red Allen, a state public utilities commissioner and Jim Burg, a construction worker. Beddow resigned as president of Dakota Wesleyan University of Mitchell, S.D., to run for governor.
Janelle Toman, Miller's press secretary, said the 68-year-old governor will probably be going back to his ranch in Meade County after his term expires in December.
"He had a life before politics and will have a life after," Toman said.
Miller, a former lieutenant governor, became South Dakota's governor last year after Gov. George Mickelson was killed in a airplane crash.
