Gov. Terry Branstad’s bold endorsement of Mitt Romney last Tuesday — an hour or so before Rick Santorum dropped out — was in a press release on the governor’s official letterhead. The contact was “Governor’s Office, 515-725-3518.”

That would seem to violate Iowa’s law against using public money for political purposes.

It’s pretty clear.

Except for one thing.

Under Iowa law, as interpreted by the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, Mitt Romney is not a candidate.

Huh?

The Iowa Code defines “political purpose” as “the express advocacy of a candidate or ballot issue.” OK, that seems clear. And the Code defines “candidate” as “any individual who has taken affirmative action to seek nomination or election to a public office.” OK, that’s still clear. But wait. The Code then describes “public office” as “any state, county, city, or school office filled by election.”

“In other words,” Megan Tooker, the executive director and legal counsel for the Board, wrote in a letter dismissing a similar complaint against Secretary of State Matt Schultz last year, “the term ‘candidate’ does not include an individual running for federal office.”

So this means, asks a lawyer who once had a top political job in Iowa, “you can put a sign across City Hall (with taxpayer dollars) endorsing Obama?

“Engage in campaign activities during official time for Romney?

“Send out fund-raising emails for Harkin?

“Or send advocacy literature home with students for King?”

And he asks:

“How about the more glaring loophole — political purposes only applies to candidates and ballot issues, under the board’s interpretation. So Iowa law would not prohibit solicitation of contributions to a political party using public resources?

“Astounding.”

Meantime, shortly after Branstad’s announcement, Skinny got this email from an old pal:

“This just in: DES MOINES — Gov. Terry Branstad has followed up his endorsement of Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination with the release of his NCAA basketball brackets in which he picks Kentucky to beat Kansas for the championship. Aide Tim Albrecht pointed that that makes the governor three for three when you count his March selection of the New York Giants to win the Super Bowl.”

The Governor is expected to announce shortly his prediction for the 2012 Masters golf tournament. ...

The Governor probably isn’t ready yet to predict who will be the new coach of the women’s basketball team at Drake. But Skinny hears three names: Lisa Stone, the former coach who left for the University of Wisconsin and then got fired after eight seasons; Sam Powell, the very successful coach at East High, and Jennie Lillis, the former Dowling and Iowa star who now is an assistant at Colorado. Stay tuned. ...

Line of the week. Public television commentator Mark Shields gave a terrific talk at Simpson College last Wednesday night — funny, insightful, educational — and at one point he was saying how Ross Perot had fundamentally changed politics with his run for the presidency. But the problem with Perot, Shields deadpanned, was that “his tray table wasn’t always in its full upright position.” ...

So what will be the “mutually acceptable” terms the School Board and outgoing superintendent Nancy Sebring must agree on so she can get out of her one-sided contract here and become superintendent in Omaha?

“Good question,” says Phil Roeder, a former school board member who now is director of community relations for the Des Moines public schools. “The board does need to formally accept her resignation, which will likely happen at the next meeting they hold to discuss the superintendent search process.” That meeting is not yet scheduled.

But it probably will be the equivalent of a simple good-bye and good luck, which is how the board handled it when Eric Witherspoon resigned in 2006 to become superintendent in Evanston, Ill. If the district had broken its end of the “contract” with Sebring, it would owe her more than a half-million dollars. ...

Is Sebring feeding quotes to Gloria Gibson, the provost at the University of Northern Iowa? “I love working here and want to continue to pursue all our goals,” Sebring told The Register a year ago after dropping out of the running for the top school post in Boulder, Colo. Then, of course, she applied for the job in Omaha, and she got it.

Gibson, who has been provost at UNI for three years, applied for the chancellorship at the University of Southern Illinois in Edwardsville earlier this year. She was one of four finalists, but she dropped out the other day. “There is much work to be accomplished here at UNI,” she told the student newspaper.

Two things that usually are true: 1. When a finalist drops out of the running for a job in academe, it’s usually because she has gotten the word she probably won’t be picked. 2. When a person drops out and then says she still has much work to do at her home school, it usually means “I want out of here as soon as I can find something else.” So look for Gibson to leave as soon as possible.

“When she was hired, the conventional wisdom was that she was on the hunt for a presidency and would be gone in three years...four tops,” says a guy who was close to the process at UNI. “It’s been three years, so no one was surprised to see her out looking. Why she pulled out? Well, the reason she gave surely sucks.” This person adds that “many on campus say she desperately wants out — and they hope she succeeds in her search for a presidency.”

Gibson is closely linked to President Ben Allen’s recent proposals to right the financial ship at UNI by closing departments, cutting programs, and laying off teachers. She conducted many of the meetings with the faculty to discuss the strategic plan, and some of the faculty blame her for their loss of security — and maybe their loss of jobs. ...

Left over from the cutting-room floor last week: Those remaining at The Des Moines Register have been told there probably will be no further furloughs at the newspaper this year. Everyone had to take a week off without pay in the first quarter, but a memo from the president of Gannett’s community newspaper division said “there is good news to share.” There will be no furloughs in the second quarter, Bob Dickey said, and “we do not foresee any additional furloughs for the rest of 2012.” The memo came out at the same time that USA Today — a Gannett paper but not part of the community division — was furloughing workers. ...

Whether he meant to or not, Board of Regents President Craig Lang threw down the gauntlet last week when he publicly complained about the aid the state gives to needy Iowans attending non-Regents colleges in Iowa. “Over the last three years, $150 million went to students that go to colleges besides our public schools,” he told the Register. “The same money isn’t available to our public universities, which the people of Iowa own.”

The tuition-grant program was started in 1971, and it now provides around $46 million a year in scholarship aid. Around 17,000 young people are getting the aid. The maximum award is $3,520 a year, and the average, according to the Legislative Service Agency, is $2,514 a year. In contrast, the subsidy is at least twice that for the 39,302 resident Iowans — rich and poor — who are undergraduates at the three Regents universities, according to LSA figures.

State university officials have periodically grumbled about the subsidy to students who don’t go to their schools, but it was always half-hearted and private. By going public, Lang has infuriated officials and fans of the 40 or so private colleges in the state, and because so many legislators have a school in their district the colleges are a powerful political force. What’s more, the Association of Private Colleges and Universities is run by Gary Steinke, who used to be the executive director of the Board of Regents and who himself is a political force.

“Steinke has a golden gut for politics,” a top state politician told a Regents newcomer a decade ago. “Listen to him.”

In an email to the presidents of the 29 schools in his association, Steinke last week called Lang’s quote “a very serious public comment with very serious implications [and]...can only be interpreted as a direct threat to the” tuition-grant appropriations. “We must be prepared to engage deeper into the legislative process before our students become disadvantaged because of greed and sector warfare,” he added.

In other words, the gloves are off.

The outcome, of course, is unclear, but Lang’s timing is awful. His broadside against the private colleges and, by extension, the legislators that authorize the grants comes at a time the Regents are under scrutiny for annually diverting 20 percent or so of their tuition money — about $160 million — into scholarships for other students, meaning that Iowans are borrowing money that the university in effect doles out to others, resident and nonresident, rich and poor. Don’t be surprised if State Auditor Dave Vaudt or Attorney General Tom Miller is asked to step in.

No one has ever said Lang had a golden gut for politics. CV