New leadership may be in the works for Iowa Republicans following last night's failure to regain control of the Iowa Legislature, according to a top legislative Democrat.

"The Republican Party is expected to name a new state chair," Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said this morning during a live online chat on DesMoinesRegister.com. "And my Republican sources are saying that Senator Wieck, the Senate Minority leader, and Rep. Rants, the House Minority Leader, will face leadership challenges after losing seats last night."  

Rants declined to discuss his own fate, but said: "I think our party needs to continually re-evaluate how we approach elections and the early voting. The election day has stretched from 24 hours to 24 days. I will credit the Democrats in their ability to get low propensity voters in the bank before they turn loose the negative ads. The R's have to find a way to replicate it. We've prided ourselves for too long on a 72-hour turnout program, that wins on election day, but doesn't bank enough votes beforehand."

Labels: 2008_election