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We’re still disappointed that the Republican Party of Iowa is reaching back into the past for its candidate for governor. But, given the choices they had last week, we’re glad that primary voters chose the centrist, business-oriented option over the evangelical ones.

Terry Branstad will make a strong appeal to business interests in his campaign as the Republican candidate. He has said he wants to reduce the corporate income tax rate from 12 percent to 6 percent. He proposes cutting commercial property taxes by lowering the assessment to about 65 percent of value from the current 100 percent.

Such changes have to sound great to business owners, but of course nothing is ever that simple.

It’s estimated that Branstad’s corporate income tax proposal would cost the state treasury about $80 million a year. Would his approach spark enough job growth to make up the difference in income taxes? There’s only one way to find out, and it would require cooperation from the Democrats.

There’s no way an Iowa governor can create 200,000 new jobs in five years, as Branstad claims he can do. Still, voters should vote for the candidate whose ideas they favor. That’s how political landscapes, and economies, change over time.

Gov. Chet Culver has gradually spiraled downward to a place where he just doesn’t get much respect. But he, like all other sitting governors, found himself in a terribly difficult situation through little fault of his own.

Add a global economic meltdown to the natural disasters that hit our state in 2008, and it’s remarkable that we’re doing as well as we are. An unemployment rate of 6.7 percent isn’t good, but it isn’t bad for a low point.

We don’t expect great debates between these two, but we do hope that some event or some point of contention will make the choice clearer by November. Right now, it’s hard to get excited about voting for either one.