With the holidays behind us, Central Iowa can look forward to two events speeding toward us: the caucuses and the selection of a new president for the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

Just as there are nine candidates vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge President George W. Bush, there is no shortage of names being tossed around as potential successors to Teresa Wahlert, who has announced her intention to depart Jan. 30.

At this stage in the process, of course, having more names is better than fewer. And it remains an open question whether the Partnership’s board, led by outgoing Chairman Steven Zumbach and incoming Chairman J. Barry Griswell, will look outside Central Iowa in the search.  

There are clear benefits to expanding the search, including widening the candidate pool. We think the time and expense such a search entails would outweigh any gains. Realistically, it could take six months to find and get an out-of-towner here. Then there’s the additional time involved for the new president to learn the community.

It strikes us that Zumbach, an Iowa native, and Griswell, a Central Iowa adoptee who has become more vocal about social issues over the past year, would prefer someone who is intimately familiar with Greater Des Moines.

As to the job itself, it’s no wonder why it would attract candidates. It pays somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars a year. More important, it has proven to be a solid stepping stone to more prominent jobs. Former Partnership President Michael Blouin, after all, became director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development when he left a year ago. Wahlert is moving over to run Marvin Pomerantz’s MidAmerica Group Ltd. empire.

That said, any successor has big shoes to fill. Since the Partnership’s formation, Des Moines has taken great strides forward. Most recently under Wahlert’s watch, it has strengthened its finances and streamlined its operations.

Bigger tasks lie ahead, including further efforts to quell disputes between Des Moines and its suburbs and to ensure that the state reinvests our tax dollars back into the Golden Circle. The coming year will likely see more Central Iowa firms sold to outsiders, and it will be the Partnership’s responsibility, in part, to persuade the new owners to maintain their investments here.

In the near term, January will be a busy month for the organization. The national media began arriving over the weekend, and it will be the Partnership’s job to act as their host during the next two weeks. There are the Project Destiny recommendations to prioritize, and there is the annual dinner where Zumbach will formally pass the gavel to Griswell.

It is a chance to generate some strong enthusiasm for Central Iowa, and we hope the Partnership uses January’s momentum to push it forward well into 2004.