PELLA, Iowa – Former Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday he would list traveling teams of business leaders and transplanted former Iowans working in other parts of the country to be the state’s “eyes and ears” in recruiting new business prospects or encouraging existing Iowa companies to expand as a way to been his ambitious job-creation goals.

To aggressively market Iowa, Branstad said he would form “IGNITE” teams throughout the state, and initiate an Iowa Network of Entrepreneurial Transplants to identify key former Iowans in targeted businesses and industries around the country and world.

“Economic development, at its core, is about identifying and creating opportunities and to do that we must aggressively sell our state,” Branstad told about two dozen supporters who gathered at Vermeer Corp. for his announcement. “It is about selling the merits of expanding their business in Iowa to existing in-state employers and touting the benefits of Iowa to prospective out-of-state companies.”

Tuesday’s announcement by Branstad and running mate, state Sen. Kim Reynolds of Osceola, followed the GOP team’s call last week for a public/private partnership, called the Iowa Partnership for Economic Prosperity, to replace the existing Iowa Department of Economic Development, which he continued to call “dysfunctional and scandal-ridden” on Tuesday.

Branstad, who is seeking to replace first-term Democratic Gov. Chet Culver in the Nov. 2 general election, said the current administration has cut the travel budget for state job recruiters and fails to engage in “hands-on leadership” in actively promoting economic development efforts. He said his approach could save the state money on travel by enlisting private business leaders in recruitment efforts.

The former governor who served from 1983 to 1989 said he would use his proposed new public-private partnership to forge teams to visit with employers across Iowa and to sell the state to prospective companies around the country and the world.

Branstad said his proposed IGNITE teams would be comprised of economic development professionals from around the state teamed with current Iowa employers who are willing to periodically give of their time. The newly instituted Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress would lead and staff the teams and would start with a focus on industries poised for growth in Iowa including advanced manufacturing, value-added agriculture, biotechnology, insurance and financial services that have been the state’s economic development targets for more than a decade.

“I learned a long time ago, if you want to make sales, you better make calls,” Branstad said. “We need a governor who will give a greater priority to job creation.” The GOP candidate has pledged to create 200,000 jobs in the next five years as part of his 2010 campaign platform.

Culver/Judge campaign officials said Branstad’s plans would remove oversight and transparency mechanisms at the Department of Economic Developments, while “dusting off” old ideas that have been tried in other states with mixed results. Ali Glisson, Culver/Judge campaign communications director said it appeared Branstad decided to “double down on his failed policy idea to eliminate the Department of Economic Development” with Tuesday’s announcement.

“Terry Branstad, again, proposes something that the Department of Economic Development already does. The Iowa Innovation Council, created by Gov. Chet Culver, is described by the governor’s office as ‘a group of volunteer private business leaders who will work to help ensure Iowa is competitive in the global business economy’ and already does what Branstad wants these teams to do. Bottom line: this isn’t a new idea either, Terry,” Glisson said in a statement.

“Last week, Branstad brushed the dust off an old Doug Gross idea that has failed around the country. Today, he says he has a new idea when it turns out that Governor Chet Culver, his opponent, has already done,” she added.

“The Branstad campaign still has yet to explain to Iowans how eliminating the Department of Economic Development and all of the oversight and transparency mechanisms that go with it will help create new jobs.”