If former Gov. Terry Branstad joins the crowded field seeking the Republican nomination for governor, he would bring name recognition and experience his opponents can’t match. Even so, his opponents say they’re ready to take him on.

Branstad, who lives in Lake Mills, was governor for 16 years and is well known by Iowans, but of the candidates vying for the GOP nod to run in 2010, only Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, of Chariton, said he’d drop out if Branstad joined the race to face Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.

“When he gets in, I will drop out,” McKinley said.

More typical were comments by candidates such as Rep. Christopher Rants, a former state House speaker. He’s noted that when Branstad occupied the governor’s mansion, Terrace Hill, he supported some tax increases and used accounting methods that drew criticism.

“If we believe that fiscal mismanagement is one of the issues to push Culver out of Terrace Hill, I don’t think Terry Branstad is the guy to make that argument,” said Rants, who plans to stay in the race.

Rants, 42, said many Republicans have forgotten Branstad’s very public battle with then-auditor Richard Johnson, who accused the governor of using phony accounting to cover a state budget deficit.

Rep. Rod Roberts also didn’t seem worried by competition from the four-term governor, who left office in 1998.