Democrat Tom Vilsack was elected Tuesday for a second term as Iowa’s governor. He received 54 percent of the votes, with 75 percent of the precincts reporting.

“Tonight the election ends and tomorrow Iowa’s future begins,” Vilsack said in his acceptance speech from the Hotel Fort Des Moines Tuesday night.

Vilsack defeated Republican Doug Gross, Libertarian Clyde Cleveland and Green Party candidate Jay Robinson.

“There are fundamental choices Iowans face. They did not choose change tonight, but change is still forthcoming,” Gross said in his concession speech. “The issues we raised are not going away.”

Gross telephoned Vilsack to concede and to congratulate him.

“This has been a great adventure,” Gross said. “We learned much from this and I congratulated him on his victory.”

Vilsack commended Gross’ commitment to Iowa.

“Doug is a warrior who has a strong feeling for this state,” Vilsack said.

Vilsack has pledged to work with the Iowa Legislature to start a college loan program. He said this should help keep students in Iowa after graduation.

Vilsack also has plans to improve the economy. According to Daily staff reports, he wants to bring income tax rates down and better appropriate resources collected from property taxes.

With 84 percent of precincts reporting, the third party candidates Cleveland and Robinson were both short of their goal of two percent.

“The goal of the state-slated candidates is to get the 2 percent for Clyde Cleveland,” said Phillip Burgmeier, Libertarian candidate for state House District 45.

Burgmeier said if his party received the 2 percent, they would gain ballot status and would no longer need to petition for ballot representation.

“I think that the Green Party and the Green movement is one of the only political movements growing in this country now and it will continue to do so. I hope the two major parties will recognize this and will attempt to work harder to represent their constituents and understand they will need to begin working with the Green party,” said Matt Denner, co-chairman of the Story County Green Party.

The top gubernatorial race in the nation was in Florida, where Republican Jeb Bush declared victory over his Democrat opponent, Bill McBride. In all, Republicans were defending 23 governorships, and Democrats were defending 11.

Republican victories were: George Pataki from New York, Mike Johanns from Nebraska, Bob Taft from Ohio, John Rowland from Connecticut, Kenny Guinn from Nevada, Bill Owens from Colorado, Craig Benson from New Hampshire, Robert Ehrlich from Maryland and Mitt Romney from Massachusetts.

As of press time, Democrat winners were Rod Blagojevich from Illinois and Ed Rendell from Pennsylvania.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.