Dick Taylor to leave Iowa House

Special election soon in Iowa House 33

We'll see another special election before the Iowa Legislature convenes in January as Cedar Rapids Democrat Dick Taylor announces his retirement.

Dick Taylor (always first name to differentiate from fellow Democrat Todd Taylor, who represents the next district over) first won the seat in an early 2000 special election that was legendary in election circles; the Jan. 4 date made the voter registration deadline Christmas Day and required the Linn County Auditor to be open New Year's Day as well. That one was to replace current Cedar Rapids mayor Kay Halloran (then known as Chapman), who served three years in her second stint in the legislature. Before that it belonged to the late Phil Brammer for seven terms (1982-96).

In 2001, redistricting got Dick tripled-up with Republicans Jeff Elgin and Chuck Larson. A lot of folks expected Dick, a minority party freshman at roughly age 70, to step down. But he moved a few blocks and represented a lot of the same turf. The new district was solidly Democratic and Dick was often unopposed. In 2008 he was close to 70 percent against Republican Kathy Potts (now running for city council).

So the big drama may be the Democratic nomination rather than the election itself. But weird things happen in specials...