Fish may challenge Muhlbauer

Fish and Tea

No not a British menu: Carroll County ambulance director Bill Fish says he may be challenging Rep.Dan Muhlbauer, D-Manning, in Iowa House District 12, reports KCIM radio.

The word comes from a Carroll County supervisors meeting, where Fish was looking for the okee-dokee from his boss(es): "Fish told the supervisors he would look to take a leave of absence from the EMS."

Also of interest: the relationship between Fish and the tea party.

Fish will run as a Republican and says he doesn’t want to be labeled a member of the tea party which he says isn’t a party it’s more of a conservative movement in the Republican Party. Fish believes in limited government and says he has issues with the state and their handling of some education issues and believes there are some federal issues with healthcare that he feels should be handled at the state level. Fish has spoke at Tea Party functions in Carroll and helped organize some aspects of the party in Carroll County.

The Carroll, Iowa Tea Party site lists Fish as one of six "founding members." (Heading a government agency seems like an odd career path for a tea partier.)

Muhlbauer scored the only legislative seat gain for Iowa Democrats last year, by a solid margin. The Carroll-based seat opened up with Rod Roberts' run for governor, and Republicans went hard right with "worst candidate ever" Daniel Dirkx. This created an opening for Muhlbauer, whose dad preceded him in the legislature.

Muhlbauer has cut a conservaDem path in the House. He voted with the GOP on marriage equality and nuclear power votes, and was the only Democrat to support Kim Pearson's total abortion ban bill that even most Republicans opposed.

Carroll County still dominates this swing district. Muhlbauer also keeps a more or less the same chunk of a few townships in western Crawford, up to but not including Denison. He drops the small piece of Sac (which he lost to Dirkx) to Republican Gary Worthan and instead gets all of Audubon County. The changes turn a 195 Republican registration edge into a 495 voter advantage to the Democrats.