Sherman running in House 77

Some Dude: Some candidates start out with certain built-in advantages: They already hold office, they have personal wealth, or they have a prominent public profile. Some Dude has none of these. If you Google Some Dude's name, you'll find very little information-probably just the news article or blog post where they were first mentioned as a possible candidate. A good hint you're dealing with a Some Dude is that they're described as an "activist" or "Tea Party member" in press accounts. Note: Some Dudes sometimes win! -- Glossary, Swing State Project (now Daily Kos Elections)

Steve Sherman of North Liberty looks pretty close to the profile. A tweet from a fellow Johnson County GOP activist pointed to a Facebook page about his candidacy in House District 77.

The Googling shows that he's a Christian author who's also done a few guest editorials that reveal an... interesting rhetorical style. He also hosted a house party for Rick Santorum back before the caucuses. The next Google search will probably include this post, so hey. The Deeth Blog, your free advertising source for Republican candidates.

Contrast that profile with the Democrat: five term county supervisor Sally Stutsman. Or even with former Tiffin mayor Royce Phillips, who said in August that House Republicans were trying to recruit him. (That effort seemed to fizzle, then Phillips lost his re-election bid in November.)

Still, it's the first time the GOP has run a candidate -- or rather, the first time a GOP candidate has run, since I'm sensing self-starter here -- in an all-Johnson seat since the 2003 Dave Jacoby special election. This is a new all-Johnson seat with a Democratic advantage of a couple thousand voters. The various pieces used to belong mostly to Jacoby, Nate Willems, and Jarad Klein. On the Senate side, it's half of Sandy Greiner's new seat, which oughta be way fun for her in 2014.

North Liberty anchors 77, which covers the whole west and south border of Johnson. It starts with Swisher and Shueyville, picks up Tiffin and Oxford, and ends up in Lone Tree, wrapping around and not including the city of Hills.

Take no offense; I was a Some Dude when I ran. And every race should be taken seriously; Brian Moore sitting in the legislature is proof enough of that.