Friday, March 16, 2012

District Of The Day Reboot: Iowa Senate District 9, Iowa House District 17 & 18

Senate District 9
Registration: D 11168, R 14770, N 14433, total 40393, R +3602
Incumbent: Nancy Boettger, R-Harlan (James Seymour, R-Woodbine, retiring)

Any excitement we might have seen here ended with Seymour's retirement, and Boettger holds over till `14. She owns a family farm based bed and breakfast and immediately after Map Day said she wasn't moving, even though the new district is more Seymour's than hers. She keeps only her home county, Shelby, and pick up Harrison, Monona, Ida, and most of Crawford from Seymour plus some leftover rural bits of east Woodbury. Harrison County was in Boettger's first district when she was elected in 1994. She last saw an opponent in 2002.

Campaign finance report: Nancy Boettger for State Senate Committee

The district's two House members aren't paired, and don't have to move, but both will need to get to know some new constituents.

House District 17
Registration: D 5722, R 7797, N 7353, total 20885, R +2075
Incumbent: Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley

The Legislature's leading Gun Guy won the seat by knocking off Paul Wilderdyke in a 2006 primary challenge from the right. He easily shot down (heh) a couple Democratic challenges, then went unopposed in 2010. So far he's unopposed this year as well.


Windschitl gets a lot of different turf but gains a few hundred Republicans. The old seat had all of Harrison County, most of Monona, and a little of rural north Pottawattamie. This map, he loses all of PottCo and eastern Harrison, but gets all of Monona and Ida, along with bits of rural Woodbury. The net effect is a gain of maybe 600 Republicans.

Campaign finance reports: Win with Windschitl

House District 18
Registration: D 5446, R 6973, N 7080, total 19508, R +1527
Incumbent: Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig; contested Democratic primary

Call this one a sleeper race: Democrats gave Schultz a bye in 2008 and 2010,so there's no general election track record. But this cycle two Democrats have jumped in, so this will be his first general election test.

Schultz won the seat in a contested 2008 primary, where he was seen as the more conservative candidate. (Incumbent Clarence Hoffman had been squeezed out by Iowans For Tax Relief.) The district is centered on Denison and western Crawford County. It used to go north into Ida, now it goes south and gets all of Shelby County. The line changes cost Schultz about 300 Republicans.


Democrat Kasey Friedrichsen offers a symbolically powerful argument against Team Branstad 5.0:
Friedrichsen, 24, worked at an the Denison unemployment office until  the office was one of 36 that closed after Gov. Terry Branstad vetoed a legislative allocation to keep the offices open. Schultz, R-Schleswig, voted for a budget to keep the unemployment office but later declined to challenge the governor’s veto.
Friedrichsen also has a background dating back to high-school on anti-smoking issues (frankly, not my favorite "progressive" cause). The other Democrat, Dunlap Mayor Bernard Murphy, joined the race in December.

Campaign finance reports: Friends of Jason Schultz, Friedrichsen for State Representative

Original post 5/05/2011 Statewide Map: Front | Back (with City Insets) | Old Senate, House

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