Friday, March 16, 2012

District Of The Day Reboot: Iowa Senate District 25, Iowa House District 49 & 50

Senate District 25
Registration: D 9633, R 16456, N 16536, total 42659, R +6823
Incumbent: Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock; holdover seat (Rob Bacon, R-Maxwell, moving and running in House 48)

Bill Dix, an 800 pound gorilla with higher ambitions, is the one who stays, even though more of this turf was Bacon's. Half the district is Hardin and Grundy counties, which neither had before.

Dix and Bacon both knocked off Democratic incumbents in 2010, when their districts didn't even border each other. Dix, who defeated Bill Heckroth, keeps only part of Butler County: Aplington, Parkersburg, New Hartford and his Shell Rock home. He used to go east to Bremer, most of Fayette, and north rural Black Hawk. A lot of that turf to the east is in new Senate 32, now a swingy district held by Democrat Brian Schoenjahn.

Dix gave up his House seat to run Congress in 2006 when Jim Nussle retired, but lost in the primary. Unfortunately for Dix, this area is NOT in Bruce Braley's district; it's in that little easternmost extension of Steve King's.

Campaign finance reports: Friends for Dix

House District 49
Registration: D 5104, R 7495, N 8541, total 21159, R +2391
Incumbent: Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada; contested Democratic primary

Deyoe was a late starting candidate in 2006, and the only Republican winner in the game of musical chairs that started with Stu Iverson dropping out of his race after being deposed as Senate leader. He won a solid 62% in 2010 against 2006 congressional candidate Selden Spencer (the one the entire Iowa lefty blogosphere kept talking up while ignoring Dave Loebsack).

This year two Democrats are running: Kevin Ericson of Maxwell and Garland Bridges of Eldora.

Deyoe is the only legislator in the neighborhood who got lucky in redistricting. This remains a Nevada and rural Story based district, with a couple townships shifting and Story City staying. He sheds southeast Hamilton County and gets the southern half of Hardin, with little impact on the party balance.

Campaign finance reports: Deyoe for House

House District 50
Registration: D 4529, R 8961, N 7995, total 21500, R +4432
Incumbents: Annette Sweeney, R-Alden and Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford.

Every redistricting election cycle has one pairup that just doesn't get worked out. In 1992 it was Bill Brand and Jane Svoboda; ten years ago it was Rick Larkin and Phil Wise. This time, it's Annette Sweeney and Pat Grassley.

Since the day Pat Grassley announced for the legislature in 2006, when Bill Dix left to run for Congress, I've been saying The Masterplan is for him to take over for Grandpa in 2016. No one ever denies this. If he comes out of this map alive, he turns the magic Senator age of 30 during the next term, in 2013. He shared the ballot with Grandpa for the first time in 2010, and no Democrat was up for that challenge.

Sweeney was first elected in 2008. Democrat Tim Hoy had given Polly Granzow a scare in 2006, and Granzow retired. Hoy tried again but Sweeney won by 1000 votes, then scored a two to one win in 2010.

The old Sweeney and Grassley districts met at a corner. Grassley had all of Butler, then went east into Bremer to pick up Waverly. Sweeney's old 44th district had all of Hardin (this map has just the north half), then went south to pick up rural Marshall. Grundy County is new to both.

This is also playing out as a proxy war. Grandpa is all in for grandson, bringing Rick Perry in for a fund raiser right when the Texan was at the peak of his ill-fated run. GOP heavy hitter Bruce Rastetter is a longtime friend of Sweeney's.

Sweeney for State House had $30,392 cash on hand January 19, to Citizens for Pat Grassley's $39,798.

Whoever wins gets a more Republican district than they had before, and no Democrats are anywhere on the radar.


Original post 5/27/2011 Statewide Map: Front | Back (with City Insets) | Old Senate, House

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