Dan Who?

UPDATE: Kevin Hall has the story at TheIowaRepublican.  Lerette literally volunteered from the crowd, if you can call total attendance of three delegates a "crowd."

UPDATE 2: In the Register piece, the candidate himself says “This was a very last-minute and sloppy process,” and that the party should have let the seat go uncontested this year.

A few minutes of Googling later and I have no idea who Dan Lerette is, other than that he's the new Republican nominee in House District 33 after tonight's convention.

Oh, there are several Dan Lerettes, just as there are several Kevin McCarthys. One of the McCarthys is the Iowa House Democratic leader who one of the Dan Lerettes will be running against. Another Kevin McCarthy is a California Republican congressman who gives me a lot of false hits in my news alerts.

This seems like a good moment to repeat the definition of my oft used term "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.

And as absolute proof, in the four minutes since I first posted this article, it's number one on Google search for "Dan Lerette."

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!

 Since the announcement is all we have, you know as much as I do:

DES MOINES, Iowa– The Republican Party of Iowa announced today that Dan Lerette of Des Moines, was the winner of the Special Nominating Convention for Iowa House District 33, held on August 1, 2012. Lerette beat out two other candidates by winning a majority of the votes cast on the second round of balloting.

“Congratulations to Dan on winning the nomination for House District 33. I look forward to working with him over the coming months to help increase our majority in the Iowa House,” said Republican Party of Iowa Chairman A.J. Spiker.

Two other who? Though he may be a Some Dude, Lerette is already a better candidate than McCarthy's 2010 opponent, Jeremy Walters, who got tossed out of the state fair by the Polk County Republicans after saying AIDS patients deserve to die. Rumor mill said Walters was looking at another run, so even though I pick on Some Dudes, Lerette may have already performed a public service.

Like a lot of the upcoming Republican conventions, tonight's meeting was in a solidly Democratic district. The only way Lerette is likely to "increase our majority in the Iowa House" (sic) is by making McCarthy spend a little, just a little, more time at home and a little less on teh road for other candidates.