District Of The Day 3: Iowa Senate District 17, Iowa House District 33 & 34

Senate District 17
Registration: D 14655, R 6726, N 9210, total 30665, D +7929
Incumbent: Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines; holdover seat

Hatch's district keeps its solid Democratic margin, but instead of going north, it shifts south and east to the city limits (the west line is Fleur). Hatch was unopposed in 2010 and holds over to 2014. Reminder: Hatch ran in a congressional primary in 1996.

Registration: D 7146, R 3153, N 4502, total 14834, D +3993
Incumbent: Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines

My stomach still hurts from laughing at the Republican nominating convention here. TheIowaRepublican has the blow by blow but the tl;dr version is this. GOP chair A.J Spiker calls the convention, presumably to nominate fellow Paulistinian Cory Ewing. The other choice is the truly toxic Jeremy Walters, who even fellow Republicans disowned when he was McCarthy's 2010 opponent.

So THREE delegates show up, take one look at Ewing and Walters, and say Hell, no. Delegate Daniel LeRette literally volunteered from the audience, and minutes later was the Republican nominee in Iowa House District 33. Later he told the Register “This was a very last-minute and sloppy process,” and that the party should have let the seat go uncontested this year. Yes, the candidate himself said that.

So what can I say after that... McCarthy took over as Majority Leader, the number two leadership post behind Speaker Pat Murphy, in 2006 when the Democrats won the House. Murphy stood down after the 2010 loss and McCarthy moved into the top spot. Minor line changes make his home turf about 500 Democrats safer, and while LeRette may have done his party a favor by keeping the embarrassing Ewing and Walters off the ballot, he's not likely to keep McCarthy away from his statewide campaign for Speaker.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: McCarthy for State Representative-McCarthy for Iowa On July 19, Kevin McCarthy had a leaderly $156,359.97 in the bank, ready to ship off to his candidates as needed, and Daniel LeRette had no idea he was going to be running for the Iowa Legislature.

House District 34
Registration: D 7509, R 3573, N 4708, total 15831, D +3936
Incumbent: Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines

Here's another one where a hapless Republican did her party a great service. Some Dude Patti Branco defeated anti-abortion extremist, perennial candidate and self-proclaimed "Secretary General of the Army of God" Dave Leach in the GOP primary. The scary part is that she only won 58-40%.

As for the incumbent, Hunter won easily in 2008, and his 2010 opponent dropped out. His south-side turf moves north and takes in the core of downtown, up to I-235. Like McCarthy, his safe seat gets just a little better.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Patti Branco for Iowa House, Committee to Elect Bruce Hunter Considering the district's degree of difficulty, Branco's $4,584.79 on hand isn't bad. It's even comparable to Hunter's $5,845.21. But Branco's numbers are padded by one $2500 donation from an Edward Coppola of Dallas. Not sure the connection other than his Iowa tie seems to be Drake Law.

Senate District 17, House District 33 & 34: District of the Day 1 - 5/17/2011 | District of the Day 2 - 3/16/2012