District Of The Day 3: Iowa Senate District 5, Iowa House District 9 & 10

Senate District 5
Registration: D 11692, R 12667, N 14557, total 38946, R +975
Incumbent: Daryl Beall, D-Ft. Dodge; holdover seat

Beall won a third term in 2010 in old district 25 with 54% and holds over. Beall loses about 900 Democrats and gets a slightly Republican district that votes on the lower turnout gubernatorial cycle. The new seat keeps Ft. Dodge and Calhoun County but loses Greene County to the south and instead goes north into Pocahontas and Humboldt.

House District 9
Registration: D 7150, R 5140, N 6458, total 18764, D +2010
Incumbent: Helen Miller, D-Ft. Dodge; rematch of 2010 race

Miller keeps her entire old district, which she's held since 2002, and adds three townships to balance the population and maintain roughly the same Democratic edge. The city of Ft. Dodge is almost the whole district here, in a phenomenon I call "the district draws itself." The redistricting law required cities and counties to be kept whole where possible, and so if one is just below district size there's not much to decide.

Miller's first tough race was in 2010. Matt Alcazar, a tea partier who had started out running as an independent before switching to the GOP line, came out of nowhere, and held Miller to 52%. Alcazar is running again, but 2010 was probably a fluke. Republicans don't seem to be targeting this seat, and Miller has received loads of positive publicity for her recent induction into Iowa's African American Hall of Fame.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Committee to Re-Elect Helen Miller, Alcazar for State Representative Miller has a solid $12,139.69 in the bank vs. Alcazar's $1,469.98.

House District 10
Registration: D 4542, R 7527, N 8099, total 20182, R +2985
Incumbent: Tom Shaw, R-Laurens, unopposed

Shaw easily (65-35%) defeated primary challenger Maison Bleam, a recent UIowa grad who was student government president. The unusual thing about this primary challenge was that unlike the others, the challenger was the moderate and the incumbent was the hard-right candidate. The primary was marked by personal attacks and whisper campaigns about Bleam.

Shaw replaced conservaDem Dolores Mertz, who barely won in 2008 and retired in 2010. He got paired up with five-term leadership favorite Dave Tjepkes, who didn't announce his retirement till January 10, one of the last paired legislators to make plans public. No love lost there, as Tjepkes endorsed Bleam.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Committee to Elect Tom Shaw

Senate District 5, House District 9 & 10: District of the Day 1 - 4/29/2011 | District of the Day 2 - 3/16/2012