District Of The Day 3: Iowa Senate District 25, Iowa House District 49 & 50

Senate District 25
Registration: D 8580, R 16159, N 14131, total 38904, R +7579
Incumbent: Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock; holdover seat

More of this turf was Bacon's than Dix's, yet it was the ambitious Dix who got to stay while Bacon went Senate to House. Half the district is Hardin and Grundy counties, which neither had before.

Dix defeated Bill Heckroth in 2010 to make a comeback after a four year hiatus caused by a congressional primary loss.

House District 49
Registration: D 4554, R 7014, N 7388, total 18974, R +2460
Incumbent: Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada

This remains a Nevada and rural Story based district, with a couple townships shifting and Story City staying. Deyoe sheds southeast Hamilton County and gets the southern half of Hardin, with little impact on the party balance.

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.

In a battle of Some Dudes, Democrat Kevin Ericson of Maxwell was a 78-22% primary winner over Garland Bridges of Eldora.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Deyoe for House, Ericson for progress Deyoe has a healthy $21,524.68 on hand and raised $5570 in the post-primary report. Ericson has $1,259.83 and raised just $495, indicating this one's on nobody's to-watch list.

House District 50
Registration: D 4026, R 9145, N 6743, total 19930, R +5119
Incumbent: Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, unopposed

The clash of the titans and surrogate war between Grandpa Grassley and rainmaker Bruce Rastetter wasn't as close as we expected. Grassley won with a relatively big margin, 61-39%, disappointing us Democrats who would like to have seen the future US Senate successor derailed. Look for Sweeney to show up somewhere in the Branstad administration soon.

This is the ninth most Republican seat in the state, so expect another spirited primary and maybe a Sweeney comeback when it opens up in 2016. I keep saying this stuff and no one ever denies it.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Citizens for Pat Grassley Pat raised $48,716.18 in the June-July period. Grandpa helped some. Look for Pat to share some and travel a bit to help other folks out and collect some chits for later.

Senate District 25, House District 49 & 50: District of the Day 1 - 5/27/2011 | District of the Day 2 - 3/16/2012