District Of The Day 3: Iowa Senate District 35, Iowa House District 69 & 70

Senate District 35
Registration: D 14725, R 8504, N 13535, total 36801, D +6221
Incumbent: Wally Horn, D-Cedar Rapids; holdover seat

Just to calm you down after that Marion post, here's some dull southwest Cedar Rapids contests.

Horn is Iowa's senior legislator, elected to the House in 1972 and moving over to the Senate after a decade. Wally hasn't even seen an opponent since 1990, and the last excitement of any sort was in 1991 when he and fellow Democrat Rich Running were paired (Running made a Senate to House switch). Horn will hold over till 2014, when he'll be 80.

House District 69
Registration: D 6907, R 3651, N 6595, total 17171, D +3256
Incumbent: Kirsten Running-Marquardt, D-Cedar Rapids, unopposed

Running-Marquardt won this seat easily in a late 2009 special election when Dick Taylor resigned. Her father had served much of the same area in the House and Senate, and Kirsten had earned her own stripes with a decade in the trenches of campaign and labor staffing. She had a rematch with her special election opponent in the 2010 general, winning with over 63%.

Kirsten's old seat was virtually all in Cedar Rapids. The new district expands outward south and west to the Johnson and Benton County lines, taking in Fairfax and the Linn County piece of Walford. The lines move west through midtown. Kirsten loses the core of downtown, Coe, and the Czech Village area. The changes cut about 900 voters off of Running-Marquardt's Democratic registration edge, but this remains solid Democratic turf.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Iowans for Kirsten Running-Marquardt

House District 70
Registration: D 7818, R 4853, N 6940, total 19630, D +2965
Incumbent: Todd Taylor, D-Cedar Rapids

Todd Taylor was the younger but senior Taylor in the House when he served with Dick Taylor. Todd picked this seat in a 1995 special when Kirsten's dad Rich Running stepped down. Taylor's 58% in 2010 was probably the low mark for Democrats.

Sometimes Taylor gets an opponent and this is one of those times. Republicans called a late convention and chose business owner Lance Lefebure. His business produces high-end GPS equipment designed for ag use, and he seems like he might have been a decent candidate for a more rural seat.

Taylor's turf does stretch out into the county for the first time, but it's still essentially an urban Cedar Rapids seat. Taylor keeps the flood-ravaged Time Check area; the line between his district and Running-Marquardt's moves south and gets smoother, mostly following 16th Avenue SW. There's almost no change in the district's solid Democratic edge.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Taylor for Representative

Senate District 35, House District 69 & 70: District of the Day 1 - 6/10/2011 | District of the Day 2 - 3/16/2012