Saturday, April 06, 2013

Mathis Out - Will Best Woman Please Step In

Well this sucks:
Mathis, a proven vote winner in a swing seat and an ex-TV anchor with 100% name ID, was by far the first choice of Democratic insiders for the congressional seat Bruce Braley is vacating for his Senate bid.

I can't overstate how big a deal it is to the Iowa Democratic base that we are in a two-state club with Mississippi in never sending a woman to Congress to a governorship. It's a big enough deal that some folks wanted to see Christie Vilsack challenge Dave Loebsack in a primary, until she was steered into the 4th CD race against Steve King.

Former Senator Staci Appel is looking at running in the 3rd District, and would be a good get, but that's an uphill fight against incumbent Tom Latham.

There was and is a strong sense among party activists (including me) that the open 1st CD is the best chance Iowa has at sending a woman to Congress. But with Mathis out, so far It's Pat, as in Patrick, Murphy.

With Mathis out, there's an opportunity for another woman. Any thoughts who? I looked at the other female legislators in the 1st CD, along with the metro county supervisors (Langston has been mentioned).


Which IA-01 Democratic Woman should run for Congress?
Lu Barron, Linn County supervisor
Rep. Deb Berry, Waterloo
Rep. Nancy Dunkel, Dyersville
Sen. Pam Jochum, Dubuque
Rep. Anesa Kajtazovic, Waterloo
Linda Langston, Linn County supervisor
Linda Laylin, Black Hawk County supervisor
Rep. Patti Ruff, McGregor
Rep. Kirsten Running Marquardt, Cedar Rapids
Sen. Mary Jo Wilhelm, Cresco
Other woman (please comment)
Reject the Has To Be A Woman premise
Pat Murphy's OK by me
Rand Paul

  
Free polls from Pollhost.com
Couple disclaimers. Jochum has said she's NOT running for the seat but may consider another office; I put her back in just to see. And Rand Paul? That's just my control group for poll spam.

No comments: