Day 9: Dandekar files, surprisingly as a Democrat

Swati Dandekar does not get my sense of humor:

@Swati_Dandekar which party?
— John Deeth (@johndeeth) March 6, 2014

@johndeeth The Secretary of State only updates once per day, but as of last night, no candidates in either party had filed.
— Swati Dandekar (@Swati_Dandekar) March 6, 2014

So I had to wait for the list to get posted to see that, in fact, Dandekar had filed as a Democrat in the 1st CD. That's the party she was in for 3/4 of a Senate term, before resigning and risking Senate control to take a six figure job from the Republican governor.

Filing as a Dem may have been a strategic error for Dandekar. With Walt Rogers dropped out, she may have had a decent shot at the Republican nomination.

Speaking of Rogers, he has dropped back into his House 60 race but that didn't stop fellow Republican Jason Welch, who announced in December, from filing today. Welch also ran a Some Dude campaign for the old 3rd CD in 2010, when he lived in Knoxville.

Also in Black Hawk County, Republican veteran Nathan Bolton filed in House 61, the seat  Anesa Kajtazovic is leaving for her congressional race. Unlike Dandekar she's a real Democrat and unlike Rogers, she's staying in that race.

Democrat Dave Grussing of Armstrong filed in House District 7. He'll challenge GOP freshman Tedd Gassman, who narrowly knocked off Dem John Wittneben in 2012.

Both candidates file in Marion-based House 68. Freshman Democrat Daniel Lundby, who knocked off a GOP incumbent in 2012, will face Republican Ken Rizer.

Democratic Senator Tod Bowman is making his first re-election run on much-changed turf in Senate 29. He keeps his Maquoketa base but instead of going south into Clinton he goes north into rural Dubuque County.

The rest of the day's filing is House Democratic incumbents:

• Rick Olson of Des Moines in House 31
• John Forbes of Urbandale, House 40
• Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, House 46
• and Deb Berry in Waterloo's House 62. This is now the most Democratic district in the state, leaping ahead of Vicki Lensing's House 85 in Iowa City. Lensing's seat includes most of the UI campus, which saw a spike in No Party registrations last fall with the 21 Bar vote. My district, Mary Mascher's 86th, remains the third most Democratic and together the two Iowa City seats form Joe Bolkcom's Senate 43, which remains that body's top Democratic seat.