District Of The Day 3: Iowa Senate District 17, Iowa House District 33 & 34

Senate District 17
Registration: D 14655, R 6726, N 9210, total 30665, D +7929
Incumbent: Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines; holdover seat

Hatch's district keeps its solid Democratic margin, but instead of going north, it shifts south and east to the city limits (the west line is Fleur). Hatch was unopposed in 2010 and holds over to 2014. Reminder: Hatch ran in a congressional primary in 1996.

Registration: D 7146, R 3153, N 4502, total 14834, D +3993
Incumbent: Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines

My stomach still hurts from laughing at the Republican nominating convention here. TheIowaRepublican has the blow by blow but the tl;dr version is this. GOP chair A.J Spiker calls the convention, presumably to nominate fellow Paulistinian Cory Ewing. The other choice is the truly toxic Jeremy Walters, who even fellow Republicans disowned when he was McCarthy's 2010 opponent.

So THREE delegates show up, take one look at Ewing and Walters, and say Hell, no. Delegate Daniel LeRette literally volunteered from the audience, and minutes later was the Republican nominee in Iowa House District 33. Later he told the Register “This was a very last-minute and sloppy process,” and that the party should have let the seat go uncontested this year. Yes, the candidate himself said that.

So what can I say after that... McCarthy took over as Majority Leader, the number two leadership post behind Speaker Pat Murphy, in 2006 when the Democrats won the House. Murphy stood down after the 2010 loss and McCarthy moved into the top spot. Minor line changes make his home turf about 500 Democrats safer, and while LeRette may have done his party a favor by keeping the embarrassing Ewing and Walters off the ballot, he's not likely to keep McCarthy away from his statewide campaign for Speaker.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: McCarthy for State Representative-McCarthy for Iowa On July 19, Kevin McCarthy had a leaderly $156,359.97 in the bank, ready to ship off to his candidates as needed, and Daniel LeRette had no idea he was going to be running for the Iowa Legislature.

House District 34
Registration: D 7509, R 3573, N 4708, total 15831, D +3936
Incumbent: Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines

Here's another one where a hapless Republican did her party a great service. Some Dude Patti Branco defeated anti-abortion extremist, perennial candidate and self-proclaimed "Secretary General of the Army of God" Dave Leach in the GOP primary. The scary part is that she only won 58-40%.

As for the incumbent, Hunter won easily in 2008, and his 2010 opponent dropped out. His south-side turf moves north and takes in the core of downtown, up to I-235. Like McCarthy, his safe seat gets just a little better.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Patti Branco for Iowa House, Committee to Elect Bruce Hunter Considering the district's degree of difficulty, Branco's $4,584.79 on hand isn't bad. It's even comparable to Hunter's $5,845.21. But Branco's numbers are padded by one $2500 donation from an Edward Coppola of Dallas. Not sure the connection other than his Iowa tie seems to be Drake Law.

Senate District 17, House District 33 & 34: District of the Day 1 - 5/17/2011 | District of the Day 2 - 3/16/2012

Dan Who?

UPDATE: Kevin Hall has the story at TheIowaRepublican.  Lerette literally volunteered from the crowd, if you can call total attendance of three delegates a "crowd."

UPDATE 2: In the Register piece, the candidate himself says “This was a very last-minute and sloppy process,” and that the party should have let the seat go uncontested this year.

A few minutes of Googling later and I have no idea who Dan Lerette is, other than that he's the new Republican nominee in House District 33 after tonight's convention.

Oh, there are several Dan Lerettes, just as there are several Kevin McCarthys. One of the McCarthys is the Iowa House Democratic leader who one of the Dan Lerettes will be running against. Another Kevin McCarthy is a California Republican congressman who gives me a lot of false hits in my news alerts.

This seems like a good moment to repeat the definition of my oft used term "Some Dude":

Some candidates start out with certain built-in advantages: They already hold office, they have personal wealth, or they have a prominent public profile. Some Dude has none of these. If you Google Some Dude's name, you'll find very little information-probably just the news article or blog post where they were first mentioned as a possible candidate.

And as absolute proof, in the four minutes since I first posted this article, it's number one on Google search for "Dan Lerette."

A good hint you're dealing with a Some Dude is that they're described as an "activist" or "Tea Party member" in press accounts. Note: Some Dudes sometimes win!

 Since the announcement is all we have, you know as much as I do:

DES MOINES, Iowa– The Republican Party of Iowa announced today that Dan Lerette of Des Moines, was the winner of the Special Nominating Convention for Iowa House District 33, held on August 1, 2012. Lerette beat out two other candidates by winning a majority of the votes cast on the second round of balloting.

“Congratulations to Dan on winning the nomination for House District 33. I look forward to working with him over the coming months to help increase our majority in the Iowa House,” said Republican Party of Iowa Chairman A.J. Spiker.

Two other who? Though he may be a Some Dude, Lerette is already a better candidate than McCarthy's 2010 opponent, Jeremy Walters, who got tossed out of the state fair by the Polk County Republicans after saying AIDS patients deserve to die. Rumor mill said Walters was looking at another run, so even though I pick on Some Dudes, Lerette may have already performed a public service.

Like a lot of the upcoming Republican conventions, tonight's meeting was in a solidly Democratic district. The only way Lerette is likely to "increase our majority in the Iowa House" (sic) is by making McCarthy spend a little, just a little, more time at home and a little less on teh road for other candidates.

Un-Convention-al Wisdom

It's nominating convention season, as the August 17 legislative filing deadline approaches and the parties take their last opportunities to fill the gaps on the ballot.

Most late starting nominated at convention candidates are Some Dudes, like I was when I went that route, and few if any win. But four current House freshmen, which must be a record, were convention nominees:

• Democrat Dan Kelley was the replacement nominee when incumbent Paul Bell died;
• Democrat Dan Muhlbauer was nominated after the original nominee dropped out;
• Republican Bob Hager just got started late;
• and Republican Brian Moore lost a Senate primary - a DEMOCRATIC Senate primary - before switching teams and winning the upset of the year.

Both parties have convention activity to report, both in districts that strongly favor the other team.

In Senate District 40, Democrats have nominated Pella school board member Tim Tripp. Technically this is a Democratic held seat; Oskaloosa incumbent Tom Rielly announced his retirement days before the filing deadline in March. But the lines have changed so radically it's difficult to even call this "Rielly's" district, and it's now the seventh most Republican seat in the state. Tripp, an attorney, has an uphill race against Mahaska County supervisor Ken Rozenboom, but looks like a credible candidate.

That's more than we can say about the Republican candidate in House District 33 -- because we don't have a name yet. Nevertheless, RPI chair A.J. Spiker has called a convention for August 1, and you don't do that without a candidate. House 33 is the solidly Democratic turf of House Democratic leader Kevin McCarthy. I'm thinking this is less about winning and more about trying to keep McCarthy at least a little bit occupied on his home front and a little bit distracted from helping his other candidates.

I haven't seen Chairman Spiker calling a convention yet in Senate District 34 to replace "united States Senator" Randi-Kaye: Shannon on the ballot. And that's after they tut-tutted at us Democrats last spring for not running a sacrificial lamb against, say, Randy Feenstra in Sioux County, while they bragged so much about having a Senate candidate in EVERY race. Obviously, quality control was not one of their bigger concerns.

Like I said: you don't call a convention without a candidate, and sometimes you're better off without one. In this case, that may be especially true: the only name to emerge so far in SD34 is Ryan Flood, the guy who was chairing Shannon's campaign.

District Of The Day Reboot: Iowa Senate District 17, Iowa House District 33 & 34

Senate District 17
Registration: D 16615, R 7302, N 10142, total 34138, D +9313
Incumbent: Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines; holdover seat

Hatch has been a non-consecutive fixture in the Legislature for 25 years. He first went to the House in 1984, then lost a 1992 state Senate primary and a 1996 Congressional primary. He landed on his feet as Tom Harkin's top state staffer, then made an unexpected comeback to the House in 2000 when Mike Cataldo's re-election race melted down. He was paired with Ed Fallon in 2002 but switched over to the Senate and has had easy races since. As he will in the future, with the third most Democratic district in the state.

Hatch's district keeps its solid Democratic margin, but instead of going north, it shifts south and east to the city limits (the west line is Fleur). In fact, it changes enough that he has two different representatives; the old seat was made up of the Ruth Ann Gaines and Ako Abdul-Samad districts, neither of whom is in this new district. Hatch was unopposed in 2010 and holds over to 2014.

Campaign finance reports: Neighbors for Hatch

House District 33
Registration: D 7962, R 3405, N 4815, total 16217, D +4557
Incumbent: Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines

McCarthy claimed this seat in a three-way 2002 primary and has had few difficulties since. He took over as Majority Leader, the number two leadership post behind Speaker Pat Murphy, in 2006 when the Democrats won the house. Murphy stood down after the 2010 loss and McCarthy moved into the top spot. He won his own race with 60% in 2010 against perennial candidate Jeremy Walters, who got kicked out of the Republican's fair booth for saying AIDS victims deserved to die.

The southeast corner of Des Moines still dominates McCarthy's district. It moves a bit west, shedding the city of Pleasant Hill; the west border moves from SE 14th to Union and SE 5th. The north line moves south from University to the Iowa Interstate tracks. That all makes the safe Democratic seat about 500 Democrats safer. With no Republican opponent yet, McCarthy should be able to focus his efforts on taking back the House with few worries about his own seat.

Campaign finance reports: McCarthy for State Representative-McCarthy for Iowa

House District 34
Registration: D 8653, R 3897, N 5327, total 17921, D +4756
Incumbent: Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines

Hunter won a hurry-up January 2003 special when the just re-elected Frank Chiodo stepped down pre-session. Few problems since: an easy 2008 win, and his 2010 opponent dropped out.

Anti-abortion extremist, perennial candidate and self-proclaimed "Secretary General of the Army of God" Dave Leach made his way onto the Republican primary ballot. This is at least his seventh campaign; the most recent run was against Matt McCoy in 2010. Republicans who don't think murdering doctors is morally justified can vote for Patti Branco in the primary instead.

Hunter's south-side turf moves north and takes in the core of downtown, up to I-235, giving the district a tall, skinny look on a map. Sort of like 801 Grand only without the point on top. He cedes some turf on the east to McCarthy, and gets a nice smooth Fleur Drive line on the west. Like McCarthy, his safe seat gets just a little better.

Campaign finance reports: Committee to Elect Bruce Hunter

Original post 5/17/2011 Statewide Map: Front | Back (with City Insets) | Old Senate, House

District of the Day: Senate District 17, House District 33 and 34

District of the Day: Senate District 17, House District 33 and 34

Senate District 17

Registration: D 16,435, R 6616, N 9581, total 32,696, D+ 9819
Incumbent: Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines

Hatch has been a non-consecutive fixture in the Legislature for 25 years. He first went to the House in 1984, then lost a 1992 state Senate primary and a 1996 Congressional primary. He landed on his feet as Tom Harkin's top state staffer, then made an unexpected comeback to the House in 2000 when Mike Cataldo's re-election race melted down. He was pared with Ed Fallon in 2002 but switched over to the Senate and has had easy races since. As he will in the future, with the second most Democratic district in the state.

Hatch's district keeps its solid Democratic margin, but instead of going north, it shifts south and east to the city limits (the west line is Fleur). In fact, it changes enough that he has two different representatives; the old seat was made up of the Ruth Ann Gaines and Ako Abdul-Samad districts, neither of whom is in this new district. Hatch, 60, was unopposed in 2010, holds over to 2014, and can contemplate higher ambitions that have long been frustrated.

House District 33

Registration: D 7928, R 3162, N 4573, total 15,692, D+ 4766
Incumbent: Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines

McCarthy claimed this seat in a three-way 2002 primary and has had few difficulties since. He took over as Majority Leader, the number two leadership post behind Speaker Pat Murphy, in 2006 when the Democrats won the house. Murphy stood own after the 2010 loss and McCarthy moved into the top spot. He won his own race with 60% in 2010 against perennial candidate Jeremy Walters, who got kicked out of the Republican's fair booth for saying AIDS victims deserved to die.

The southeast corner of Des Moines still dominates McCarthy's district. It moves a bit west, shedding the city of Pleasant Hill; the west border moves from SE 14th to Union and SE 5th. The north line moves south from University to the Iowa Interstate tracks. That all makes the safe Democratic seat about 500 Democrats safer, and McCarthy should be able to focus his efforts on taking back the House with few worries about his own seat.

House District 34

Registration: D 8507, R 3454, N 5008, total 17,004, D+ 5053
Incumbent: Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines

Hunter won a hurry-up January 2003 special when the just re-elected Frank Chiodo stepped down pre-session. Few problems since: an easy 2008 win, and his 2010 opponent dropped out.

Hunter's south-side turf moves north and takes in the core of downtown, up to 235, giving the district a tall, skinny look on a map. Sort of like 801 Grand only without the point on top. (By my count, Hunter and Hatch have the eight tallest buildings in Iowa in their districts, but my sense of downtown Des Moines geography may be off.) He cedes some turf on the east to McCarthy, and gets a nice smooth Fleur Drive line on the west. Like McCarthy, his safe seat gets just a little better.

New Map | New Map (Insets) | Old Map