Showing posts with label Iowa House District 46. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iowa House District 46. Show all posts

Saturday, August 18, 2012

District Of The Day 3: Iowa Senate District 23, Iowa House District 45 & 46

Senate District 23
Registration: D 10037, R 8511, N 10501, total 29129, D +1526
Incumbent: Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames; holdover seat

District Draws Itself: Ames' census population of 58,965 is just short of the ideal Senate District size of 61,076. The seat shrinks all the way into Story County, losing a few rural Boone townships. The Democratic edge of the district barely changes, and Quirmbach holds over till 2014.

House District 45
Registration: D 5304, R 4378, N 5679, total 15403, D +926
Incumbent: Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames

House District 46
Registration: D 4733, R 4133, N 4822, total 13726, D +600
Incumbent: Lisa Heddens, D-Ames

Ames is still split into a north and south district. The east-west line across town moves south and shifts the bulk of the Iowa State campus from the southern district, 45, into the north district, 46.

46 shrinks entirely into the city limits and makes this a My District Just Not My House map for Lisa Heddens, who moved back into the district. District 45 loses the Boone County townships and gains about 300 Democrats with the line changes.

Both BW-K and Heddens get 2012 opponents from the ranks, current or recent grad, of the Iowa State College Republicans. The two contenders - recent grad Dane Nealson in 45 and current ISU CR chair Stephen Quist in 46, announced at a shared event.

Last cycle Heddens had a fairly easy 2000 vote win over Republican Chad Steenhoek last cycle. BW-K won by 1000 votes over a relatively high profile Republican, Karin Sevde, in the awful 2010 cycle.

The biggest distinction between these two parallel races is that Wessel-Kroeschell has a second opponent. Eric Cooper was the 2010 Libertarian nominee for governor, and is the only third party -- as opposed to independent -- legislative candidate in the state. Cooper ran against Heddens twice under the old map. In 2006 he won 3% in a three way contest; in 2008 he was Heddens' only opponent and pulled 21%.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Elect Nealson, Citizens for Wessel-Kroeschell BW-K has a solid, incumbent, $15,282.44 in the bank, with over $7000 coming in on the June-July report. Nealson has $4,243.66 on hand.

July 19 Campaign Finance Report: Quist for House, Committee to Elect Lisa Heddens Heddens has $14,761.44 on hand to Quist's $2,181.47.

Senate District 23, House District 45 & 46: District of the Day 1 - 5/25/2011 | District of the Day 2 - 3/16/2012

Friday, March 16, 2012

District Of The Day Reboot: Iowa Senate District 23, Iowa House District 45 & 46

Senate District 23
Registration: D 14500, R 11363, N 17156, total 43178, D +3137
Incumbent: Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames; holdover seat

Herman Quirmbach went from the Ames city council to the Senate in 2002, winning a bit of a primary upset when Johnie Hammond retired. He then beat one-term Rep. Barbara Finch, the only Republican to win a core Ames district in recent years, in November. Quirmbach, 60, held on with an unexpectedly close 53% in 2010.

District Draws Itself: Ames' census population of 58,965 is just short of the ideal Senate District size of 61,076. With the Legislative Service Agency's directive to keep cities together where possible, that pretty much determined the district lines. The seat shrinks all the way into Story County, losing a few rural Boone townships. It keeps a rural township south of town, adds a couple to the east, but loses rural Story to the north. the Democratic edge of the district barely changes, and Quirmbach holds over till 2014.

Campaign finance reports: Quirmbach for Senate

House District 45
Registration: D 7383, R 5554, N 8601, total 21609, D +1829
Incumbent: Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames

House District 46
Registration: D 7117, R 5809, N 8555, total 21569, D +1308
Incumbent: Lisa Heddens, D-Ames

Ames is still split into a north and south district. The east-west line across town moves south and shifts the bulk of the Iowa State campus from the southern district, 45, into the north district, 46.

46 shrinks entirely into the city limits and makes this one of those My District Just Not My House deals for Lisa Heddens, who called dibs and moved. District 45 loses the Boone County townships, keeps Washington Township south of the city, and adds a couple townships to the east. Wessel-Kroeschell gains about 300 Democrats with the line changes.

Heddens went to the House in 2002 when the two Ames reps, Democrat Jane Greimann and Republican Barbara Finch, got paired and Finch ran for the Senate instead. Greimann retired in 2004 in poor health (she passed away in early 2006) and Wessel-Kroeschell won a four-way primary. Both have had relatively easy races since, sometimes with only Libertarian opponents.

Both BW-K and Heddens get 2012 opponents from the ranks, current or recent grad, of the Iowa State College Republicans. The two contenders - recent grad Dane Nealson in 45 and current ISU CR chair Stephen Quist in 46, announced at a shared event.

Last cycle Heddens had a fairly easy 2000 vote win over Republican Chad Steenhoek last cycle; a Libertarian was in the race too. . BW-K won by 1000 votes over a relatively high profile Republican, Karin Sevde, in the awful 2010 cycle, and by 2400 over the then-youthful Ryan Rhodes in 2008.

Campaign finance reports: Citizens for Wessel-Kroeschell, Committee to Elect Lisa Heddens

Original post 5/25/2011 Statewide Map: Front | Back (with City Insets) | Old Senate, House

Friday, February 17, 2012

Second GOP Student Candidate in Ames

Starting to look like a trend: 20-something Iowa House GOP candidates.

Iowa State's College Republican chair Stephen Quist announced last night in House District 46, now held by Ames Democrat Lisa Heddens. The announcement came at a party co-hosted with Dane Nealson, whose name surfaced yesterday in the other Ames seat, Beth Wessel-Kroeschell's House 45.

House 46 is the northern part of Ames and includes most of the campus area. It's also the slightly less Democratic of the two seats. Heddens had a fairly easy 2000 vote win over Republican Chad Steenhoek last cycle; a Libertarian was in the race too. The district shrinks into the city proper (which meant a move for Heddens in a My District Just Not My House situation).

Quist and Nealson join at least three other young Republican candidates. Two are primary challengers: Maison Bleam against Tom Shaw in House 10 and Jake Highfill against Erik Helland in House 39. There's also Megan Hess in open House District 2, where she's likely to face Democrat Steve Bomgaars. As I've said before, Republicans are much much more likely to track their young talent to candidate status than Democrats.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

District of the Day: Senate District 23, House Districts 45 and 46

District of the Day: Senate District 23, House Districts 45 and 46

Senate District 23

Registration: D 12627, R 9542, N 13800, total 36144, D+ 3085
Incumbent: Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames

Ames will be ground zero for Democrats next year. Christie Vilsack's chances of knocking off Steve King depend largely on high Democratic turnout in Ames. But as for the legislative races, things should be quiet.

Herman Quirmbach went from the Ames city council to the Senate in 2002, winning a bit of a primary upset when Johnie Hammond retired. He then beat one-term Rep. Barbara Finch, the only Republican to win a core Ames district in recent years, in November. Quirmbach, 60, held on with an unexpectedly close 53% in 2010.

Ames' census population of 58,965 is just short of the ideal Senate district size of 61,076. With the Legislative Service Agency's directive to keep cities together where possible, that pretty much determined the district lines. The seat shrinks all the way into Story County, losing a few rural Boone townships. It keeps a rural township south of town, adds a couple to the east, but loses rural Story to the north. The Democratic edge of the district barely changes, and Quirmbach holds over till 2014.

House District 45

Registration: D 6291, R 4487, N 6760, total 17619, D+ 1804
Incumbent: Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames

House District 46

Registration: D 6336, R 5055, N 7040, total 18525, D+ 1281
Incumbent: Lisa Heddens, D-Ames

Ames is still split into a north and south district. The east-west line across town moves south and shifts the bulk of the Iowa State campus from the southern district, 45, into the north district, 46. (Trivia: Ames, and the Boone area we'll visit tomorrow, are about the only spots in the state where the district numbers don't change.)

That pulls 46 entirely into the city limits and makes this one of those My District Just Not My House deals: 46 loses rural Franklin Township just north of the city, and that's where Lisa Heddens' house is. Expectations are official as of June 7, she moves back into her district. New 46 has a similar Democratic voter edge as old 46, while new 48, where the old house is, has a 454 registered voter Republican margin. (We'll visit 48 tomorrow.)

District 45 loses the Boone County townships, keeps Washington Township south of the city, and adds a couple townships to the east. Wessel-Kroeschell gains about 300 Democrats with the line changes.

Heddens went to the House in 2002 when the two Ames reps, Democrat Jane Greimann and Republican Barbara Finch, got paired and Finch ran for the Senate instead. Greimann retired in 2004 in poor health (she passed away in early 2006) and Wessel-Kroeschell won a four-way primary. Both have had relatively easy races since, sometimes with only Libertarian opponents. It looked like the GOP was taking a serious shot at Wessel-Kroeschell in 2010 with Karin Sevde, but BW-K won by 1000 votes.


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