Back to the District of the Day Routine

We turned into a pumpkin at midnight -- well, 1:20 AM to be exact -- Tuesday/Wednesday, so with the national press off to New Hampshire it's time for us locals to get back to the routine local stuff of non-presidential politics. And for me that's legislative races.

The big, though not entirely shocking, news is that Kim Pearson is bailing on the legislature after just one term. The rumor mill had long been saying she was considering it. There had even been reports that's she'd recruited her own primary challenger, tea partyish Jim Carley.

Pearson upset conservaDem Geri Huser in 2010 with under 50 percent of the vote in a three way race, and that was as an unknown with an R after her name in a really good GOP year. She won few friends among her leadership to put it mildly, and derailed an anti-choice bill because it wasn't a pure total abortion ban.

Pearson's retirement may actually improve GOP chances in the new version of Altoona-based House District 30, even though the margin gets slightly more Republican. I'd expect other Republican(s) to jump in. Joe Riding, a moderate-ish Altoona city council member, is already in on the Democratic side.

Bleeding Heartland speculates Pearson may be forming a new anti-choice group; my bet is, now that she has even less to lose, she focuses on recruiting primary opponents for impure House Republicans and further monkeywrenching the whole legislative process.

In Ottumwa, Republican Blake Smith announced for House District 81 against Democrat Mary Gaskill.

Republican Galen Davis took advantage of a local Democratic in-fight in this District Draws Itself turf (Ottumwa is 82% of a House district) for a fluke 1998 win. He got knocked off by Democrat Mark Tremmel, who left after one term to run for county attorney.

In 2002 Gaskill, the former county auditor, won a close primary and settled in. Republicans looked like they were making a serious 2010 effort with Jane Holody; even Mike Huckabee took an interest. But Gaskill earned a 57% win. Ottumwa trended Republican the last two cycles with Mariannette Miller-Meeks on the ballot, Republican enough for the fluke 2010 election of Senator Mark "Chickenman" Chelgren. But with MMM not running, I expect Wapello County to trend blue.

And in really dull news, Republican Randy Feenstra announces for a second term in Sioux County dominated Senate District 2. The lines shuffle a bit but it's still the most Republican seat in the state.

Old Senate District 2 was the scene of an epic primary in 2004 as relative moderate Dave Mulder knocked off the state's leading queer-baiter of the era, Ken Veenstra. Mulder stepped down after one term, semi-voluntarily (another epic primary was likely), and Feenstra moved from the county courthouse to the Senate with no opponent in either the primary OR the general. That's likely again this time, which I guess is good; one less race to boost Republican turnout.

It Gets Weirder In Altoona

Bye Bye Betty

Kevin Hall speculates that Kim Pearson... recruited her own primary challenger?

Other Iowa House Republican news:

Rep. Betty De Boef blinks on a redistricting pair-up and announces she will NOT seek re-election. De Boef was one of the few veterans passed over for committee chairs when the GOP took over in January, and aligned herself with the Krazy Caucus of freshmen Pearson, Massie and Shaw and fellow veteran Dwayne Alons. There were rumors she might move and make a Senate run; De Boef moved in 2001 during her first term to get out of a pairup. De Boef's retirement cedes Washington-Keokuk based House 78 to freshman Jarad Klein.

Mark "No Relation" Dix is dropping out in Grinnell-based House 76: "Avoiding a primary will maintain party unity and conserve vital resources." No name on the other GOP candidate is business owner David Maxwell; Dem Rachel Bly is in.

And Quentin Stanerson of Center Point jumps into open House 95 based in rural Linn and Mt, Vernon-Lisbon. That's home to Cindy Golding but not Liz Mathis; Lisbon Dem Nate Willems lives in the lines but is running for Senate.

Kim Pearson Gets Primary Challenge from...

...well, it's really hard to tell what direction, in the overall multi-dimensional universe of the far right.

Jim Carley, founder of Save Our American Republic (SOAR) is challenging House freshman Kim Pearson (R-Pleasant Hill), the stand-alone hard liner who calls herself a tea partier first and a Republican second, in Altoona-based House District 30.

It's clearly not a moderate challenge, as both candidates serve slightly different flavors of tea. The SOAR site seems more worried about Socialism, rather than Pearson's first session focus on fetuses.

“Our rights and our liberties are vanishing at an alarming rate,” Carley said. “What has always been wrong is now somehow right, and what has always been right is now somehow wrong. We must right our compass and advance in the appropriate direction.”

I'm having trouble grasping the rationale for a hard-right challenge to the hard-rightest House member (well, Tom Shaw gives Pearson a run for her money).

My gut check is that Carley, despite his self-description as an "activist" and "organizer," is a self-starter. A Some Dude. (Of course, Pearson was also a Some Dude - the term isn't gender specific - and she won.) The Carley announcement doesn't take on or even mention the incumbent. It seems more like "I want to run, this is where I live."

The upshot might be an opportunity for a moderate to jump in and split the difference. Or Pearson, who's won few friends among her leadership to put it mildly, might just decide she's had enough and quit after one term, as fellow Crazy Caucus member Glen Massie has hinted he might.

Joe Riding, moderate-ish Altoona city council member, is already in on the Democratic side. The district as revised is actually a little more Republican than the old turf, where Pearson upset conservaDem Geri Huser last year with under 50 percent of the vote in a three way race.

Pearson Plans Primaries

Pearson Plans Primaries

Register has story this AM about Rep. Kim Pearson (T-Altoona) looking for primary challenges to Insufficiently Pure Republicans. A handy checklist to where she may be looking can be found in the May vote on her Roe-Wade challenging Total Abortion Ban bill. Column on the right, ironically, is the Republican NO vote.

Yes: 24 Republicans Rep. Dwayne Alons Rep. Richard Anderson Rep. Mark Brandenburg (paired with Hanusa) Rep. Royd E. Chambers Rep. Betty R. DeBoef (paired with Klein) Rep. Cecil Dolecheck Rep. Joel Fry Rep. Pat Grassley (paired with Sweeney) Rep. Chris Hagenow Rep. Bob Hager Rep. Ron Jorgensen Rep. Jared Klein (paired with DeBoef) Rep. Kevin Koester Rep. Brian Moore Rep. Glen Massie Rep. Dan Muhlbauer (D) Rep. Kim Pearson Rep. Dawn Pettengill Rep. Walt Rogers Rep. Jason Schultz Rep. Tom Shaw (paired with Tjepkes) Rep. Jeff Smith Rep. Chuck Soderberg Rep. Annette Sweeney (paired with Grassley) Rep. Jeremy Taylor

No: 33 Republicans Rep. Rich Arnold Rep. Chip Baltimore Rep. Clel Baudler Rep. Josh Byrnes Rep. Peter Cownie Rep. Dave Deyoe Rep. Jack Drake Rep. Greg Forristall Rep. Mary Ann Hanusa (paired with Brandenburg) Rep. Dave Heaton Rep. Lee Hein Rep. Erik Helland Rep. Lance Horbach (retiring) Rep. Stewart Iverson Rep. Jeff Kaufmann Rep. Mark Lofgren Rep. Steven Lukan Rep. Linda Miller Rep. Steven Olson Rep. Kraig Paulsen Rep. Ross Paustian Rep. Scott Raecker Rep. Dan Rasmussen Rep. Henry Rayhons Rep. Thomas Sands Rep. Dave Tjepkes (pair with Shaw) Rep. Linda Upmeyer Rep. Jim Van Engelenhoven (retiring) Rep. Guy Vander Linden Rep. Nick Wagner Rep. Matt Windschitl Rep. Gary Worthan

Also noted: Third Democrat to announce in House 36 is Marti Anderson, former director of the Crime Victim Assistance Division of the Attorney General’s Office in the Iowa Department of Justice. Spouse alert: married to Bob Brammer, longtime spokesperson at AG's office. Between the two, that Tom Miller endorsement should be forthcoming. But now that there are three, we're in that zone where the 35% requirement for a nomination matters. If no one gets it, the Dems go to convention. All the more reason to stay in your own party's caucus, Beaverdale...

Pearson Draws First Challenger

Pearson Draws First Challenger

This beats a Geri Huser comeback: Democrat Joe Riding, now in the middle of a second term on the Altoona City Council, has announced as a Democrat in House District 30.

That's the turf of controversial conservative Kim Pearson, who pulled off a huge 2010 upset when she knocked off conservaDem Huser by 126 votes, with just 48.5% of the vote in a three way race.

Pearson has been a conservative first and a Republican second and has been the highest profile House freshman. She starred in a lengthy Register profile focused on her uncompromising approach.

Riding has Chamber of Commerce ties, and owns and manages a family golf course, not a bad match for this high-growth suburban area. (I have family in the district and there's not a lot of old trees out here.)

“Our current political system is broken, with too many legislators putting their own partisan ideology before the needs of their constituents,” Riding said today. “Growing up in a family business has taught me important values, like working with others to find pragmatic solutions to problems. I am running to bring some needed civility and common sense back to the statehouse for the citizens of Eastern Polk County.”

The district sheds its piece of Jasper County and pulls all the way into eastern Polk. The changes actually help Pearson: her old district had a Democratic registration edge of 1200, which drops to just 100 under the new lines.

But as I noted at District Of The Day time: "The difference between a protest vote for a relative unknown in 2010 and a vote to re-elect a controversial known quantity in 2012 will matter more than the lines." I wouldn't be surprised to see primaries in both parties for this seat. Huser drew a labor challenge in 2008, and the GOP may worry that Pearson can't hang on against presidential turnout. Or, given the testy relationship between Pearson and the party leadership, they may not care.

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Also noted: Walcott Republican Ross Paustian announces for a second term in House 92. Paustian lost to Elesha Gayman in 2008 before winning the open seat in `10. He's already got a Democratic challenger in former senator Frank Wood.

District of the Day: Senate District 15, House District 29 and 30

District of the Day: Senate District 15, House District 29 and 30

Senate District 15

Registration: D 15,363, R 12,391, N 12,460, total 40,245, D+ 2972
Incumbent: Dennis Black, D-Grinnell

Dennis Black's turf has consistently shifted west over his three decades in office. He was first elected to the House in 1982 from a district in Poweshiek and western Iowa counties. Black moved from the House to the Senate in 1994 from a Poweshiek and Jasper district. Then in the 2000s his seat, now clearly Newton-based, moved out of Poweshiek entirely and went west to Altoona and eastern Polk. This decade's change is less dramatic. We'll let the senator do it himself:

As for (old) Senate District 21, which I now represent, it would be changed by eliminating Lynn Grove, Elk Creek and Palo Alto townships from the new District 15, and adding three rural townships north and west of Mitchellville, all in Polk County. Folks living south of the Newton city limits in Palo Alto would see a new Senate District 14 that would combine with five other counties, and stretch all the way to the Missouri border. By the way the crow flies, that district would be 125 miles long.

I live in Richland Township, north of Lynnville. Thus, I would continue to represent Newton, Baxter, Prairie City, Colfax, Lambs Grove and the eastern one-third of Polk County.

Black will hold over till 2014 under these lines. The small shifts barely change the party balance. Black, 71, beat Republican Joe Pirillo by 1200 votes in 2010. In 2002, he's beaten Pirillo in a Democratic primary.

House District 29

Registration: D 8734, R 5868, N 6704, total 21316, D+ 2866
Incumbent: Dan Kelley, D-Newton

Kelley stepped into the 2010 race late when incumbent Paul Bell died. Bell won his last term with 61%. Kelley beat the same opponent, who was in the race before Bell's death, by a much closer 274 votes. Kelley has cut a progressive path in the House in his first session.

Kelley's district stays pretty much the same geographically. Instead of the southeast corner of Jasper, he'll have the southwest corner. He keeps Newton and everything north to the county line. The changes gain him 1000 Democratic voters. That and a term under his belt should help in 2012.

House District 30

Registration: D 6629, R 6523, N 5756, total 18,929, D+ 106
Incumbent: Kim Pearson, R-Pleasant Hill UPDATE January 4: Pearson not running.

Kim Pearson won a big upset last year, knocking off seven-term Six Pack conservaDem Geri Huser (much to the embarrassment of conservative interest groups who endorsed Huser as their token Democrat). Progressive Democrats didn't shed many tears over Huser... at least not until Pearson took office. Republicans aren't happy, either. Pearson has been a conservative first and a Republican second, telling a Tea Party rally crowd:

"The elite are working both sides of the aisle. They tried to keep us from infiltrating their little system. That’s because neither of the political parties understand the power of the tea party. The 2010 election wasn’t an embrace of the Republican brand. We expect to get our country back and stay back. If they don’t understand that, Republicans deserve to get kicked out to the curb.”

Most prominently, Pearson was the purest of the pure on abortion, refusing to vote for bills restricting choice because they were not total abortion bans.

The difference between a protest vote for a relative unknown in 2010 and a vote to re-elect a controversial known quantity in 2012 will matter more than the lines. The district pulls all the way into Polk County, losing its piece of Jasper. (This is one of the two Senate districts that's split between congressional districts, because 50 senate districts divided by 4 congressional districts is 12 1/2. Kelley's Jasper-based district is in the 2nd CD and Pearson's is in the 3rd.) It gains some townships north of Bondurant and over to Elkhart and, to the south, picks up the Polk County part of Carlisle.

The changes help Pearson's chances in a seat she won with just 48.5% in a three-way race. She gets rid of more than 1100 Democrats, turning a Democratic leaning district into a swing seat. Even so, Pearson has been controversial enough and presidential year turnout may be high enough to cause her problems despite the line changes.

So we end Week Three all the way into Polk County, where we'll be spending all of next week.

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