Monday, January 30, 2012

GOP Primary Challenge in House District 1

First-term Rep. Jeff Smith (R-Okoboji) has drawn a primary challenge from a Campaign For Liberty/anti-tax advocate.

Kevin Wolfswinkel of Sibley, in Osceola County, has announced his candidacy in House District 1. His announcement pointedly calls it "new" District 1.

Indeed Osceola and blood-red Lyon counties, which together make up 60 percent of the population, are new to Smith. He keeps just his Dickinson County base from the old district, which he won with an easy primary and no opposition in the general when Mike May retired in 2010.

The new district had a R+ 7570 Map Day registration edge, making it the second most Republican seat in the state. Smith's old turf, which went south to Spencer in Clay County, had a GOP edge of less than 3000.

Usually getting a much better partisan edge would be good news. But Smith has been a low key freshman, compared to the Pearson-Massie-Shaw freshman Axis of Evil. And the new district is so overwhelmingly Republican that it may be looking for someone more confrontational in the mold of that crew or their more senior ally Dwayne Alons, who had Lyon in his old turf.

And Wolfswinkel, a Ron Paul backer in the recent caucuses, seems to fit that mold:
The Republican Party and the citizens of District 1 deserve a leader who will not just give lip service to the priority issues, but will be a leader who will go to Des Moines and fight for them. Prolife, the restoration of 2nd amendment rights and less government are party pillars, which require uncompromising dedication.
(Tangent: Republicans get to call no permit concealed weapons in day care centers a "rights" issue, and their party listens. But when I say a voting age adult being able to have a beer is a rights issue, my party calls me an extremist.)

In his role as president of the Osceola County Taxpayers Assocation, he called for 10 percent pay cuts for all county employees.

Democrats can't even hope for an extreme nominee to give them a shot. With a GOP margin this big, look for the primary to settle things.

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