One more Republican redistricting pair resolved, one less election this fall. James Seymour, R-Woodbine, is hanging it up after a decade, leaving Nancy Boettger, R-Harlan, alone in Senate District 9.
Since District 9 is normally on the governor year cycle and because Boettger was just re-elected in 2010 and is now alone in the district, she will hold over until 2014. Had Seymour stayed, the two would have faced off in a primary this year. Seymour would have needed to run either way, because his 2008 term expires this year.
That 2008 race was the textbook example of why you should always recruit a candidate everywhere. An October opposition research data dump publicized a 2002 arrest for soliciting prostitution, but the Dems had no candidate. Write-ins got an unusually high 11%.
So it's kinda sorta been assumed since Map Day that Seymour was going to be the one to stand down here. Boettger owns a family farm based bed and breakfast and immediately said she wasn't moving, even though the new district is more Seymour's than hers. She keeps only her home county, Shelby, and pick up Harrison, Monona, Ida, and most of Crawford from Seymour plus some leftover rural bits of east Woodbury. Harrison County was in Boettger's first district when she was elected in 1994.
Boettger last had an opponent in 2002, and the new seat had a Map Day GOP registration edge of more than 3000.
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