District Of The Day Reboot: Iowa Senate District 9, Iowa House District 17 & 18

Senate District 9
Registration: D 11168, R 14770, N 14433, total 40393, R +3602
Incumbent: Nancy Boettger, R-Harlan (James Seymour, R-Woodbine, retiring)

Any excitement we might have seen here ended with Seymour's retirement, and Boettger holds over till `14. She owns a family farm based bed and breakfast and immediately after Map Day 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. She last saw an opponent in 2002.

Campaign finance report: Nancy Boettger for State Senate Committee

The district's two House members aren't paired, and don't have to move, but both will need to get to know some new constituents.

House District 17
Registration: D 5722, R 7797, N 7353, total 20885, R +2075
Incumbent: Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley

The Legislature's leading Gun Guy won the seat by knocking off Paul Wilderdyke in a 2006 primary challenge from the right. He easily shot down (heh) a couple Democratic challenges, then went unopposed in 2010. So far he's unopposed this year as well.


Windschitl gets a lot of different turf but gains a few hundred Republicans. The old seat had all of Harrison County, most of Monona, and a little of rural north Pottawattamie. This map, he loses all of PottCo and eastern Harrison, but gets all of Monona and Ida, along with bits of rural Woodbury. The net effect is a gain of maybe 600 Republicans.

Campaign finance reports: Win with Windschitl

House District 18
Registration: D 5446, R 6973, N 7080, total 19508, R +1527
Incumbent: Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig; contested Democratic primary

Call this one a sleeper race: Democrats gave Schultz a bye in 2008 and 2010,so there's no general election track record. But this cycle two Democrats have jumped in, so this will be his first general election test.

Schultz won the seat in a contested 2008 primary, where he was seen as the more conservative candidate. (Incumbent Clarence Hoffman had been squeezed out by Iowans For Tax Relief.) The district is centered on Denison and western Crawford County. It used to go north into Ida, now it goes south and gets all of Shelby County. The line changes cost Schultz about 300 Republicans.


Democrat Kasey Friedrichsen offers a symbolically powerful argument against Team Branstad 5.0:

Friedrichsen, 24, worked at an the Denison unemployment office until  the office was one of 36 that closed after Gov. Terry Branstad vetoed a legislative allocation to keep the offices open. Schultz, R-Schleswig, voted for a budget to keep the unemployment office but later declined to challenge the governor’s veto.

Friedrichsen also has a background dating back to high-school on anti-smoking issues (frankly, not my favorite "progressive" cause). The other Democrat, Dunlap Mayor Bernard Murphy, joined the race in December.

Campaign finance reports: Friends of Jason Schultz, Friedrichsen for State Representative

Original post 5/05/2011 Statewide Map: Front | Back (with City Insets) | Old Senate, House

Third Day of Filing

Well, uh, we didn't see any incumbent House Democrats file today, but despite the sudden departure of McCarthy and crew, a few folks turned their papers in on the third day of filing for the state legislature.

In Polk-Dallas Senate District 22, moving-in incumbent Republican Pat Ward turned in her papers. As regular readers know, Ward was paired up a district to the east with Democrat Matt McCoy on unfriendly turf, and announced on Map Day that she was moving west. The new seat has maybe half her old constituents.

Ward faces a primary from minister Rick Mullen, who filed yesterday. The winner sees Democrat Desmund Adams, who also filed today and who on the January 19 money report outraised both Republicans.

Three candidates who lost tough 2010 races are trying again. Democratic senator Bill Heckroth got knocked off by Bill Dix in 2010, but new House District 63 looks tailor-made for him. Still leaning red, sure, but all familiar and better than the seat he won in 2006.

Clinton County Republican Andrew Naeve lost an open seat Senate race to Democrat Tod Bowman by just 71 votes in 2010. Naeve announced for Senate District 49 early, even before Bowman's plans were clear. Under redistricting law Bowman could have moved in and held over till 2014, keeping the seat off the 2012 ballot. But Bowman stayed with Jackson County, leaving Clinton-based 49 empty. Naeve filed today for the only odd-number senate seat with no incumbent, which makes it the only two year senate term on the ballot.

Another candidate making a second try is Sioux City Democrat David Dawson, who filed in open House 14. He lost to Republican Jeremy Taylor in 2010 and gets almost the same district but without Taylor's house. Taylor filed yesterday in House 13 where he'll likely face Democrat Chris Hall in the only two House incumbent general election matchup.

Cara Kennedy-Ode is the first Democrat to file in what will be a crowded House District 36 field. Several other candidates have announced, enough where this one could see a convention, with no one getting the required 35%. Janet Petersen is leaving this solid blue Des Moines seat for the overlapping open Senate District 18.

New to Me: Dunlap mayor Bernard Murphy flew under my radar a couple months back when he announced in House District 18. He's the second announced Democrat along with Kasey Friedrichsen of Denison. The incumbent is Republican Jason Schultz.

Carol Miller of rural Ankeny showed up at a bipartisan training for women candidates back in January, but from the article her party and district weren't clear. Now she's official: a Republican in open House District 30, the Kim Pearson seat where tea partier Jim Carley filed yesterday.

And finally, in a semi-routine incumbent filing, Council Bluffs Republican Mary Ann Hanusa filed for a second term in House 16. She was paired up with fellow GOP freshman Mark Brandenburg, but she called first dibs on staying put and he agreed, late, to move into the less appealing but open House 15.