Iowa Federal elections, 2006
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Categories: 2006 Iowa elections | Iowa
This article discusses elections for the U.S. House from the state of Iowa in 2006. There are no U.S. Senate elections in Iowa this year.
Contents |
First Congressional District (IA-01) Open Seat
- Incumbent: Rep. Jim Nussle (R) is running for Governor.
- Democrat Bruce Braley (D) - Fmr. President of Iowa Trial Lawyers Assn. (website)
- Republican Mike Whalen (R) - Businessman
- Republican Primary Results:
- Bill Dix (R) 38%
- Brian Kennedy (R) 14%
- Mike Whalen (R) 48%
- Democratic Primary Results:
- Bruce Braley (D) 37%
- Rick Dickinson (D) 34%
- Bill Gluba (D) 23%
- Denny Heath (D) 4%
- Results: Braley won 55-43.
- Outlook: Braley won a close primary, but by getting more than 35%, he was able to win outright and avoid a state convention. Whalen ran away with the Republican primary, as his rigidly doctrinaire opponents bashed each other on TV. This district voted for both Gore and Kerry, but Whalen will be a tough opponent in the general election.
- On Iraq, Kennedy and Whalen support a phased withdrawl of U.S. troops, while Dix says that he "stands with our president". Meanwhile, all of the Democrats oppose military atacks against Iran.
- Dix and Kennedy are heavily advertising on television, mainly as anti-pork anti-deficit hawks particularly on KWWL-7 (NBC, Cedar Rapids). The Democratic candidates have advertised less so; whichever Republican wins the primary will have a depleted war-chest.
- Endorsements (as of May 28th): Braley was endorsed by the Iowa Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), while Whalen has been endorsed by former Governor Terry E. Branstad. Both men were endorsed by the Des Moines Register in their respective primaries.
- Daily Kos => IA-01
Second Congressional District (IA-02)
- Incumbent: Rep. Jim Leach (R)
- Challenger: David Loebsack (D)
- External Link: Loebsack for Congress
- Results: Loebsack won 51-49, in one of the biggest upsets of the year. The key to his victory was that only 8% of Johnson County Democrats defected to vote for the incumbent, while in past elections, Leach has drawn 20% of the Democratic vote. This was one of the cleanest congressional elections of the cycle.
- Outlook: Leach isn't really a moderate, he just plays one on TV. But after 28 years in Congress, he has a lot of name recognition, and his vote against the Iraq war is serving him well. Loebsack made some technical errors in his petition filing, so he was nominated at the 2nd District convention on April 29th. As a result of that screw up, heads rolled in his campaign, but he has a much more experienced team now, including a crack new Treasurer. Loebsack has been endorsed by the the Iowa Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), CR/IC Building Trades Council, CWA, Plumbers, and IBEW Local 405.
- Daily Kos => IA-02
Third Congressional District (IA-03)
- Incumbent: Rep. Leonard Boswell (D) (website)
- Challenger: State Senator Jeff Lamberti (R)
- Results: Boswell won 52-47, he was saved by the Democratic wave.
- Outlook: In a good year for Democrats, Boswell should be able to hold this seat, but he had some health problems (he has fully recovered), and Lamberti is self-funding, so it might be a close race. Boswell was endorsed by the Iowa Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO). One of the main issues in this campaign is Whirlpool's merger with Maytag, which resulted in 4000 lost jobs. Boswell opposed the merger, while Lamberti supported it. (Source: True Blue Blog by Gordon Fischer)
- Daily Kos => IA-03
Fourth Congressional District (IA-04)
- Incumbent: Rep. Tom Latham (R)
- Challenger: Dr. Selden E. Spencer (D) (website)
- Results: Latham won 57-43.
- Outlook: IA-04 is a difficultly-drawn district, at the periphery of three television markets, with no central TV market of its own, which makes TV advertising prohibitively expensive for any candidate: this favors the incumbent. Lacking a strong, highly-organized grassroots campaign, Latham will have the edge; however, Spencer was endorsed by the Iowa Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO).
- Daily Kos => IA-04
Fifth Congressional District (IA-05)
- Incumbent: Rep. Steve King (R)
- Challenger: Joyce Schulte (D) - 2004 Dem. nominee, Educator (website)
- Results: King won 59-36.
- Outlook: Wingnut King voted against rebuilding New Orleans; nevertheless, this district is Safely Republican. Schulte was endorsed by the Des Moines Register in her primary, and she defeated Bob Chambers.
- Daily Kos => IA-05
External Links
- Taking Back the House - Iowa good seat-by-seat summary.
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