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Sunday, January 09, 2005

Jim Nussle surfaces for Governor, IA-01 Open Seat

Posted by Bob Brigham

The Des Moines Register:

U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle became the first Iowa Republican to take formal steps toward running for governor next year, filing documents Thursday announcing his intent to seek the 2006 Republican nomination. [...] At the end of 2004, Nussle had a combined total of roughly $450,000 in his congressional campaign fund and an account connected to a political action committee he formed in part to curry favor with legislative Republicans.

Ryan said Nussle had transferred none of that money to his gubernatorial campaign, although Iowa and federal law allows such transfers.

As Laddy on MyDD points out:

This will likely to mean he'll vacate his seat in what should be friendly Democratic turf. The seat has potential to be a pickup, as Gore won the district 52-45, and Kerry won 53-46.

The Gazette reports, "Nussle said he benefited from the many visits by President George Bush...Nussle has collected more than $1.6 million for his campaign. Gluba has collected $368,000."

An incumbent needed multiple visits from the President and a 4:1 financial advantage to hold on to this Democratic seat. The battle for IA-01 could be very interesting.

Posted at 03:12 PM in 2006 Elections, 2006 Elections - House, 2006 Elections - State, Iowa | Technorati

Comments

Who are the contenders on the Dem side? I heard the Lt. Gov and AG are both Dems.

Posted by: T at January 10, 2005 11:59 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson (a Democrat) announced a month or two ago that she will not be running in 2006.

I haven't heard anything about the AG (Tom Miller, I'm from Des Moines, the capital of Iowa) running. However, I do know that Secretary of State Chet Culver (a Democrat) has expressed a lot of interesting in running and probably will.

Posted by: Chris Woods at January 12, 2005 03:22 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

The Secretary of State Chet Culver wants to run for the Dem side. Tom Miller is positioning himself as a candidate with spots on the local tv stations

Posted by: Ryan Keller at January 18, 2005 11:32 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment