Polk supervisor of elections Lori Edwards tells us she's decided to run for Adam Putnam's congressional seat. "I think I have what it takes," said the Democratic former legislator, citing pressing needs for veterans, agriculture and local government.
She so far faces Republican former state Rep. Dennis Ross in the district that George Bush won overwhelmingly in 04 and John McCain narrowly won in 08.
"The voters here really are quite independent and I'm pretty independent," said Edwards, who has a track record of winning in GOP-leaning Polk county.
Without knowing too much about Lori Edwards (a skeleton description of her current job is available here), she seems like a pretty good recruiting score for this reddish district. According to our Prez-by-CD number-crunching project, McCain won the portions of Polk County in the 12th CD by a 53-47 margin last year -- and this is the vast bulk of the district's vote. With a history of getting re-elected in Polk since 2000, Edwards could have a fighting chance in a general election.
While Obama almost tied McCain in this CD (being edged out by only a 49-50 margin last year), Bush won the district by 16 and 10-point margins in 2004 and 2000, respectively. There are also a decent number of conservative Democrats around these parts: as of last October, Democrats held a 193K-165K voter registration advantage over Republicans here.
