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Yet Republican strategists have not been talking up Iowa's 3rd as one of the districts they are closely targeting in the 2008 campaign. It appears the party's candidate will be Kim Schmett, a former chief of staff to Ganske, who represented the Des Moines area in the House from 1995 through 2002.
Elsewhere, 1st District incumbent Braley drew opposition just before the filing deadline from Republican state Sen. David Hartsuch. The district in and around Davenport and Dubuque has a Democratic lean. Democrat Chet Culver took 58 percent of the district vote in winning the 2006 contest for governor, in which his opponent was eight-term 1st District Rep. Nussle (who now serves as White House budget director under Bush). Braley that year breezed to a 55 percent to 43 percent win over Republican businessman Mike Whalen, making him one of eight Democrats elected in 2006 in an "open" district that a Republican incumbent did not defend.
Loebsack, Iowa's other House first-termer, benefits strongly from voters' generally Democratic tendencies that boosted him over Leach in the 2nd District, which takes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and other territory in southeastern Iowa. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry , who lost the state to Bush by a razor-thin margin in 2004, took 55 percent in the 2nd, his biggest vote share in any Iowa district.
The three Republican candidates seeking to challenge Loebsack are Lee Harder, a minister; Marianette Miller-Meeks, an ophthalmologist; and Peter Teahen, a funeral home director who has worked with the American Red Cross.
Republican Latham appears on strong footing in the north-central 4th, even though the district's overall Republican lean is modest. He will be opposed in his bid for an eighth House term by the winner of a four-candidate Democratic primary that includes Becky Greenwald, who heads the Democratic organization in Dallas County, located west of Des Moines; Kurt Meyer, an executive of a nonprofit organization; William J. Meyers, a Marine Corps veteran; and Kevin Miskell, the vice president of the Iowa Farmers' Union.
Perhaps the surest thing in all of Iowa's congressional races is the re-election of Republican Steve King to a fourth House term in western Iowa's largely rural and strongly conservative 5th District, which gave Bush 60 percent of its votes in 2004. Rob Hubler, a retired minister, is seeking the Democratic nomination.
His secure electoral position has given King latitude to be an outspoken conservative activist. He is one of the most vocal opponents of illegal immigration in Congress, and recently caused a stir by stating the Islamic terrorists would be pleased by the election as president of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama , the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination, a comment that King based on Obama's advocacy of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and the fact that Obama's middle name is Hussein.
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