Nearly two months ago, former Iowa Secretary of State and State Senator Paul Pate told the Cedar Rapids Gazette and The Iowa Republican blog that he was planning to run for Congress in the open first district. The campaign kickoff expected in late September still hasn’t happened, and Kevin Hall wrote over the weekend, “My clandestine, ubiquitous informants tell me the former Iowa secretary of state has opted not to run for Congress next year …”
I am seeking comment from Pate and will update this post if he clarifies whether he is still considering a Congressional campaign. In my opinion, Pate could be a strong general election candidate but would likely struggle in a GOP primary. The three Republicans who are already running in IA-01 (Rod Blum, State Representative Walt Rogers, and Steve Rathje) are all more conservative than Pate.
Assuming Pate opts out, the field is likely set. It will be interesting to see Blum duke it out with Rogers. (Although Rathje is from Linn County, the largest in IA-01, I don’t expect him to have the capacity to run a strong district-wide campaign next spring.) Dubuque-based Blum is favored by the “Liberty” crowd and performed surprisingly well in the 2012 primary against Ben Lange. Rogers hails from more populous Black Hawk County, is a stronger fundraiser, and has more support from Republican elected officials.
The latest figures from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office indicate that IA-01 contains 162,089 active registered Democrats, 136,128 Republicans, and 194,633 no-party voters.
3 Comments
Rod Blum wrote a LTTE
that was published in the Des Moines Register.and posted online last night. It was an anti-Obamacare screed. His solution:
http://www.desmoinesregister.c…
cocinero Mon 11 Nov 4:53 PM
Pate
I believe Pate was catching heat for his asphalt business doing work for a number of city governments. I understand the gripe, but I don’t think it is fair.
You have to make money where you can, and if the government has gotten so “big” that you have to work for the government to eat then this doesn’t disqualify you as a conservative per se in my book.
moderateiadem Mon 11 Nov 5:41 PM
that's the least of his problems
I would guess that they would attack him for all kinds of votes he took in the Iowa Senate. For instance, he voted for budgets that included “taxpayer funds for abortion” (Medicaid funding for abortion in extremely rare circumstances).
desmoinesdem Mon 11 Nov 8:32 PM