Google Ads


Site Stats

IA-Gov, IA-05: King Considers Gube Bid

by: James L.

Thu Feb 12, 2009 at 12:25 PM EST


Callin' out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat?

Rep. Steve King (R) is looking at a bid for governor in 2010, according to multiple local news sources. On a weekly public TV show taping this week, King said he was not sure whether he would challenge Gov. Chet Culver (D) but was looking at his options.

"There's a duty for me, I think. I've made no decisions," King said on the program, according to the Associated Press. "It would be constructive for me at this point to say that the most important job right now is to bring together and reunify the Republican Party in this state."

Summer's here and the time is right for dancin' in the streets!

Fun fact: John McCain carried King's 5th CD by a 54-44 margin last November.
James L. :: IA-Gov, IA-05: King Considers Gube Bid
Tags: , , , (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email

IA-Gov, IA-05: King Considers Gube Bid | 26 comments
Good.
Get the crazy out of congress, one crazy King is enough already.  Unfortunately I'd drool more over Latham's district (old PVI of D+0) whereas King's district is an old PVI of R+8.  
Even Better
Even better would be if he challenged Grassley.  By my calculation the SVI for this district will be R+9; definitely an uphill fight to win this one if it opens up.
[ Parent ]
How moderate is Grassley?


party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Somewhat moderate
At least by national GOP standards he is.  Out of the 41 GOP Senators left he's probably around the 10th least conservative if I had to guess.  I really don't think King would have much chance in a primary against him though.  Grassley is quite popular in Iowa amogn the GOP.
[ Parent ]
Go King, Go!
You can do it!
He'll lock down the nutjob and bigot vote

Go King Go!
He'll lock down the nutjob and bigot vote

Which last I checked, was mostly concentrated in eastern Iowa (hey, isn't that where he's from?)

If King runs, he's going to get Culverized.

[ Parent ]
Sorry
I meant western Iowa!
[ Parent ]
Southern Iowa
And Southern Iowa.. looking at the caucus results from then, both on the Republican and Democratic sides.. they match the voting habits of N. Missouri.  
[ Parent ]
IA-5
the western IA district would be much better without the 3 counties north of SUX and 4 little counties south of CB.  

We'll be happy to get rid of WingnutSupremeKing but itll still be a tough row to hoe to elect a D out here.

What are SUX and CB?
Also, you never know what people turn out to be like.  I heard that Aaron Schock has (schockingly) had a surprisingly good prog punch score lately.  But then again, he's only been in office for the last few weeks.

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Sioux City and Council Bluffs
But I'm not sure I agree with the commenter. The three counties in the north (Plymouth, Sioux and Lyon) are very red, but the four in the south (by which I assume he means Fremont, Mills, Montgomery and Page) aren't significantly worse than a lot of the rest of IA-05. Certainly there are other north-western Iowa counties like Osceola and O'Brien which are more of a problem.

Either way, the district would be red even without those counties, and there's no real way they could be excluded from a Western Iowa district - certainly not any way which Iowa's redistricting board would go in for.

[ Parent ]
Souix County
Holy hell, I cant believe there is a county that votes that Republican and has such a high population in Iowa.  The midwest has pretty moderate counties, nothing in the seventy percentile unless they are for Democrats.
[ Parent ]
Schock
Schock gives me bad vibes.  He seems incredibly ambitious and unprincipled.  Call me cynical, but I'd bet he already has his eye on higher office.  And, for a Republican in Illinois, that means he'll need to project a moderate image.
[ Parent ]
Best of luck
He'll need it trying to run statewide in Illinois.
[ Parent ]
Why is ambition a dirty word now?
It's funny, the spectrum of reactions to Republicans just in this diary. Vote like Steve King and you're a "far right loony", vote relatively more sensibly like Schock and you're "unprincipled". He's been in the House for a month, give him a break - I'm just happy that we don't have a rabid partisan representing a district which wouldn't have gone Dem anyway in this cycle even with Obama at the top of the ticket.
[ Parent ]
Obama won that district
I don't think it would have been impossible to win that district if we nominated a better candidate who could have raised more money. Running on Obama's coattails I think almost all of Illinois' districts are winnable with the right candidate (AKA not Dan Seals or Colleen Callahan).
[ Parent ]
Perhaps a blessing for the GOP...
IF Culver is unbeatable anyway. As Im sure theyd rather have someone OTHER than Steve King in his House seat. Not that hed lose his seat, probably, but because having a far right loony in the House isnt helpful to their message and outreach. And I know McCain only won it by around 10 but i think a better barometer is 2004 where Bush won it by 21. This is western IA we're talking about here. A GOP nominee will surely be much favored to hold onto this seat.
Although
Although one can certainly make the argument than having King running for Gov. on a loony message will really hurt the IA GOP as well.
Needless to say
King is not electable statewide.  For any office, least of all against a non-controversial incumbent like Culver who gets generally decent marks across the board.  The question is whether we can take his district.  Considering the kinds of districts we hold in Utah, Mississippi, and Alabama, nothing is impossible.
GOP nominees for Gov. in 2010...
Could include Steve King and Tom Tancredo. Oh boy. 2010 would be a fun year for political junkies.
[ Parent ]
Tom McClintock!


My blog
Twitter
Scribd
28, New Democrat, Female, TX-03 (hometown CA-26)
[ Parent ]
And Bill Sali!
C'mon, Marilyn, join the club!

party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
Tancredo vs. Musgrave in a primary?
That would be fun.  Sign them both up now.

26, white male, TX-24, liberal-leaning independent
[ Parent ]
We should get either a moderate R, or...
at least one open seat shot a wingnut R.  So this would be great news.

getting someone Latham-like instead would be a fine trade.

no Iowans I know expect this to happen
I think Steve King likes the flattery, but he knows he wouldn't beat Culver. I question whether he would even win a GOP gubernatorial primary.

I don't think he would give up a safe House seat, where he can get attention for saying outrageous, offensive things.  

IA-Gov, IA-05: King Considers Gube Bid | 26 comments

Copyright 2003-2010 Swing State Project LLC

Primary Sponsor

You're not running for second place. Is your website? See why Campaign Engine is ranked #1 in software and support among Progressive-only Internet firms. http://www.mediamezcla.com/

Menu

Make a New Account

Username:

Password:



Forget your username or password?

About the Site

Publisher: DavidNYC

Senior Editor: James L.

Senior Editor: Crisitunity

Contributing Editor: Jeffmd

Search the SSP archives:

Sign up to receive a daily e-mail whenever the SSP is updated:

SSP Resources

Presidential Vote by CD

SSP Document Collection

Race Tracker Wiki

Dave's Redistricting App

Blogroll

Daily Kos Elections
DemConWatch
Five Thirty Eight
Governing
Hotline On Call
Political Wire
Pollster.com
Prop*50
Public Policy Polling
The Thicket
Powered by: SoapBlox