Republican Civil War Roils Iowa House Race-- Bad News For Boehner-Buddy Tom Latham

Another crackpot teabagger wants to go to Congress

The GOP civil war is ravaging the party in Iowa, mostly because of the half dozen or more Republicans vying for the U.S. Senate nomination (and the near certainty of being beaten by Democrat Bruce Braley next November). But now the bloody fraternal warfare has come to the 3rd CD, the southwest part of the state from Council Bluffs to Des Moines. All of Des Moines. Obama won this district in 2008 (52-46%) and again last year (51-47%). The PVI is exactly zero and in last year's incumbent vs incumbent battle, Establishment Republican Tom Latham beat distrusted Blue Dog Leonard Boswell 52-44%. There are 16 counties in the district and Latham beat Boswell in 14-- all but tiny Adams County and massive Polk County (Des Moines itself). His 49-47% win over Latham in Polk wasn't enough to make up for losing everywhere else, including huge loses in Dallas, Pottawattamie and Warren counties, the 3 other big ones.

Latham, who was first elected in 1994, is the dean of the state's House delegation. He's also a 100% Boehner crony and sits on the Appropriations committee where he's chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and a senior member of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration. He and Boehner are joined at the hip so this cycle, instead of just having to face a sketchy Blue Dog, he's facing an admired Democratic woman, Staci Appel, and and mad dog teabagger, Joe Grandanette, a gym teacher-- think back to your own. Mine was a 'yard who flunked Ken because someone with a similar last name (Fiore instead of Furie) used to cut classes and prevented the smartest guy in the high school from getting accepted into Harvard (which had already recruited him!) and forced him to go to Dartmouth (which is filled with Republicans).

“The residents of Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District need someone who will represent them and not Washington, D.C., Republicans,” Grandanette said in a prepared statement. “Tom Latham voted the same way Leonard Boswell would’ve voted had he still been in Congress on the so-called debt compromise. I’m offering a bold alternative to the typical pale pastel offered by todays GOP.”

…“When Tom Latham first ran for Congress he signed the Contract With America,” Grandanette said. “One of the 10 principles of that contract included something called the Citizen Legislator Act that wouldve limited Congressman to 12 years in office. Tom Latham is still running for Congress 20 years later. Thats Washington, D.C., math, not Iowa math.”

…“I am running for the senior citizens and the children so they have a voice in Washington,” Grandanette said. “The budget crisis is crippling our cities, our states and our nation. Everyone has a budget and Washington needs a budget now.”

Grandanette last ran for the Iowa House in 2004. He won his primary and lost in the general election.

Grandanette said he will establish a task force to find solutions to address black unemployment, entitlement corruption, gang involvement with youth, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, and child abuse.

Can Grandanette beat Latham in the primary? Probably not… but he can weaken him enough to help Staci Appel beat him in the general election next year.