I don’t know why Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post keeps suggesting that Representative Leonard Boswell is a retirement risk for Democrats. True, Republicans have been trying to pressure him to call it quits, but I haven’t heard any Democrat around here express concerns about it.
According to Radio Iowa’s Kay Henderson, Boswell told a “small group of reporters” on Monday, “I’m running.”
Five Republicans have already announced plans to run in Iowa’s third Congressional district, and three of them have started hiring campaign staff.
It seems we’ll get a mini-test of the “tea party” phenomenon in the IA-03 Republican primary. Two contenders have significant backing in the Republican establishment: various elected officials are supporting State Senator Brad Zaun, while a bunch of major donors are supporting Jim Gibbons.
Long-shot candidate Dave Funk was the first Republican to step up against Boswell, and he just hired Iowa Tea Party Chairman Ryan Rhodes as his political director. I assume that Funk will not be able to raise enough money to compete with Zaun and Gibbons, and that there aren’t several thousand central Iowa teabaggers for him to pull out of his hat.
Whoever wins the June primary, the GOP will need something better than the tired rhetoric they’ve thrown at Boswell lately to win this D+1 district.
The Republicans already have a head start were this seat to become open, and we don’t need Boswell retiring. I know he’s a sometimes-frustration for central Iowa liberals, but he’s no Lieberman or Travis Childers, and he’s clearly still a shift to the left from the Greg Ganske days.