Iowa's 2nd congressional district elections, 2012

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Iowa's 2nd Congressional District

General Election Date November 6, 2012

Primary Date June 5, 2012

November 6 Election Winner: Dave Loebsack

Incumbent prior to election: Dave Loebsack

Iowa U.S. House Elections District 1 • District 2 • District 3 • District 4

2012 U.S. Senate Elections

The 2nd congressional district of Iowa held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012. Incumbent Dave Loebsack won the election.

This is the 2nd congressional district prior to the 2010 redistricting.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
March 16, 2012	June 5, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: Iowa has a mostly closed primary system: voters must be registered with the Democratic or Republican party in order to vote in the primary, but they may switch their party affiliation on election day.

Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by May 26. For the general election, the voter pre-registration deadline was October 27, but voters could also register at the polls on Election Day, provided they brought proper documentation.

See also: Iowa elections, 2012

Incumbent: Heading into the election none of Iowa's current members of Congress resided in the newly-drawn 2nd district. Dave Loebsack (D) moved from Linn County to Johnson County in order to avoid a primary against Bruce Braley and continue representing the 2nd congressional district.

This was the first election using new district maps based on 2010 Census data. Iowa's 2nd congressional district generally covers most of the southeastern part of the state including Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Decatur, Wayne, Clarke, Lucas, Monroe, Appanoose, Davis, Van Buren, Lee, Henry, Des Moines, Louisa, Muscatine, Cedar, Johnson, Cedar, Scott, Clinton, Washington, Keokuk, Mahaska, Marion and Jasper counties are included in this district.

Candidates

Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals will be added when official election results are certified. For more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan, click here. If you find any errors in this list, please email: Geoff Pallay.

General election candidates

Dave Loebsack

John Archer

May 8, 2012 primary results

Democratic Primary

• Dave Loebsack:17467 Incumbent a
• Joe Seng:3913 Representative from Iowa State Senate, District 43

Republican Primary

• John Archer:16604 Senior legal counsel at John Deere a
• Dan Dolan:10775 Housing developer

Note: Richard Gates intended to run, but withdrew from the race on March 11, 2012.

Election Results

General election

U.S. House, Iowa, District 2 General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Dave Loebsack Incumbent	55.6%	211,863
	Republican	John Archer	42.5%	161,977
	Independent	Alan Aversa	1.9%	7,112
Total Votes				380,952
Source: Iowa Secretary of State "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election"

Primary Results

Democratic Primary

U.S. House of Representatives Iowa, District 2 Democratic Primary, 2012
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Dave Loebsack Incumbent	81.7%	17,467
Joe Seng	18.3%	3,913
Total Votes		21,380

Republican Primary

U.S. House of Representatives Iowa, District 2 Republican Primary, 2012
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
John Archer	60.6%	16,604
Dan Dolan	39.4%	10,775
Total Votes		27,379

Race background

Republican challenger John Archer was included in the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns program. The program highlighted challengers who represented the GOP's best chances to pick up congressional seats in the general election.

Polls

Dave Loebsack v. John Archer

Dave Loebsack vs. John Archer
Response	Desmoines Register (June 25 to 27, 2012)	Average
Dave Loebsack	48%	48%
John Archer	43%	43%
Undecided	10%	10%
Number polled	400	400
Margin of error	+/-4.9	4.9%
Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org

Impact of redistricting

See also: Redistricting in Iowa

The 2nd district has become slightly more favorable to Republicans as a result of the inclusion of Scott County, but retains Democratic-leaning Johnson County. The new 2nd district includes Davenport and Iowa City.

The new district is composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.

• 29 percent from the 1st congressional district
• 53 percent from the 2nd congressional district
• 16 percent from the 3rd congressional district
• 2 percent from the 5th congressional district

Registration statistics

As of October 24, 2012, District 2 had the following partisan registration breakdown according to the Iowa Secretary of State:

Iowa Congressional District 2
Congressional District	District Total	Democrats	Republicans	Other & Unaffiliated	Advantage	Party Advantage	Change in Advantage from 2010
District 2	474,023	165,136	138,989	169,898	Democratic	18.81%	-24.51%
"Party advantage" is the percentage gap between the two major parties in registered voters. "Change in advantage" is the spread in difference of party advantage between 2010 and 2012 based on the congressional district number only.

District partisanship

FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study

See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012

In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. Iowa's 2nd District became less Democratic because of redistricting.

• 2012: 54D / 46R
• 2010: 57D / 43R

Cook Political Report's PVI

See also: Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measures each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. Iowa's 2nd congressional district has a PVI of D+4, which is the 153rd most Democratic district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by Barack Obama (D), 58-42 percent over John McCain (R). In 2004, John Kerry (D) won the district 47-53 percent over George W. Bush (R).

Issues

Media

Below are two campaign ads released by incumbent Dave Loebsack and challenger John Archer. Dave Loebsack

Dave Loebsack, "The Problem"

John Archer

John Archer, "The Next Generation"

Campaign donors

2012

Dave Loebsack (2012) Campaign Finance Reports
Report	Date Filed	Beginning Balance	Total Contributions for Reporting Period	Expenditures	Cash on Hand
April Quarterly	April 15, 2012	$451,960.55	$210,300.97	$(39,949.38)	$622,312.14
Pre-Primary	May 24, 2012	$622,312.14	$113,399.99	$(35,385.74)	$700,326.39
			Running totals
			$323,700.96	$(75,335.12)

John Archer (2012) Campaign Finance Reports
Report	Date Filed	Beginning Balance	Total Contributions for Reporting Period	Expenditures	Cash on Hand
April Quarterly	April 15, 2012	$73,388.59	$71,233.42	$(17,415.12)	$127,206.89
Pre-Primary	May 24, 2012	$127,206.89	$37,980.78	$(10,333.28)	$61,854.39
			Running totals
			$109,214.2	$(27,748.4)

District history

2010

On November 2, 2010, Dave Loebsack won re-election to the United States House of Representatives. He defeated Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R), Gary Sicard (L), and Jon Tack (C) in the general election.

U.S. House of Representatives, Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, General Election, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Dave Loebsack Incumbent	51%	115,839
	Republican	Mariannette Miller-Meeks	45.9%	104,319
	Liberterian	Gary Sicard	1.9%	4,356
	Constitution	Jon Tack	1.1%	2,463
	Independent	Write-In	0.1%	198
Total Votes				227,175

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections in Iowa, 2012
• United States House of Representatives elections, 2012

External links

• John Archer's Campaign Website
• Dan Dolan's Campaign Website
• Richard Gates' Campaign Website
• Dave Loebsack's Campaign Website