So, who is in the race? A week out from the deadline, this should be it (Senate)

I had sent a note to the Secretary of State’s office yesterday seeking information on any straggling petitions that had snuck in over the weekend, and have yet to hear anything in the midst of challenges going on. So I’m left to assume this should be fairly close to the official list of who will be running in the State Senate:

Dist. Republican 1 Republican 2 Dem/Libertarian
1 Michael Rohl Susan Wismer (D)
2 Brock L. Greenfield
3 Al Novstrup Josh Halsey (D)
4 John Wiik
5 Lee Schoenbeck
6 Herman Otten Isaac Latterell Nancy Kirstein (D)
7 V. J. Smith
8 Casey Crabtree
9 Wayne Steinhauer Suzanne “Suzie” Jones Pranger (D)
10 Margaret Sutton Nichole Cauwels (D)
11 Jim Stalzer Tom Cool (D)
12 Blake Curd Jessica Meyers (D)
13 Jack Kolbeck
14 Larry Zikmund Dave Zellmer Timothy Reed (D)
15 Thor Bardon Reynold Nesiba (D)
16 Jim Bolin
17 Arthur Rusch Nancy Rasmussen Codylee Reidmann (D)
18 Jean Hunhoff Jay Williams (D)
19 Kyle Schoenfish
20 Josh Klumb Alexander Martin (L)
21 Lee Qualm Erin Tobin Dan Kerner Andersson (D)
22 David Wheeler
23 Bryan Breitling Larry Nielson
24 Mary Duvall
25 Kris Langer
26 Joel Koskan Troy Heinert (D)
27 Judd Schompp Red Dawn Foster (D)
28 Ryan Maher
29 Gary L. Cammack Terri Jorgenson
30 Julie Frye Mueller George Kotti
31 Tim Johns John Teupel
32 Helene Duhamel Michael Calabrese (D)
33 Dave Johnson Janet Jensen  Ryan A Ryder (D)
34 Mike Diedrich George Nelson (D)
35 Jessica Castleberry Kevin Quick 

We dropped a primary in D15, when Brenda Lawrence was successfully challenged and decertified yesterday.  In fact, that had happened earlier in the same district with Independent Brian Burge.

The most striking thing about this list is that Democrats appear to have already conceded 17 of the seats – just one shy of completely conceding a majority of the races in the state senate. And in a number of them that remain it appears that successfully managed to get placeholders to keep a seat warm, in case they can find someone better to run.

This could be a year where the GOP further whittles down the number of State Senators in the Senate. Stay tuned.