The Iowa Secretary of State last Tuesday released the official, statewide, precinct-level results of the Nov. 8 general election, and the numbers show Perry voters chose every loser on the ballot.
With the exception of non-losing U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, people in Perry’s three precincts picked every Democrat candidate in the running, from the presidential race down to the state and county races, and every Democrat candidate lost her race.
The race for the U.S. presidency fairly represents the overall pattern for Perry voters in the GOP landslide. Iowans as a whole gave Republican nominee Donald Trump 51 percent of their votes, and Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton received 41 percent of Iowans’ votes.
The proportions among Dallas County voters as a whole were exactly the same as the state’s: 51 percent for Trump and 41 percent for Clinton. In Perry’s three precincts, however, Clinton took a 55 percent share of the votes to Trump’s 38 percent.
Similar margins repeated themselves up and down the ballot in the GOP landslide, with incumbent Republicans representing the Perry area retaining their seats in the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Iowa Senate, Iowa House of Representatives and on the Dallas County Board of Supervisors, the only county-level seat contested in the 2016 general election.
Trump won every precinct in Dallas County except Perry’s three, Waukee’s third precinct and West Des Moines precincts 222, 225 and 226. Grassley took all 34 precincts in the county, and Third District Congressman David Young won every precinct in Dallas County except the three in Perry.
In races for the Iowa General Assembly, Republican incumbent Rep. Clel Baudler of Greenfield won a 10th term in the Iowa House of Representatives, beating his House District 20 rivals Democrat Scott Heldt and Libertarian Bob Boyle, both of Perry, and Independent Ryan Ketelsen of Panora.
House District 20 comprises all of Adair and Guthrie counties and portions of Cass County and Dallas County, including Perry. District-wide, Baudler won with 50 percent of the votes, with Heldt capturing 28 percent, Boyle 10 percent and Ketelsen 7 percent.
Within the five Dallas County precincts of District 20, however, Heldt took 47 percent of the votes to Baudler’s 30 percent. The Perry native handily won the three Perry precincts and eked out a two-vote margin of victory in the Spring Valley-Dallas precinct but lost in the Lincoln-Washington-Linn precinct. Heldt lost to Baudler in all other precincts in District 20.
Boyle received the second-most votes in Perry’s second precinct, outdistancing Baudler by four votes.
In the District 19 contest, covering southern and eastern Dallas County and a small part of northwest Polk County, Republican incumbent Rep. Ralph Watts of Adel retained his District 19 seat in the Iowa House of Representatives by winning every precinct in his district except Adel’s first precinct and the De Soto precinct, which were captured by his Democrat opponent Bryce Smith of Adel.
Sen. Jake Chapman, the Republican incumbent from Adel, easily won reelection to the Iowa Senate with 65 percent of the vote. His opponent in the District 10 contest, Democrat Matt Paladino of Guthrie Center, took 35 percent. Senate District 10 takes in all of Guthrie and Adair counties, much of Dallas County and a small part of Cass County.
Dallas County Supervisor Mark Hanson of Waukee, the Republican incumbent representing the second supervisor district, won every precinct in the county except the three in Perry, which were won by his Democrat rival, Julie Stewart of Waukee. Hanson took 61 percent of the more than 35,000 votes cast. Stewart won 39 percent of the votes.
The rural-urban division in Dallas County is sometimes thought to be a point of partisan division as well, but the 2016 general election did not bear out this difference. If urban voters in Dallas County are defined as those living in Urbandale, Waukee and West Des Moines, with the rest of the county defined as rural, then 55 percent of votes in Dallas County were cast in urban areas and 45 percent from rural areas.
Of the total number of Republican votes cast, the urbanites accounted for 54 percent and the rural voters 46 percent. Of the total Democrat votes cast, the urbanites accounted for 55 (about 21,000 votes) percent and the rurals 45 percent (about 17,000 votes). In sum, both city folks and country folks were divided between Republicans and Democrats in equal proportions.
Perry’s Bluejay blue voters are similarly surrounded by Republican-gerrymandered districts to the north, where Republican incumbent Jerry Behn of Boone won reelection in Iowa Senate District 24, taking in Boone, Greene and Hamilton counties and parts of Webster and Story counties. Behn carried all counties in the district.
Republican incumbent Chip Baltimore of Boone won reelection in Iowa House District 47, which covers all of Greene County and most of Boone County.
The race for Greene County Board of Supervisors saw Republican incumbents Mick Burkett and John Muir turn back Democrat challengers, while Republican incumbent Guy Richardson, who lost in the primary election and ran as an Independent in the general election, was outdistanced by Republican newcomer Peter Bardole, who will probably prove more reliably pro-CAFO than Richardson.
In Boone County elections, Republican newcomers Chad Behn and Bill Zinnel won seats on the Boone County Board of Supervisors, defeating Democrat Greg Piklapp and two-term Democrat incumbent Tom Foster.
In the race for seats on the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors, Democrat incumbent Jerome Caraher was ousted by Republican challenger Jack Lloyd, while Republican incumbent Supervisor Mike Dickson easily won reelection over Democrat David Wood.
In sum, the 2016 general election reveals Perry as an island of blue in a sea of red — not only in Dallas County but in the region.
In other Dallas County races, Republican Julia Helm ran unopposed for the Dallas County Auditor’s seat, capturing 99 percent of the votes cast. Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard, a Republican, also ran unrivaled in his reelection bid.
In the county’s non-partisan races, Julie Ann Connolly and Marc Meyer were elected to the Dallas County Hospital Board of Trustees. The Dallas County Agricultural Extension Council saw Matthew Ellerman, Lorinda Inman, Brent Schwenneker and Nickolette M. Stajcar elected to four-year terms.
Dan Golightly was reelected to the Dallas County Soil and Water Conservation District Commission, and Mike Beeler and David Felt were write-in winners.
In the race for a seat on the board of the Fox Creek Benefited Water District, seven people each received one vote, and a winner from among four of them was drawn Nov. 22 from a plastic cup by Mark Hanson, chair of the Dallas County Board of Supervisors. Peter James was randomly chosen to serve the three-year term.
All judges in the county district and appellate courts were returned to office.
