The congressman from the 2nd District is Dave Loebsack (LOBE sak), a Democrat elected in a stunning 2006 upset. He defeated 15-term Rep. Jim Leach, a Republican who often was out of step with his party but who held views that seemed well-connected to this district. A native of Sioux City, Loebsack lived as a child in poverty with his mother, grandmother, and three siblings in a two-bedroom house and worked as a high school janitor to pay for college. He got a master’s degree at Iowa State University and went on to the University of California (Davis) to earn a Ph.D. in political science. From 1982 until his election to Congress, he was a professor of international relations at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, a few miles from Cedar Rapids. He had been active in local politics for several years, including a stint as fundraising chairman for Linn County Democrats. Read More

The congressman from the 2nd District is Dave Loebsack (LOBE sak), a Democrat elected in a stunning 2006 upset. He defeated 15-term Rep. Jim Leach, a Republican who often was out of step with his party but who held views that seemed well-connected to this district. A native of Sioux City, Loebsack lived as a child in poverty with his mother, grandmother, and three siblings in a two-bedroom house and worked as a high school janitor to pay for college. He got a master’s degree at Iowa State University and went on to the University of California (Davis) to earn a Ph.D. in political science. From 1982 until his election to Congress, he was a professor of international relations at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, a few miles from Cedar Rapids. He had been active in local politics for several years, including a stint as fundraising chairman for Linn County Democrats.

When Loebsack decided to challenge Leach in 2006, he insisted that his campaign was not an attack on Leach’s three decades in Congress but rather on the GOP leadership in Congress; he called Leach, a moderate Republican, an “enabler” for his party leaders. The two had enjoyed a friendly relationship before the contest. A prominent member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Leach had lectured to Loebsack’s classes on several occasions.

The war in Iraq was a pivotal issue from the start of this contest. And although Leach was the only member of the Iowa delegation to oppose the war, Loebsack sought to tie him to President Bush’s defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, on the basis that Leach had been an aide to Rumsfeld when Rumsfeld was a House member from Illinois in the late 1960s. Leach refused to disparage his former boss, calling him a friend and insisting that his ouster would not change the administration’s policy in Iraq. The campaign remained civil, with Leach emphasizing the need to promote ethanol and Loebsack calling for national health insurance.

But Leach may have underestimated the hostility toward the war in the district’s population centers, especially in the university communities that welcomed Loebsack’s anti-Iraq war message. Loebsack raised $522,000, which ordinarily would have not been nearly enough for a competitive House race, and he had little support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. But Leach unwittingly helped Loebsack overcome those obstacles. Leach eschewed modern campaign practices, particularly negative campaigning, and was a notoriously reluctant fundraiser. When the Iowa Republican Party sent out negative mailers targeting Loebsack, Leach told them to stop. He refused to accept contributions from political action committees or from sources outside the district, and raised only $491,000. Leach did earn the endorsement of the district’s major newspapers, but it wasn’t enough. Loebsack beat him, 51%-49%. Of the district’s 15 counties, Leach carried 10. Loebsack won by 367 votes in Linn County (Cedar Rapids), the largest county in the district. The election hinged on the second-largest county, Johnson (Iowa City), where Loebsack got 58%, a margin of 8,525 votes.

In Washington, one of Loebsack’s first official actions was to sponsor a measure to name the federal building in Davenport, Iowa, the James A. Leach Federal Building; it passed the House in May 2007. He spoke out against the war in Iraq and voiced frustration with the Democrats’ failure to change Bush administration policy. However, after noting progress being made by U.S. forces during a 2007 visit to Anbar province, Loebsack abandoned his goal of removing all U.S. troops within one year.

Loebsack has a consistently liberal voting record. He belongs to the Center Aisle Caucus, an informal group of around 40 House members seeking to establish greater civility between the parties. He has introduced legislation to expand the school lunch program and to help children eat more nutritious meals at school. Mostly, he tended the home fires in his first term, focusing on securing $28 million in earmarks, the often-criticized special provisions in appropriations bills added by individual lawmakers, to help his flood-stricken district. The House in May 2009 passed his “green schools” bill authorizing $6.4 billion for modernizing and making environmental improvements to schools. The following year, it passed his legislation to offer competitive grants for community colleges and local business working together to help train workers.

In 2008, Loebsack won a comfortable re-election, 57%-39%, against political neophyte Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican ophthalmologist. Miller-Meeks returned for a rematch in 2010, hoping the national political climate favoring her party would give her a boost. She criticized Loebsack’s support for the health care overhaul and called for reforming the tax code. She was able to remain roughly even with Loebsack on fundraising, and some polls showed her ahead in the closing weeks. But Loebsack’s work on behalf of flood-stricken communities helped offset his support of President Obama’s policies. The Gazette, which had endorsed Miller-Meeks in 2008, backed Loebsack, calling him “a thoughtful legislator who remembers his roots.” He won, 51%-46%.