Rep. Leonard Boswell (D) Elected 1996, 5th term
Born:	Jan. 10, 1934, Harrison Cnty., MO
Home:	Davis City
Education:	Graceland Col., B.A. 1969
Religion:	Reorganized Latter Day Saints
Marital Status:	married (Dody)
Elected  Office:	IA Senate, 1984-96, Pres., 1992-96.
Military Career:	Army, 1956-76 (Vietnam).
Professional Career:	Farmer.
DC Office	1427 LHOB20515, 202-225-3806; Fax: 202-225-5608; Web site: www.house.gov/boswell
State Offices	Des Moines, 515-282-1909.
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Iowa, which today seems very much in the middle of the country, was once part of the West. It was not only the home of sober farmers and pious burghers, but also the eastern terminus of the first Transcontinental Railroad, a way stop for people in a hurry to get across the Great Plains to the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. Those who stayed behind were determined to use the wealth accumulated by methodical husbandry of their fertile farmlands to implant firmly the glories of Western civilization. You can feel that impulse today in Des Moines when you look across the river from downtown at the Victorian Capitol, its gold dome above a Corinthian pediment, or Terrace Hill, the beautifully restored governor's mansion, atop a hill overlooking the Raccoon River. The nearby Living History Farms, which recreate Indian villages, frontier towns and turn-of-the-century farms, show the effort the new settlers made to put their imprint on the environment.

The 3d Congressional District covers 12 counties in central Iowa, including Des Moines's Polk County and extends mostly to the east. It is the only Iowa district that does not border another state or a mighty river on the east or west. Some 65% of its votes are cast in Polk County, but it does not include Dallas or Warren Counties which are in the Des Moines metropolitan area. Des Moines remains classically Middle America, even as it spreads into the countryside and even as Iowa farm counties' population continues to decline. The area has become a sanctuary for people from around the nation who are seeking a family-friendly urban life style. Insurance, agricultural supply, and printing and service businesses are expanding in office centers downtown and at freeway interchanges; Iowans are driving 100 miles or more to fill the shopping malls at cities' edges. Plans to bring a riverboat casino to Des Moines were scuttled when a suburban casino agreed to pay $13 million to the city. The remainder of the district is largely rural, with no city larger than 30,000. But these small towns continue to house some giant manufacturing plants. Pella (9,800) is the home of the Pella window and door maker, which employs 3,000 workers. The famed Amana colonies, which were founded in 1855 by the Community of True Inspiration, German pietists who have retained many of their old customs, is the home of the Amana appliance business; in 2001, Newton (population 15,000) appliance-maker Maytag acquired Amana in a marriage of two of the state's largest manufacturers. Polk County has historically voted Democratic, but has become more Republican as its white collar businesses grow and its blue collar businesses fade; the rural counties here have mostly been historically Republican. The result is a district split right down the middle, about as evenly divided as any in the nation: 49%-48% for Al Gore in 2000, 49.7%-49.6% for George W. Bush in 2004.

The congressman from the 3d District is Leonard Boswell, a Democrat first elected in 1996, the only new Iowa Democrat elected to the House since 1986. He is not the stereotypical Democrat, however. Boswell grew up on farms in Ringgold and Decatur Counties, near the Missouri border. He was drafted in 1956, at 22, and was a private in the Army. He re-enlisted, graduated first in his class in both fixed wing and helicopter flying school, served two years in Vietnam, and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1976; he was a teacher at the Army command college at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Boswell settled down on his Decatur County farm and became head of the local Farmers' Co-op. He managed to keep it out of bankruptcy during the farm depression of the 1980s and decided to go into politics. He was elected state senator from a six-county Republican district in 1984, served as chairman of Appropriations and, after 1992, Senate president; he was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 1994.

In 1996, Boswell ran for an open seat in the old 3d District, whose Republican congressman was running against Senator Tom Harkin. The district was largely rural and extended across the southern tier of Iowa from the Mississippi River to within one county of the Missouri. Boswell flew his four-seater Piper Comanche 250 around the district and called for balancing the budget, higher education aid and protections against Medicare reductions, all to be financed with Pentagon cuts and elimination of Medicare waste. Poweshiek County attorney Mike Mahaffey ran as a moderate Republican. Boswell was endorsed by the Farm Bureau, which usually backs Republicans. He raised more money than Mahaffey and, like other Democrats, ran ads attacking Newt Gingrich and the Republican Medicare plan. The result was a 49%-48% Boswell victory.

Boswell got a seat on Agriculture and, amid dropping farm prices, continued to support the Freedom to Farm Act. Along with all of the delegation's Republicans, he voted for normal trade relations with China, the world's biggest market for pork. His voting record has consistently placed him in the most conservative quadrant of House Democrats. Focusing on health care, he has called for expanded tax breaks for insurance coverage. Assigned to the Intelligence Committee, his extensive military background and security clearance left him well positioned to investigate the nation's response to terrorism. He voted to authorize military action in Iraq, but later criticized the Bush administration for not spending enough money for counter-terrorism.

The non-partisan June 2001 redistricting plan drawn by the Legislative Service Bureau left Boswell with a dilemma. Only seven of the 27 counties and 24% from the population in his former district were moved to the new 3d District. Decatur County was one of eight counties moved to western Iowa's new, heavily Republican 5th District. The other option was to move to the new 2d District, which leans Democratic but where he would have faced a tough contest against incumbent Republican Jim Leach. Boswell decided to move to Des Moines and run in the 3d. But Democratic state Senator Matt McCoy had already said he would run in the Polk County district; local fundraising events for Boswell by Minority Leader Dick Gephardt eventually convinced him to defer. Republican challenger Stan Thompson was less accommodating. A Des Moines lawyer who worked for George W. Bush in the 2000 Iowa caucuses, Thompson argued that Boswell was out of step with the new district's geography and philosophy. He cited the incumbent's votes against Bush's tax bill and trade promotion authority. Thompson ran a credible campaign and won several endorsements, including a joint designation with Boswell from the Farm Bureau. Boswell won by a 53%-45% margin.

After that election, Boswell said that he would break his pledge to limit himself to four terms. "I made a mistake," he explained to the Des Moines Register. "It seemed like sort of the popular thing, and I was O.K. with it." Thompson challenged him again. "It's time we elect a congressman who is on the way up and not one on the way out," he said. Boswell criticized Thompson as beholden to House Republican leaders. Although he did not endorse Howard Dean for the 2004 presidential nomination, Dean's campaign raised $70,000 for Boswell. In departures from the 2002 campaign, Thompson won endorsements from the Iowa Farm Bureau and from the Register, which praised his energy and job-creating proposals, and said that Boswell had become "almost so low-key he is no longer heard." This time, Boswell won 55%-45% and carried Polk County 57%-43%.

Committees

• Agriculture (18th of 21 D): General Farm Commodities & Risk Management; Livestock & Horticulture.
• Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (4th of 9 D): Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis & Counterintelligence (RMM).
• Transportation & Infrastructure (17th of 34 D): Aviation; Railroads.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	80	60	88	55	90	17	55	20	14	38	--
2003	80	--	100	70	--	24	45	27	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	61%	--	38%		57%	--	42%
Social	61%	--	38%		62%	--	37%
Foreign	66%	--	32%		53%	--	46%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Leonard Boswell (D)	168,007	55%	$1,545,133
	Stan Thompson (R)	136,099	45%	$862,304
	Other	213	0%
2004 primary	Leonard Boswell (D)	unopposed
2002 general	Leonard Boswell (D)	115,367	53%	$1,316,037
	Stan Thompson (R)	97,285	45%	$895,163
	Other	3,333	2%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (63%); 1998 (57%); 1996 (49%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 154,919 (50%) Kerry (D) 154,652 (50%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 132,890 (49%) Bush (R) 131,319 (48%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Third District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 1
• District Size: 7,034 square miles
• Population in 2000: 585,305; 73.1% urban; 26.9% rural
• Median Household Income: $43,176; 8.0% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 23.5% blue collar; 62.0% white collar; 14.5% gray collar; 12.7% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 90.1% White, 3.2% Black, 1.9% Asian, 0.4% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.1% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 3.2% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 20.7% German, 9.6% Irish, 7.7% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.