It was just a formality, but Iowa 5th District cogressional candidate Bob Chambers of Essex has gotten the necessary petition signatures to officially file nomination papers for the post held by Republican Steve King. Democrat Chambers met the requirement of getting 16 counties with 793 signatures. The 5th District is composed of 32 counties.

Chambers noted he got a lot of signers from Carroll, Pottawattamie and Page counties, and takes that as enthusiasm for his campaign. Nomination petitions are to be filed with the Iowa Secretary of State office from Feb. 25 to March 14. If a candidate doesn’t file by then, they can’t be in the June party primary and have to get on the November ballot via nominating petition.

Chambers was unsuccessful in winning the Democratic Party primary in 2006, and is looking for a different outcome when he vies with Rob Hubler. Chambers showed that voting participation could be an issue in the primary, as his release on obtaining the petition signatures noted that he’s voted in every primary and general election since moving back to Iowa in 2001. By contrast, a Chambers supporter has noted that Hubler hasn’t voted in Iowa since 1996.

As for King, he now has 30 days to file his nomination papers for either the congressional post or the U.S. Senate position some want him to pursue. He generally pushes up close to the filing date before undertaking a nomination announcement swing through western Iowa.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Iowa 5th District. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.