A Des Moines legislator is accused of making obscene phone calls over his cell phone — and a political science professor says Representative Mike Cataldo will face questions about the case in his re-election race, should he choose to run again.Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford doesn’t believe the case can have statewide implications, though. He says the Democrats are hoping to chip away at the Republican majority and it could be a factor there.Candidates for the legislature begin filing nomination papers today with the Secretary of State — March 17th’s the deadline for getting those papers submitted. Republicans now intend to field a candidate to run in Cataldo’s district, which has more democrat than republican voters. That means it had been considered a “safe” seat by democrats, according to Goldford.Cataldo, who’s 34 years old and married, has hired a lawyer and pleaded not guilty to the charges. A trial date of March 10th has been set for Cataldo’s case and if convicted of the misdemeanor harassment charge, he faces only a maximum of 30-days in jail and a fine of up to two-hundred dollars.
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