Secretary of State Michael Mauro lost his bid for reelection on Tuesday night and when he arrived home at about 1:30 Wednesday morning, Mauro discovered his home had been ransacked by burglars.

“They tried to take my TV off the wall and they were unsuccessful, but they did some damage pulling that out and went through the house and took some jewelry and credit cards and birth certificates and passports and all that stuff,” Mauro says. “They were in a little safety deposit box, and they walked off with that.” 

Mauro guesses the thieves were looking for cash. “Just like you’d see if you were on TV, they went through all the rooms and threw all the stuff around, but they didn’t really vandalize the house other than just going through the draws and throwing stuff around,” Mauro says.

Republican Matt Schultz defeated Mauro on Tuesday and Schultz will be sworn in as secretary of state in January.  Governor-elect Terry Branstad, a Republican, said yesterday that Mauro is well-respected for the fair way he ran elections, and Branstad’s considering Mauro for another job in state government.  Branstad and Mauro talked by phone Wednesday.

“I thought it was very nice of Governor Branstad to call. He was certainly very gracious on the phone and said he’d be interested in seeing if I’d want to be part of his administration and I told him certainly, so we agreed to talk later,” Mauro says. “And that’s how we left it.”

Branstad has announced his campaign manager, Jeff Boeyink, will be his chief-of-staff when Branstad takes office in January. Branstad’s campaign spokesman will also serve as Branstad’s communications director. Dave Roederer served as Branstad’s chief-of-staff in the 1990s and Roederer is heading up Branstad’s “transition” team for the next two months.