Mike Fitzgerald
In addition to reelection an incumbent governor, Iowa voters selected incumbents — from both parties — to fill all statewide offices. State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, a Democrat, won a ninth term and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, also a Democrat, won an eighth term.
“In spite of being disappointed about what’s happened to so many friends, I feel a great deal of gratitude as well. Gratitude, first and foremost, to the voters. The voters in Iowa have just been so good to me, giving me a chance many, many times to have this job I love,” Miller said.
Bill Northey of Spirit Lake, a Republican who has served two terms as the state agriculture secretary, was reelected to a third term.
“I’m really looking forward to the next four years,” Northey said. “We’ve got some great stuff going on water quality and showing that Washington, D.C. you need to work with farmers, not regulate them. If you do that, you get things done.”
Governor Terry Branstad appointed Republican Mary Mosiman to be state auditor in May of last year and she won her first bid for election to the post last night. The other statewide race went to a candidate who had once served in the job for one term in the late 1990s. Republican Paul Pate, the former mayor of Cedar Rapids who was seeking to return as Iowa’s Secretary of State, was declared the winner by the Associated Press by a narrow margin over Democrat Brad Anderson, a political consultant who managed President Obama’s 2012 Iowa campaign.
The partisan break-down of the Iowa legislature changed little based on last night’s results. Democrats retained a two-seat edge in the Iowa Senate. Republicans added four seats to their majority in the Iowa House.