A special election is underway today in northwest Iowa to fill a vacant state senate seat.
Republican State Senator Bill Anderson of Pierson resigned this fall to take a job as executive director of the Cherokee County Area Economic Development Corporation. The person elected today will serve the remainder of Anderson’s term, which expires in 2018.
The district in Woodbury and Plymouth Counties has twice as many registered Republican voters as Democrats.
First-term State Representative James Carlin, a Republican attorney from Sioux City, faces Democrat Todd Wendt, the retired superintendent of Le Mars schools. Wendt’s late father, Roger Wendt, served in the Iowa House for a decade.