Tomorrow’s the deadline

Candidates who want to place their names on the June 8 ballot for the Democratic and Repubilcan Party primaries have until 5 p.m, Friday, March 19, 2010 to submit the required number of petition signatures to the Secretary of State.  The Secretary of State’s office is keeping an updated list online.

By the close of business today, three Republicans who want to be Iowa’s next governor have filed the necessary number of petition signatures.  Bob Vander Plaats submitted his documents on March 1, the first day the Secretary of State’s office started accepting the petitions.  Terry Brantad submitted his documents earlier this week.  Rod Roberts submitted his documents today.

Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, presented his nominating petitions on Monday.  Jonathan Narcisse, a Des Moines newspaper publisher who is a registered Democrat, has said he’ll submit petitions and place his name on the Democratic primary ballot to face off againt Culver in June.  UPDATE:  Narcisse says he’s not running now.  Narcisse has one more day to get those petitions filed.  The top of his campaign website asks supporters for help on the project:

Need All Petitions ASAP!
Please return all nominating petitions with as many signatures as you can get ASAP…we need to organize and count the signatures.

Narcisse, by the way, already has said he’ll put his name on the General Election ballot, running as an independent candidate for governor.

In the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, Bob Krause of Fairfield submitted his petitions earlier this week.  Roxanne Conlin of Des Moines submitted her petitions today.  U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, submitted his petitions on March 11. 

Several potential statewide candidates who’ve put their name forward as challengers are waiting until the deadline day to submit their petition signatures, as is Congressman Steve King, the only one of the five congressman who has not yet submitted his nominating petition signatures. (Congressman King’s campaign staff just issued a press release at 5:15 p.m. saying the petition signatures were submitted sometime today; the Secretary of State’s list does not yet reflect that.)

Legislative leaders gave some tentative stats on races for the House today.  House Speaker Pat Murphy says 48 of the 56 Democrats in the House will be seeking reelection.  House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen says all but five of the 44 Republican incumbents plan to seek reelection.  Murphy says Democrats will field candidates in 70-75 of the 100 House races, while Paulsen says Republicans will field candidates in “80-plus” races.