NOM’s Candidate Loses In Iowa

Anti-gay candidate Stephen Burgmeirer, who was backed by NOM to the tune of $86,000 in TV and radio ads, lost in yesterday’s Iowa House special election.

Democrat Curt Hanson defeated Republican Stephen Burgmeier by 107 votes tonight in a special election for Iowa House District 90, according to unofficial results from the Iowa secretary of state. Hanson tallied 48.9 percent of the votes to Burgmeier’s 47.5 percent, allowing Democrats to retain their 56-44 majority in the Iowa House. The district stretches into three counties. Hanson won by more than 600 votes in Jefferson County, but Burgmeier won by more than 500 votes in Van Buren County. The race was a nail-biter and at one point, only two votes separated the candidates at 9:30 p.m. after most results came in from those two counties. It all came down to Wapello County, where results trickled in and Burgmeier won by just four votes, not enough to overcome the margin from the other two counties. The final, unofficial vote that came in just after 10 p.m. was 3,932 to 3,825. Hanson replaces Rep. John Whitaker, D-Hillsboro, who resigned to serve as state executive director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

107 votes. Whew.