Smith secures razor-thin nomination for House District 6

The longtime banker had a close set of numbers to add up and the recent college graduate had a lesson in election night suspense Tuesday night.

Jeff Smith of Okoboji used support from Clay County to secure a close -- and unofficial -- win over Zach Whiting of Spirit Lake for the GOP nomination in Iowa House District 6. Out of 2,765 votes, only 53 votes separated the candidates.

Both Lakes-area candidates were running to succeed three-term state Rep. Mike May. The Spirit Lake businessman chose not to run for a fourth term.

"To be honest, it was a nerve-wracking night," Smith said. "It was a close, hard-fought race and I guess I'm not surprised by it. We knew this was going to come down to the wire and Zach was a good opponent. We're really excited that it turned out the way it did and I'm happy for all of my committee and all of the volunteers that put so many hours in."

Whiting took the candidates' home county 1,018-964 for 51.4 percent support. Smith offset the lead in Clay County, with a 445-338 win for 56.8 percent support.

"Spencer was the toss-up," Whiting said.

The overall count was 1,409 votes and 51 percent support for Smith. Whiting had 1,356 votes for 49 percent support. Whiting said he will let at least one night pass before calling his opponent to concede the result.

"We want to everything to be official," Whiting said. "I'm not doing this to be disingenuous to Jeff or anything -- they did a heck of a job -- but we definitely just want to wait and make sure things are official with everybody. Then I would be happy to congratulate him on a great campaign."

Smith said he considered giving Whiting a call.

"But I know how I would feel in his situation," Smith said. "He worked really hard. I know by the way I was feeling when I was down in Dickinson County and starting to contemplate the possibility of the loss -- I know the way I felt -- so, no I would not have a problem at all if he waited a day or two to make the call. That's completely understandable."

The GOP nominee appears to have a clear path to office. Democrats also held their primary Tuesday night, but did not put a candidate forward for nomination in Iowa House District 6. They could still convene a convention by Aug. 25 to present a nominee to face Smith.

"We tried to come up with somebody," said Bob Koepp, Chairman for the Dickinson County Democratic Party. "We asked probably half-a-dozen that we thought were logical candidates but nobody was willing to jump in right now."

Koepp cited several factors for why the party didn't find a candidate for a seat that was going to be vacated by the incumbent.

"Number one, the district is going to change after this census probably," he said. "I think people were reluctant to try for a term in the district as it is now structured and then have to redo something a couple of years from now. I think that was an element. I don't know that it was a major thing. I think the fact that we've had trouble carrying that seat for Democrats in this area for quite awhile has probably been discouraging. The third thing -- and I kept getting this -- they said: 'I don't want to get into politics right now. It's so nasty.' I think there's a combination of factors."

Koepp doesn't anticipate a Democrat emerging from Dickinson County before the general election.

"Regardless of whether I have an opponent or not, the voters of this district deserve their input to me and they deserve to know where I'm coming from, so, to be honest it doesn't matter if we have an opponent or not, we're going to campaign just as hard either way," Smith said.

Smith is an Iowa State University graduate who grew up on a family farm in northwest Iowa. He moved to Spirit Lake in 1994, and spent much of the last 15 years as a farm and commercial lender and the branch manager at First Bank and Trust. He left about two years ago, when First Bank and Trust changed ownership. He and his family recently moved to a home in Okoboji.

May will finish a third term in the Iowa House serving District 6, which represents all of Dickinson County and the northeast corner of Clay County, including Spencer. In announcing his candidacy in December, Smith used the phrase "out of control" to describe state spending and said addressing that would be a top priority.

Whiting, the son of Bryon and Cyndie Whiting of Spirit Lake, graduated from Spirit Lake High School in 2006. After graduation he accepted a scholarship to attend Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. He graduated from Stetson in May 2010 near the top of his class with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Spanish Minor.

During college, he completed internships in the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. Representative Steve King.

"For the most part, I'm real proud of both candidates," May said. "I think they tried to stick to the issues, they tried to suggest to the public and the press what they would do in response to the economic issues and social issues that face the district. I've been really proud of that. Again, I think they both worked hard. Obviously Jeff has worked at it longer because Zach was still in school but I'm really impressed with how hard they worked and how good a job they want to do for the district. All in all, I'm pretty pleased."

The outgoing representative had a word of advice for the candidate who succeeds him in the Iowa House.

"Listen, listen, listen to the public," he said. "You get out there. You attend every meeting you can possibly attend. You listen to the public and keep your ear to the ground. Don't go to Des Moines and forget who sent you there. That's my best advice. It's a hard job, but in the end, I'm proud I represented the district and if they'll listen to the folks, they'll get some good advice and they'll go down there and do the right thing."