It turns out, the turnout at the polls on Tuesday did NOT set a record for a June primary election. Almost 280,000 Iowans voted on Tuesday. Secretary of State Paul Pate says more than 300,000 voters took part in primary elections in 2002 and 2010. Some media reports on Wednesday stated THIS YEAR’s election was a record-breaker. Not so. “I was hoping to make it the big one, but going back and looking at the archives, it looks like it’s in the top three,” Pate told Radio Iowa.

Participation in the DEMOCRATIC primary — which featured contested races for governor and the state’s three congressional seats — DID set a record for THAT party. “The count I last saw puts Democrats at a pretty significant number – I think it was 176,529,” Pate said.  Just over 13-percent of Iowa’s roughly two-million registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s primary election. Provisional ballots are still being counted and will affect the overall numbers. They could also impact the Republican nomination for Iowa Ag Secretary. For now, it appears Mike Naig (rhymes with ‘egg’) finished just short of the 35-percent support he needed to earn the nomination. According to Pate, Naig could still get there. “We can’t answer that until we’ve gotten all of the provisionals counted and the counties have the chance to do their preliminary canvassing,” Pate said. “So, election night isn’t over – still some totaling going on.”

If Naig DOES end up below that 35-percent threshold, delegates at the Republican Party’s state convention will choose between Naig and four other candidates to decide who will appear on the November ballot.

(Radio Iowa)

Now that party primaries are settled in Iowa, 84 female candidates will be running on this November’s ballot — and that’s a record. It’s a 29 percent increase in women candidates from just two years ago. The two women who won Iowa congressional races Tuesday also won by large margins. Dianne Bystrom, an Iowa State University professor who leads I-S-U’s Center for Women and Politics, has been watching this year’s primary races.  “What we’re seeing across the country with women running is that they’re not only winning, but they’re winning by these impressive margins in races where there’s two or three other candidates,” Bystrom said.

Abby Finkenauer of Dubuque won the Democratic Party’s nomination in the first congressional district with two-thirds of the total vote in a four-way race. Cindy Axne of Des Moines was running against two male competitors — and won with 58 percent of the vote. “Really impressed with their margins of victory,” Bystrom says. “I was up until after one to see what was going on for the secretary of state’s office on the Democratic side and it was a little closer there than I thought it might be, but — certainly — great wins for women.”

Democratic Primary voters nominated Deidre DeJear to run against incumbent Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate in November. If DeJear is elected, she would be the first African American to serve in statewide office. Bystrom says research is showing 2018 voters are more inclined to vote for a female candidate.”They see a woman as more honest, more collaborative, more of a change agent and I think certainly women have been using that to their advantage in a number of these primaries,” Bystrom says. “…It’s not only happening just in Iowa, it’s happening in other states as well…Women are winning by these large margins or they’re winning when they weren’t expected to win.”

Iowa’s political parties can fill open slots on the ballot before the August deadline for designating General Election candidates — so there may be more than 84 female candidates on Iowa’s fall ballot.

(Radio Iowa)

The Creston Police Department reports 38-year old Ryan Rinehart, of Creston, was arrested Wednesday evening. Rinehart was taken into custody at his home at around 7:15-p.m., on a Black Hawk County warrant for Forgery. He was being held in the Union County Jail awaiting transport to Black Hawk County.

SAC CITY, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa man has pleaded guilty in another marijuana case. The Sioux City Journal reports that 35-year-old Keegan Cross entered the plea Wednesday in Sac County District Court. The charge: manufacturing a controlled substance. His sentencing is scheduled for July 18. Cross and his mother, 58-year-old Glenda Turnquist, were arrested in February after Sac County deputies found marijuana plants and equipment used for growing them in the Schaller home Turnquist and Cross shared. She’s pleaded not guilty, and her trial is scheduled to begin July 17.

The two were given probation after pleading guilty in an earlier case. They were arrested in March 2017 after deputies found a similar growing operation and 80 marijuana plants in the same house.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man who was granted a new trial in the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend has been sentenced to prison for life. Nicholas Luerkens was sentenced Tuesday in Linn County District Court. Luerkens was in court May 17 for a hearing on a motion before his second trial but unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty of first-degree murder.

Luerkens admitted stabbing 29-year-old Lynnsey Donald to death on April 21, 2015, in front of Donald’s son in a Marion grocery store parking lot. Luerkens then injured himself. The Iowa Court of Appeals last year ordered a new trial for Luerkens after ruling the trial court erred in denying his request to submit an insanity defense instruction to the jury.