Republican State Senator Larry McKibben Retiring

State Senator Larry McKibben (R-Marshalltown) has officially announced that he will not be running for re-election in Senate District 22 in Marshall and Hardin counties.

Last month, Iowa Politics ran a story saying that McKibben was contemplating retirement. Since then the speculation was that McKibben and the Republican Party were busy looking for someone else to run in his place. As of now there seems to be no candidate that is waiting in the wings to run for this seat.

That leaves Steve Sodders running on the Democratic side in a race that was decided by 800 votes in 2004. Sodders is a Deputy Country Sherriff and raised over $17,000 last fall.

After hearing that state Republicans will most likely not be putting as many resources into Senate races and the closeness of this District in 2004, this seat is looking like it will be a Democratic pickup come November.