Miller-Meeks in lead for 2nd Congressional district race

With 80 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, Mariannette Miller-Meeks was leading in her attempt to win a third shot at U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa.

Miller-Meeks, the former director of the Iowa Department of Public had nearly 49 percent of the vote, with state Rep. Mark Lofgren, of Muscatine, trailing at nearly 39 percent and Matthew Waldren, of Eddyville, in third, with 12 percent.

If Miller-Meeks holds on to win that means she will again be the Republicans' choice to take on the Iowa City Democrat, even though she lost to him in 2008 and 2010.

Late Tuesday, the Associated Press declared Miller-Meeks the winner.

In an interview late Tuesday, Miller-Meeks was confident.

'We want it to be official, but we feel very good. We've been ahead all night,' she said. 'I anticipate we're going to win, so we feel very confident we'll be going forward.'

With 344 of 425 of precincts reporting, Miller-Meeks had 12,068 votes, compared with 9,599 votes for Lofgren.

Waldren had 2,999 votes.

Miller-Meeks has sought to make the case that the third time will be the charm against Loebsack, arguing the 2nd District's makeup is different from in the previous two bouts.

Essentially, the substitution of Scott County for Linn County makes the district a little less Democratic. Also, she's said the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has ripened it as a political issue this year more so than in 2010.

Miller-Meeks also has highlighted her background in the military, and has criticized the Obama administration over the Veterans Affairs health care problems.

On Tuesday, Loebsack met with the acting administrator of the VA hospital in Iowa City.

Miller-Meeks entrance into the race came late, months after Logren's.

Lofgren, who is in his second term, had argued that, as a state lawmaker, he'd worked to cut spending and taxes — and that he could take the state's successes at working out bipartisan compromises to the gridlocked Congress.

Waldren, the third candidate, ran a low-dollar campaign, and he sought to make the case to voters that most spending on the federal level is not constitutional.