Son of former Iowa co-Majority leader running as Democrat

Image has not been found. URL: http://media.iowaindependent.com/Lundby-Daniel-Photo-300x333.jpgAn eastern Iowa man will run for House District 68, which includes Marion and the surrounding areas, he announced today.

Daniel Lundby, 35, son of the late state Sen. Mary Lundby, will run as a Democrat, though he has previously identified as a Republican.

“I changed my party affiliation from Republican to Democrat because the Republican Party and the people I was supporting no longer placed the best interests of Iowa and its voters before their own party agenda,” he said.

Lundby said the run was inspired in part by his mother, who was both a Senate Minority Leader and co-Majority leader in the last decade, before her death in 2009. Though Mary Lundby was a Republican, Daniel Lundby said he believed there were pieces of current Democrat agenda she would have agreed with, and that he is also using as part of his platform.

“Being my mother’s son, I want the chance to continue her work for a better Iowa,” he said. “Unfortunately, the needs of our young people now seem less important with the Republicans insisting on zero percent growth for local schools and education cuts to state universities — none of which my mother would approve of.”

Lundby attended Catholic schools while growing up in northeast Iowa, but said he does not belong to any denominational churches in Iowa. As the heat is turned up against the Nebraska abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart, who has made intentions of opening a late-term abortion facility, Lundby said his personal beliefs would not be a factor in any future votes on legislation regarding late-term abortion regulation.

He did not identify himself as pro- or anti-abortion.

“Once elected, I will have to talk to the people I will represent, and see what the people want,” Lundby told The Iowa Independent. “I want to allow my voters to speak with me directly.”