Indian American Swati Dandekar retains Iowa seat for Kerry
Democrat Swati Dandekar defeated her opponent Cory Crowley by 10 percentage points to retain the Iowa Assembly seat..
Indian American Swati Dandekar, a Democrat who registered victory over her Republican contender two years ago to make it to the Iowa State Assembly, has been re-elected.
Dandekar was the first Indian-born American citizen to win a state legislature, though not the first Indian American, having been preceded by Democratic Majority leader Kumar Barve of the Maryland State Assembly.
She defeated her opponent Cory Crowley by 10 percentage points. Poll numbers for one more precinct were to come in.
"It feels good. It was a tight race in the sense that Senator (Charles) Grassley (a Republican) had poured lots of money in my opponent's campaign. I'm glad I had a good war chest to have radio and TV ads," Dandekar told IANS on telephone.
"The last two and a half weeks, my opponent attacked me negatively. He took my record in bits and spun it in a very negative way. But I think the District 36 people like positive campaigning and are highly educated and very progressive, and they like you to be fair. They just sent a message that you can't do that," Dandekar added.
