NEW YORK – 
If former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack wins a House seat in 2012, she’ll end her state’s ignominious record of zero women elected to Congress or the governor’s mansion. But she’ll have to get through Tea Party favorite Steve King first.
Christie Vilsack wants to run for Congress, and that means running against history.
In announcing Wednesday that she’ll form an exploratory committee for a likely challenge to outspoken conservative Steve King, Iowa’s former first lady is giving Democrats a credible chance to capture the seat. She also could be her state’s ticket out of a tiny, exclusive, and undesirable club.
Iowa, it turns out, is one of only two states that has never elected a woman to the House, the Senate, or the governor’s mansion. The other, in case you were wondering, is Mississippi.
No offense to Mississippi, which did open the nation’s first public college for women in 1884, but the dishonor is particularly unexpected—and embarrassing—for Iowa. While Mississippi was dead last in a 1998 study of civic culture in American states [PDF], Iowa is noted for engagement, tolerance, equality, and
