A professor announced last week that he will run for the Republican nomination in Iowa’s House District 10, but will wait until after the semester is over to start campaigning.

Jim Kurtenbach, associate professor of accounting, is one of three Republicans in the race for the district that includes most of Story County and a portion of Hamilton County. The district does not include Ames or Gilbert.

Kurtenbach will run against James Cutler of Zearing and Ray Holtorf of Jewell in the June 4 primary. The winner of the Republican race will face Democrat Dennis Parmenter of Huxley in the November election.

Kurtenbach decided to run for the position when he received several phone calls from people asking him to run after current Rep. Russ Teig, R-Jewell, suffered a stroke in February. Teig announced he is unable to continue serving the district.

“I guess my running for state representative was as planned as Russ Teig’s heart attack,” Kurtenbach said.

“I thought that some day I would want to run for elected office, but didn’t believe it would be any time in the near future. I’m a relative newcomer to politics, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

Kurtenbach said he will continue to teach accounting if he is elected to office, but will cut back on his course load. He also said his legislative salary would go to the Iowa State budget for the College of Business.

“I already discussed my plans with the administration at Iowa State and they have been very cooperative with everything,” Kurtenbach said. “I feel that both the university and I would benefit from the deal, especially during the current budget crisis.”

Kurtenbach said he plans to focus on making changes to the Iowa economy. He said he believes the business climate is not as friendly and supportive as it should be toward a strong public education system. He said other areas in the state could learn from the way the Regent universities have dealt with current state budget problems.

Michael Dale, vice chairman of the ISU College Republicans, said Kurtenbach has met with members of the group to discuss campaign plans and what he will do if elected.

“If he is elected it will not be that big of a deal, because he is planning ahead of time how to deal with both positions,” said Dale, freshman in liberal arts and sciences.

“He will be very successful if he is elected because he knows he has to set aside some of his duties as professor. He is willing to make sacrifices and knows about time management with both jobs.”

Kurtenbach is also a professional pilot, former owner of a construction company and chairman of the Story County Republicans. He has been a professor at Iowa State for 11 years and lives in rural Nevada with his wife, Annmarie, and their two sons, Daniel, 17 and Joseph, 13.