After a few months of exploring a second run for Congress in Iowa’s first district, Republican Ben Lange has confirmed that he will soon make his candidacy official.

James Q. Lynch reports today that Lange will formally announce his candidacy in February.

“Throughout the exploratory process, I have kept an open mind and listened carefully to the feedback I received,” Lange said. “Our performance last cycle, when no gave us a shot, has instilled confidence in Iowans that this is a race that can be won.”

Lange, 32, notes that in 2010 as a first-time candidate, he had no money, no organization, no name ID and yet lost by just 2 percentage points.

“We have the benefit of certain advantages today that we did not enjoy last time,” Lange said.

For example, it took Lange until the summer of last cycle to raise the level of resources his committee has already secured this cycle.

Having the American Future Fund drop more than a million dollars on negative messages against Braley surely helped the 2010 challenger with no money, organization, or name recognition. Since American Future Fund head Nick Ryan grew up in northeast Iowa and ran campaigns for Braley’s predecessor in Congress, Jim Nussle, I expect the American Future Fund to be a significant outside spending force in the new IA-01 this year. On the down side for the eventual GOP nominee, turnout in a presidential year should be more favorable to Braley than it was in the 2010 Republican wave year.

The Lange for Congress website still has no content other than a “contribute!” button, a sign up form, and links to the candidate on Facebook and Twitter. Presumably that will be fleshed out with some policy information soon.

According to Lynch, Lange says he has raised about $120,000 for this 2012 campaign. I was unable to find his year-end disclosure form on the Federal Elections Commission website. (This report appears to be a final accounting of Lange’s fundraising from the 2010 election cycle, and this report covers money raised during the last six weeks of 2010.) Year-end 2011 reports are due on January 31, so Lange’s new campaign finance information may become available today or tomorrow on the FEC site.

None of Lange’s 2010 primary rivals raised a significant amount of money. To become the GOP nominee this year, Lange will have to get past Dubuque businessman Rod Blum, who has been campaigning around the district since announcing his campaign in October. (A third Republican candidate, Steve Rathje, decided against challenging Braley in December.)

Blum has already filed his year-end report for 2011. He raised $71,233.40 in campaign contributions, of which $22,288.40 came from the candidate himself and $48,945.00 came from other individuals. Blum has not raised any money from political parties or political action committees. Blum reported spending just $5,168.01, leaving $66,065.39 cash on hand as of December 31.

I do not see Braley’s new financial report on the FEC site yet. I will update this post later with details about the incumbent’s fundraising and cash on hand.

Later this week, Bleeding Heartland will post a detailed review of 2011 fundraising in all four Iowa Congressional districts.

UPDATE: Braley spent the morning of January 30 at Northview Middle School in Ankeny with Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and Iowa Middle School PE Teacher of the Year Jodi Larson. The event (outside IA-01) was designed to promote the Shawn Johnson Fitness for Life Act, legislation Braley has introduced that would create “a new grant program to fund the expansion of masters’ degree programs in physical education at 10 colleges and universities.  The masters’ programs must emphasize the use of technology in PE teaching and innovative teaching practices.” Techniques developed by the University of Northern Iowa and the Grundy Center School District inspired the bill.

SECOND UPDATE: Shane Vander Hart posted about privacy concerns related to monitors used in the Grundy Center program. I am seeking comment from Braley about this issue.

THIRD UPDATE: Braley’s communications director Jeff Giertz responds,

Common sense and the same stringent standards applied to all student records should apply to data collected by high-tech PE equipment. Students should have a right to access and control the information collected, and be able to expect that their information is safeguarded and protected from unauthorized use, no matter how small the chance it is that the data collected may be abused.