Liberal blog Bleeding Heartland reports that former Butler County Democratic Party Chairman Bill Maske has announced he will challenge Fourth Distict U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, R-Ames, in 2010.

Maske, who has launched a Web site, is a veteran school administrator with no previous electoral experience.

The Fourth District Democratic Central Committee launched an effort earlier this year to recruit a candidate to challenge Latham, although whether Maske is the product of that campaign is unknown. Although President Barack Obama won the district by 8 points and carried all but one of the counties, and 12 of the district’s 20 state House members and eight of 10 state senators are Democrats, Latham defeated Democrat Becky Greenwald in 2008 by 20 points.