Not all Democrats enjoyed an Obama-esque margin of victory Tuesday night.

Democrats in the Iowa House say they picked up one seat Tuesday night, with two more races still being tabulated.  Some of them were real squeakers.

It turns out, incumbent Democrats were in more trouble than expected.  State Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, lost his seat by less than 50 votes according to results posted online by the Iowa Secretary of State.  State Rep. Dolores Mertz, D-Ottosen, hung on to her seat by 42 votes.  And State Rep. Wesley Whitead, D-Sioux City, had a very narrow 6-vote lead with enough absentee ballots to count Wednesday to change the result.

On the other side of the aisle, State Rep. Dan Rasmussen, R-Independence, found himself losing in a heartbreaker to Democrat Gene Ficken by a margin of only 66 votes.

Although we are feeling a little uncomfortable making our final calculations based on these preliminary results, which are already reported to be unreliable in at least one case, you can find them on the Iowa Secretary of State’s live election results page.