Democrat from Cedar Falls submits ‘immediate’ resignation from State Senate

A long-time legislator from Cedar Falls resigned abruptly Thursday afternoon.

Democrat Jeff Danielson had been a state senator since January of 2005. He’s a Navy veteran and for the past 25 years he’s worked as a Cedar Falls fire fighter. He resigned from that job yesterday, too. Danielson told the Iowa Starting Line blog and KWWL Television that he wouldn’t be leaving the state senate if he hadn’t decided to leave his fire fighting job.

According to The Waterloo Courier, at least eight other Cedar Falls fire fighters have resigned in the past five months out of frustration over the city’s decision to train police to perform fire department functions.

Danielson told KWWL he had a new job in the Cedar Falls area, but details of that job were still under wraps at 10 p.m. last night. Danielson’s senate district covered all of Cedar Falls, the community of Hudson and a portion of Waterloo. He won the district by 18 points in 2016. The governor must now schedule a special election to select a replacement who’ll serve the district until the 2020 election. The district looks to be competitive ground for both parties. There about about 850 more registered Democrats than Republicans in Senate District 30.