Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, could officially face a new Republican opponent Friday, when Coralville surgeon Christopher Peters — a man seen as a darling among some Iowa libertarians — will enter the race for the state’s 2nd Congressional District, aides told The Daily Iowan Tuesday.

“We put this together really quickly, and we don’t have our paperwork all finished,” said Adam Sullivan, who will be Peters’s communications director.(Disclosure: Sullivan is a former Editor of The Daily Iowan.)

Sullivan said aides submitted a candidate affidavit by mail and Republican Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate should accept the filingon Friday.

Should the filings not be accepted, Peters could still be nominated at the party’s district convention.

Sullivan, an organizer to Peters, declined to explain the candidate’s political platform before Friday.

The district — which includes Iowa City, Burlington, Clinton, Davenport, Fort Madison, Keokuk, and Muscatine — leans Democratic but has a large group of no-party voters. According to the latest  results from the Secretary of State’s Office, the district has 169,728 registered Democrats and 144,347 registered Republicans. Records say 170,811 people living in the district identify as no-party voters.

— by Quentin Misiag