Incumbent Mary Jo Wilhlem defeated Senator Bartz by 126 votes in a very contentious election, where at one point Bartz was accused of joining the War on Women and of being demeaning to women.

[2][7] Bartz was appointed (January, 2002) Special Assistant to the Undersecretary, Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.

[8] From July 2004, he was Regional Assistant Chief, Central, for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

He was a management representative of the Chief, providing direction of NRCS programs and activities and overall leadership and supervision to state conservationists in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

[citation needed] Bartz launched a drive to gather petitions asking County Recorders to deny marriage licenses for same-sex marriages after Democrats thwarted efforts to launch a constitutional amendment in the Iowa General Assembly following the Iowa Supreme Court's 2009 ruling in Varnum v. Brien authorizing same-sex marriage in Iowa.