Eastern Iowa election results...

http://election.kcrg.com/live_results.aspx


Linn County - Cedar Rapids Mayor
Cedar Rapids
48 of 48 (100 %) Precincts Reporting
Kay Halloran 12,737 51 % (I believe she may have a mandate...)
Scott Olson 12,082 49 %

Linn County - Cedar Rapids Council At Large
Cedar Rapids
48 of 48 (100 %) Precincts Reporting
Brian Fagan 12,984 20 %
Pat Shey 12,642 19 %
Don Thomas (i) 8,350 13 %
Tomas Podzimek 7,539 11 %
Wade Wagner (i) 7,492 11 %
Michael McElmeel 6,319 10 %
Dave Hogan 5,607 8 %
Scott Cahak 4,218 6 %
Robert Bates 1,096 2 %

Linn County - Cedar Rapids Council District 1
Cedar Rapids
11 of 11 (100 %) Precincts Reporting
Kris Gulick 1,337 28 %
Tara Youells 1,159 24 %
Nancylee Ziese 916 19 %
Donald Ross 652 14 %
Lester Schmitz 474 10 %
D.J. Arnold 245 5 %

Linn County - Cedar Rapids Council District 2
Cedar Rapids
11 of 11 (100 %) Precincts Reporting
Sarah Henderson 2,545 47 %
Patricia Powers 1,275 24 %
William Harnish 399 7 %
Dennis Hill 298 5 %
P.T. Larson 291 5 %
Randy Nading 276 5 %
Kevin Dyrland 232 4 %
Garry McCune 105 2 %


Linn County - Cedar Rapids Council District 4
Cedar Rapids
10 of 10 (100 %) Precincts Reporting
Chuck Swore 3,001 60 %
Sally Schaab 1,285 26 %
James Cannon 712 14 %


Linn County - Cedar Rapids Council District 5
Cedar Rapids
10 of 10 (100 %) Precincts Reporting
Justin Shields 2,177 53 %
Lynn Johnson 848 21 %
Sandy Bell 637 15 %
Kenneth Stulz 463 11 %

The city's first female mayor - and a supporter of an anti-gay amendment - was defeated. One council member did not stand for re-election. The top vote getter was a new resident in SC, but his dad is a bigwig in the state Republican party - Hoffman.

The good news is that a true progessive did win a seat on the council - Rixner - and good things are expected from him. Sioux City still has a ways to go, but at least not all news is bad from western Iowa.

CR's new City Council is not too bad at all...lots of strong labor. There will be runoffs in the three closest districts, so there is still some suspense.

Kay Halloran is Mayor! I was a little worried when her opponent started running TV ads. What a pleasant surprise.

:toast: to Mayor Halloran!

did you all have the telecom referendum thing?

Out of those that won outright thus far....Halloran should be great for our city, as should Fagan, Swore, and Shields. All 4 were endorsed by the Hawkeye Labor Council. I have my reservations about Swore, but he is a long time union guy and has the respect of a lot of dems around here.

Pat Shey also won a seat, but I'm not all that excited about it. He is a repug, although I don't know what style of repug he is.

Don Thomas and Tomas Podzimek will be in the run off for the last At-Large seat...Podzimek HAS to win. Don Thomas (who is our current streets commissioner) represents everything that was wrong with our country-club-commission that we have in office now. Podzimek is environmentally friendly (Sierra Club), a small business owner, a veteran, and embraces a lot of fresh ideas (as opposed to the status quo presented by Don Thomas).

Kris Gulick and Tara Youells will be in the run off for District 1. Youells is endorsed by the Hawkeye Labor Council (I forgot that yesterday). I really don't know much about either. Pretty positive that Youells is a Dem.

Sarah Henderson and Patty Powers (love that name) are in the run off for District 2. Sarah is very cool (I worked with her on the 'Fifteen in 5' Selection Committee), she is also a Republican. She worked for our current Mayor Paul Pate's campaign and I think worked for him when he was sec of state? She did not give me the impression of the intolerant neo-con type of repub, and was pretty rational. I don't know much about Patty Powers, other than she has a cool name. I am glad I don't have to make a decision to vote in this race, as I like Sarah but would struggle voting repub, even in a non-partisan race.

Sherry Cherry (another cool name) and Jerry McGrane are in the run off for District 3. Sherry is an African-American woman in our most African-American neighborhood, a very nice lady who seems sincere and passionate. Jerry is the President of the OakHill-Jackson Neighborhood Assoc, one of our "core" neighborhoods, and is also sincere and a nice fella. I think both are independents? Can't recall off the top of my head, but Jerry has been endorsed by the Hawkeye Labor Council.

Overall it could have been a little better, could have been a lot worse. There will be 2 District seats up again in 2 years (District 4 and another one...its early) and one of the at-large seats (the one that will be either Podzimek or Thomas).

against the republicans? :thumbsup:

Justin was definitely the guy that I supported and volunteered for...but I probably can't claim him as "my" guy...

He is a mover and a shaker locally...President of Hawkeye Labor Council (the AFL-CIO), a long-time democratic supporter...very active in the last election cycle...friend of Kerry's...and on and on.

I am very happy for him to have won!

LOL...I will make my appearance as the newest weapon in 2007, when my district seat (won by Swore) and an At-Large seat are up for re-election. After seeing some of these candidates and experiencing my first local election I definitely regret not giving it a shot. I let money be the reason I felt I couldn't compete this go round and it definitely would not have been the case. Live and learn I guess.

I'll keep a few bucks in the bank for your 2007 bid!

just because she's cute? Fess up, IA_Seth!

She is a Republican who loyally votes that way, she voted against the change of government in CR (something I REALLY wanted), and she worked for Paul Pate a little too much for my liking...

It takes a lot of beauty to overcome those types of things!

She IS nice though, and definitely doesn't come across as a neo-con or a "bad" republican. I was very open with my distrust of Republicans and we still were able to work together and become friends during the 'Fifteen in 5' process.

Nice try Ms Maggie! I WILL get ya for that one.

Patty Powers (Sarah's opponent) is also a Republican.

With that in mind I am all for supporting Sarah Henderson to win this race, as I respect her intelligence and, having worked with her, know the way she thinks.

Having been on the "Fifteen in 5 Selection Committee" with me I was able to see first-hand her priorities for our community, and most of them matched up with mine.

If anyone happens to be in District 2 in Cedar Rapids (or know someone who might be), please urge them to vote for Sarah!

And no Maggie, it's not just because she is cute.

Is THAT how you choose your candidates? :wow:

If by THAT you mean based on looks anyway...

I do choose them, especially locally, based on the WAY they think and their priorities for the community. You can't always predict every vote that will come up in a 4 year term, but if you can trust the thought process of a candidate then I think you can trust them to decide things at least close to the way you might.

I believe Sarah is also going to be strong voice to advance the "Fifteen in 5" initiatives, and having spent a good part of 5 months of my life working on the ideas, and the countless hours by a lot of other citizens, I don't want to have them be forgotten!

Ames had an essentially uncontested mayoral race, but there were three hotly contested City Council races. The big issue in Ames has been a rezoning case that would allow a retail development (a so-called regional mall) east of Interstate 35, an area slated for industrial growth in our long range planning. The City Council has been dismissing it citizens and arrogantly pushing for the mall.

Progressives organized a fight against the pro-mall City Council. Ironically, the City Council voted 4-2 last night to approve the zoning change right after they learned that the voters supported a new Council that is strongly opposed to the change.

For the at-large position:
Russ Cross (incumbent, pro-mall) - 42.26%
Jim Popken (progressive) - 57.22%

For Ward 1:
Robin Habeger (pro-mall) - 41.51%
Dan Rice (progressive) - 58.2%

For Ward 3
Daryle Vegge (incumbent, pro-mall) - 42.97%
Jeremy Davis (I don't know what he represents) - 7.77%
Ryan Doll (ISU student and progressive) - 49.03%
Because Ryan Doll received less than 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff between him and Daryle Vegge. However, with some hard work, Doll should be able to displace the incumbent Vegge.

This was a major coup for progressives. I am told that the last time an incumbent lost an election in Ames was in 1983, and we have a chance in defeating two conservative incumbents.

My ward did not have a race this year, so I worked for the at-large candidate Jim Popken. But I will see what I can do to help Doll in the runoff.

His ward is heavily populated by ISU students, and the ISU Democrats worked hard to get the vote out. However, only about 10% of the registered voters voted in his ward (it was only about 15% city wide). It is very tough to get college students to vote in local elections. And the runoff comes during finals week. GOTV will determine the winner, as always.

Tell me about it!!

UNI is in the same Legislative District as I am.

Luckily the Democrats got the vote out and we are now represented by Jeff Danielson (Senate) and Bob Kressig (Rep.).

i'm totally impressed. mason city got a new mayor. bang, who's got money all over town. he'll be gentle, but firm i think. our big winner was the option to have a municipal telecom utility. i think i heard 70% voted against mediacom's multi-million dollar campaign to scare us with visions of failed companies and millions in tax dollars burning. the money they spent on such a silly gamble is telling.

Hope you enjoy it here and that is good to hear about Ames. I live in Marshalltown and might be moving to the Ames area in a year or so.

I volunteered for Dave's Congressional run, and he's a great pick for North Liberty.


:bounce:

http://www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=98533&cat_id=123

A big surprise came in North Liberty where a winning write-in campaign has some people wondering.

North Liberty Councilman Dave Franker won the mayoral election with 387 write-in votes and while it is completely legal to write in a candidate's name, the man Franker beat believes the mayor-elect was a little sneaky.

North Liberty still has evidence of three mayoral candidates but look at the ballot. Notice only two names and North Liberty's web site only lists two mayoral candidates.

Those two men lost to write in candidate Dave Franker.

<snip>

Franker said, "I felt like maybe a little like (President Harry) Truman did with the Dewey defeats Truman newspaper."

Winning a write-in campaign that wasn't really announced much more than a week or two ahead of time and beating out two opponents is pretty impressive.

During the last election cycle, when involved with Project Progress, I spoke to Dave a lot about his ideas about alternative energy, mainly wind power, that I hope he still believes in.