Locals Only

Locals only

No valleys:

This ten candidate five winner two different contests Iowa City school board race can be a bit overwhelming for the info-seeking voter. There is of course my piece with brief bios and party IDs.

Now this weekend, the Press-Citizen offers candidate statements for the eight at large candidates (but, oddly, not for two year contenders Karla Cook and Julie Van Dyke; those coming later?) Remember, you can vote for four but you don't have to vote for that many.

My picks so far:

Patti Fields

Marla Swesey

Jim Tate

The rest of the field:

Jeff Alden

Phil Hemingway

Sally Hoelscher

Jeff McGinness

Bob Porter

Read these soon; the P-C tends to archive their articles after a week.

And the Gazette has the first and so far only piece on the Kirkwood bond issue.

The Iowa City (and UHeights) filing deadline is next Thursday and Iowa City is keeping a candidate list.

We're still in need of some candidates, particularly ones willing to run on my Gonzo Platform. Add the parking meter crackdown to the moped crackdown, the don't beg in front of my jewelry store crackdown, and of course The Big One, and Iowa City is getting pretty sanitized these days. No wonder the weekend MegaBus is adding more routes; people have to get out of town for something to do.

But so far we have three in the at large race. Mayor Matt Hayek is the only one running for re-election; his folks asked me to help. I did in 2007 but told them no this time. We also have northsider Richard Finley, and backyard chicken advocate Jarrett Mitchell. Still left to check in: Mark McCallum, who came very close to knocking off Connie Champion in the `09 District B race, and Josh Eklow.

In District C, I actually have someone I'm excited about voting for: Jim Throgmorton. A couple other names are being mentioned here but no one else has filed. In another screwy aspect of Iowa City's screwy district system, it's way harder to get on the ballot in a district seat this year than at large. That's because the signatures are a percentage of the last time the seat was up. The at large seats were up in record low turnout 2009 but the district seats were elected in record high turnout 2007. AND you have to get those district seat signatures IN the district.

That said: PLEASE, lord, SOMEone else file in District A; I don't want to have to figure out who to write in against Rick Dobyns.