Hey JC, It's Voting Time: Primary True Colors

Johnson County residents have the opportunity to vote early in party primaries today at the Iowa City Public Library, it will be interesting to see how the voter turnout registers.

For the record, my unanimous choices for the County Supervisor's race are Rod Sullivan and Terrence Neuzil. Both are public servants in the best sense of the term and support many progressive issues that I support including the human rights ordinance, the sensitive areas ordinance, and the joint communication center. Additionally both support human services and voted to increase the county contribution to the Shelter House. Rod was a FAIR! organizer and Terrence, like I, was an John Edward's supporter.

The vote I'm still working through is the third person to support. Pat Harney has served for a long-time and is chairing the committee that is looking into the justice center. Terry Dahms, the only non-incumbent, is a trail proponent and is concerned about how taxes are being spent. I personally like Pat Harney, but he does not always represent a viewpoint I support, but I don't have a strong feeling that Terry Dahms would bring a viewpoint that is not already on the BOS.

In the County Auditor's race, I will write-in a candidate for the office. I admire Mona Shaw's raging against the machine that Tom Slockett represents and I appreciate the work that Tom has done to make voting easier. I believe we need a change of the guard because of the internal dynamics within the office, but realistically don't see it happening in this important election cycle.

I am actually surprised that the Republican's haven't put up a candidate this time around for this race. Clearly there are people who believe that Tom Slockett has not lived up to the responsibilities of his office, but also recognize that Mona Shaw's candidacy is seen as largely personal and that she would have a very steep learning curve to running the office well, which makes for a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" vote.

As for Tom Harkin, Dave Loebsack, Vicki Lensing, Lonny Pulkrabek--they are running unopposed in the primary. Depending on the write-in votes in the Republican or Democratic primaries, Vicki Lensing, Lonny Pulkrabek, and the winner of the auditor's race will be unopposed in the fall.

As for Dave Loebsack, he will have a formidable opponent in Dr. Minnette Miller-Meeks (Dr. 3-M?), but with the national trend favoring Democrats, he should be able to stave off the challenge.