5 Reasons Why Iowa City Council Special Election Primary Is Just That (and You Should Vote) - Part 2

In the last installment, I provided background information on all of the candidates. In this posting, I want to provide some analysis and a way to consider who is the "best" candidate in this cycle for you. Let's begin with the current make up of the council:

The current make-up of the council is 50% men and 50% women; 1 person of color; No self-identified members of LGBTQ community; Median age +/- 59 (4 members age 60 or above, other two in their 40s); four located in northside neighborhoods, one in a westside neighborhood, and one in an eastside enclave.

Jim Throgmorton (Mayor): Professor Emeritus/Urban Regional Planning, (Retired) - Near Northside
John Thomas: Landscape Architect, (Retired) - Near Northside
Rockne Cole: Attorney-at-Law (Self-employed; Private sector) - Eastside
Pauline Taylor (Mayor Pro-Tem): Registered Nurse, UIHC (Employed; Public Sector) - Westside
Mazahir Salih: Community Organizer at the Center for Worker Justice (Employed; Non-Profit) - Far Northside
Susan Mims: Financial Advisor (Self-employed; Private sector) -  Far Northside

With a special election, it is worthwhile to consider the issues that are important to you--and to consider the "special sauce"--what the person brings to the council that is currently absent from it. In considering overall representation and demographics alone (and not including gender as the council is currently equally split), the ideal candidate would be a person from a differing vocational field; a person of color; a LGBTQ community member; in the less than 39 age range; and living in either the Center; Far Eastside; or Westside. Issues

The Candidates

40% men and 60% women; 1 person of color; 1 self-identified members of LGBTQ community; Median age +/- 40 (3 candidates age 40 or above, one 39 and the last 25).

Ann Freerks: Creative Coordinator - (Employed; Public Sector)- South Center
Ryan Hall: University of Iowa Student - Center - (Not Employed) - LGBTQ (self-identified)
Christine Ralston: Director of Career Services - (Employed; Public Sector) - Near Eastside
Bruce Teague: Owner of multiple healthcare/real estate businesses - (Self-employed; Private sector) - Westside - LGBTQ (Self-identified)
Brianna Wills:Excutive Director - Old Brick - (Employed; Non-Profit) - North Eastside

With a special election, it is worthwhile to consider the issues that are important to you--and to consider the "special sauce"--what the person brings to the council that is currently absent from it. In considering overall representation and demographics alone (and not including gender as the council is currently equally split), the ideal candidate would be a person of color, a LGBTQ community member; in the less than 39 age range; living in either the Center; Far Eastside; or Westside. Besides issus that matter to you, the candidates that you might consider are:

Ryan Hall: 4 factors Student status; LGBTQ, under 30, Central resident
Bruce Teague: 3 factors: Person of color; LGBTQ; Westside resident
Ann Freerks: 1 factor: Central resident
Christine Ralston: 1 factor: Under 40

I won't tell you how you should vote. I'm hoping that if you took the time to read both of my postings, you have enough insights to form your own opinion. I'm heading off to early vote this afternoon. I hope, if you haven't voted yet, that you will take the time to do so. As a note: this particular election is a great example why instant runoff voting (IRV) should be considered. With a short run-up to the primary, I think it is tough to be a newcomer and be successful. If the candidates had until October 2nd to run their race and voters had the chance to vote for their first and second choice, it is likely that the "best" candidate would win. Sadly, if the turnout is very low on September 3rd, we'll never really know. With IRV, you have a longer window to run a campaign and the voters only have to show up once. A win/win, if there ever was one! Happy Voting, everyone!

If you don't know where to vote, the Johnson County Auditor has this nifty poll locator which can tell you when and where to vote.

5 Reasons Why Iowa City Council Special Election Primary Is Just That (and You Should Vote)

On Tuesday, September 4th, voters in Iowa City will be making a difficult choice about which two of five candidates that they will send forward to a special election on October 2nd with the winner finishing up the term that Kingsley Botchway began before departing to Waterloo for career advancement. In this two part series, here are profiles on the five candidates (The quotes below come from the Cedar Rapids Gazette, as well as the links to the candidate's own guest opinions. Questions posed by The Iowa City Press-Citizen are also linked to each):

Ann Freerks  (Questions from Press-Citizen Editorial Board)
Community Service: Former member of Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission, Historic Preservation Commission, President of the Longfellow Neighborhood Association and President of the Longfellow PTA, Member of Advisory Board for Any Given Child

Current Role: Creative Coordinator, University of Iowa, Office of Strategic Communications

"I have come to understand how everything is interconnected. We need healthy, balanced, sustainable neighborhoods for all. Our streets and bike trails need to be connected. Our bus system and parks need to meet our changing needs. We need to preserve the character of our downtown but not be afraid of growth in the right areas and with the appropriate character and scale. This growth should not be at the expense of something else in the community, but an addition to it."

Ryan Hall  (Questions from Press-Citizen Editorial Board)
Community Service: Green Iowa Americorps, Current member of Iowa City Board of Adjustment, President of River City Housing Collective

Current Role: Student, University of Iowa Environmental Studies Program

"This campaign is about an Iowa City community that has limitless potential to address poverty, build a sustainable future, clean our water, and prepare our young folks to be leaders. I am running because young people need to get involved in community issues and local politics. We must bridge the gap between the student population and the residents of Iowa City. We must come together to face the issues in our community. I will be a voice for all people. This includes Iowa City’s working class, students, renters, immigrants, people of color, and other marginalized groups of residents."

Christine Ralston  (Questions from Press-Citizen Editorial Board)
Community Service: Former Vice-chair of the Generation Iowa Commission, Current member of Iowa City Housing and Community Development Commission

Current Role: Director of Career Services, University of Iowa Law School

"I am uncompromising in my search for honest, creative solutions to the problems our community faces. “It is too hard,” is a challenge, not a response. And so, when facing complicated, intersectional issues like raising wages for city workers, I won’t accept at face value that we cannot afford it. I will ask about other revenue sources, about what we as a community value and how we prioritize it, about what it means to be a good member of our community. Only then do we decide".

Bruce Teague  (Questions from Press-Citizen Editorial Board)
Community Service: Iowa City Chamber of Commerce, Iowa City Noon Day Rotary, Target Small Business, Iowa Olmstead Consumer Task Force, Mental Health and Disabilities Advocate, AARP (past chapter president), IC Compassion/Immigration BIA Center (steering committee and past chair), Johnson County Livable Communities (committees included Task Force on Aging, and vice chair, Cleaning 4 A Reason

Current Role: Owner/CEO, Caring Hands & More Home Health & Family Service; Caring Hands & More Multigenerational Center; and CHARM Homes

"Iowa City faces highly complex issues: affordable housing, livable wages (for city workers and the workforce in general), effective transportation, economic development, and diversity and inclusion. If you elect me to the Iowa City City Council, I will hear your voice! I will work diligently for policies that honor the belief that human rights are our right. It is time for all voices at the table!"

 Brianna Wills  (Questions from Press-Citizen Editorial Board)
Community Service: Public Relations Chair, Special Populations Grant for Voting Access, Johnson County Board of Supervisors, Planning and Zoning Commissioner, Meals on Wheels Participant, Iowa City Noon Rotary, Johnson County Democrats Central Committee, District Wide Parents’ Organization (DPO), Co-President 2014-2015, Trustee, Kickers Soccer Club, Iowa City Community School District Foundation Board, DPO Rep. 2014-2015, Iowa City Community School District Foundation, Parties for a Purpose committee, United Action For Youth (UAY), Festival of Flowers Committee, Operation Backpack, HACAP Food Reservoir, 100+ Women Who Care, Iowa City Junior Service League, Holiday Home Tour-Chair and New Member Chair, Herbert Hoover Elementary: PTA President 2013-2014, Neighborhood Park Planning Committee, City of Iowa City/Neighborhood, Distinguished Young Women of Iowa Scholarship Program, VP-Board of Directors, Iowa City Panhellenic Alumnae Council, Iowa City Community School District Interview and Selection Committee, Iowa City Community School District Advisory Committee on Magnet Schools, Iowa City Community School District PERL Levy Committee

Current Role: Executive Director, The Old Brick

"Iowa City is growing. This means more people will need more housing and services. The council benefits from collaborating with the nonprofit sector, which has experience serving the most vulnerable. One of my top priorities as council person is to make sure no one in our community feels physically or psychologically isolated."

Update 8/31: Additional insights of each candidate via Little Village

Resurgency of Urgency in Progressive Politics

With the election of Barrack Obama in 2008, Democrats and other progressives were self-satisfied that the times they were a changin'. Midterm elections in 2010 and 2014 proved to be telling for falling in love with mythology as conservatives took the Senate and held the House and as a result, The Supreme Court has two young, Federalist Society-friendly justices and a possible third on the way.

  What progressives always seem to forget is that the other side is in a constant state of panic and there is always urgency to stop something or someone. Whether it is they are after our guns, the illegals are taking our jobs, or they are taking our religious freedoms, you have to give the conservatives credit--they sure do know how to start a fire.

   People may have been surprised that a PT Barnum-huckster-quack like Trump could be elected, but when your hair is on fire, you go with the guy who says he'll make your hair great again. And, despite all the malarkey that he has perpetrated, 40+ % of Americans still buy what he is selling and it is spreading to unlikely communities, including the African American community.

  With the special elections and midterms this November, there is a renewed sense of urgency by Democrats to turn this mess around. This time the fire is in reverse. Women's rights are under continual siege, the LGBTQ community is being discriminated in the workplace, health care for those who can't afford it has become both less available and the replacement doesn't help those with pre-existing conditions, and Trump is a liar and probably a thief, and so forth. Democrats are coming out of the woodwork to run for office and women are doing very well in their efforts.

  It may well be that a newer and possibly more progressive Democratic party is emerging or perhaps it is a blip on the radar, particularly as 2020 looms and old war horses consider running for the presidency again. Whatever the case may be, both parties are looking for infusions of younger, fresher faces. So far, it looks like the Democrats have to prove that the right is slipping and the House and possibly the Senate can stave off a thuggish Trump and send him packing in 2020.

  However, to do this, they need to be able to show what they can do with the spoils in November.  Winning an election is good, keeping momentum moving in your direction is quite another. Also, the issues that are so divisive are not going to solve themselves, it is for advocates of democratic values to repeatedly beat the drum of for those issues which progressives and some Republicans may find agreement. My urging to all, keep beating the drum, keep knocking on the doors, but also keep the home fires burning--because you know the other side will be.

Politicizing Tragedy:How Cristhian Rivera Became Willie Horton Overnight

Personal Note: The death of Mollie Tibbetts is without question tragic. She was a student at the institution in which I work. As a community we mourn her life. She was a young woman denied the most fundamental right of all: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What follows in no way excuses her alleged killer, but presents perhaps a sadder truth:  politics loves a tragedy that fits a narrative. 

Yesterday afternoon at 4 pm, a press conference was held to discuss the facts at hand of the death of Mollie Tibbetts, a 20 year-old college student who had been missing for five weeks. The alleged killer, Cristhian Rivera, is a Mexican national who lived in Guernsey, Iowa. He secured employment at a local farm as a worker (and was not screened out via the e-verify system). According to his attorney, he is not an undocumented worker or an illegal immigrant, but that doesn't matter. Every day in the United States hundreds of murders take place, but this case has made international news. It fit a narrative.

No sooner had the press conference ended when statements from the Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds and Senators Joni Ernst and Charles Grassley were released. Reynolds said, “As Iowans, we are heartbroken, and we are angry," she said. "We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can (to) bring justice to Mollie’s killer.” Ernst and Grassley released a joint statement which said in part, "As Governor Reynolds said, ‘our immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community.’ Too many Iowans have been lost at the hands of criminals who broke our immigration laws. We cannot allow these tragedies to continue," Grassley and Ernst said in a joint statement Tuesday evening. Later in the evening, President Trump chimed in and said in West Virginia, "You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman,” he said, shaking his head. “Should’ve never happened.” Even Vice-President Pence joined in the clamor stating, "We commend the swift action by local, state, & federal investigators working in Iowa in apprehending an illegal immigrant, who’s now charged with first-degree murder. Now, justice will be served. We will never forget Mollie Tibbetts."

In spite of the tragedy, these politicians chose to make the moment, not entirely about the death of a young Iowa woman, but to make it about the "broken" immigration system and also to cast Cristhian Rivera as yet one more mark against undocumented migrant workers who do much of the manual labor required from the US agricultural industry. 

If this politicizing a tragedy seems vaguely familiar, there is precedent. During the 1988 presidential campaign, Republican operatives used a specific case against Democratic nominee for President, Michael Dukakis involving a convicted murderer, Willie Horton, who was weekend furloughed, due to a loophole in the law and went on a crime spree which included rape and robbery before he was rearrested and re-sentenced. The program, itself, while being created prior to Dukakis being elected governor and ended during his administration, nonetheless was used through a series of ads to make Dukakis seem weak on crime. It appears that Cristhian  Rivera is the new Willie Horton, a poster-villain for the Republican agenda and potentially a game-changer for the fortunes of Republicans running for office in Iowa.

What we might also conclude is that Mollie Tibbetts' case has been made special because of the amount of publicity surrounding it. Curiously, in Iowa, during the investigation of Mollie Tibbetts a young woman's body was found on a gravel road in Lee County. For a moment, investigators thought it might have been Mollie Tibbetts. When it was determined it was not her, but another 20 year-old women who reportedly died by jumping out of the car of her boyfriend during an argument (and him driving off and leaving her there), it was largely forgotten by the public. Her name was Sadie Alvarado and her case is still under investigation. In Colorado this week, a US citizen murdered his wife and two daughters and buried their bodies in a shallow grave. Any other week this is a big story. Not this week. Doesn't fit the narrative.

Also lost is perspective on murders and how relatively rare they are in Iowa. In a state with 3.1 million people, between 2000 and 2016, 857 Iowans have been murdered or roughly 2.3% of the entire population. Mollie's death is tragic because her family has lost a daughter, her boyfriend lost his love, and her extended family lost the joy of knowing her. To turn this tragedy into a Willie Horton moment to win elections is the worst type of politics: the politics of fear-mongering. I trust that common-sense will help Iowans and others to see through this callous political posturing.  But, you never know. It may fit the narrative.

(Updated 8/22 at 3:06 pm)to include the information from the attorney of Cristhian Rivera that he is not an undocumented worker.

A Personal Note to the Iowa Democratic Party

Dear Iowa Democratic Party Candidates,

How are you? You may or may not have noticed that the Republicans in our state are making a solid case to retain their leadership in November. They point at low unemployment, increased manufacturing, a poll that shows Iowa is one of the best places to live. They are painting the picture that with them at the wheel, things are getting better. And you're saying what?

Iowa is a state where 1/2 of the population is not working either because they are too old or too young. This means that those who are working are carrying a lot of weight. Wages need to be increased for sure--and good of you to kind of talk about that. But, how about pushing to keep more young adult aged Iowans in Iowa? Between UNI, ISU, and UI, we educate over 80,000 students and only about 55% stay in Iowa upon graduation.

Iowa is also a state that has a pretty amazing healthcare system that is being undercut by privatizing medicare and cutting resources for training. Why not create a single-payer system using these great existing resources and putting services where they are needed? How about your plan to shore up a failing mental health system that has watched consolidations without improvement to care?

And what a great time to be pro-farmer? With the federal government making it harder than ever to make it as a farmer, unless you're one of the big boys, what's your plan to help farmers to farm? At the same time, can your plans also help use clean up the water supply in our state? Can your plans give back local  control for CAFO approvals, encourage sustainable farming practices and deal with runoff issues?

What about education policy? Do you have ideas to help rural and small towns to have schools that meet the educational needs of their students? Can teachers continue to make good earnings for good work and be able to also have healthcare and other benefits that are affordable?

And what about labor? Is it good to allow Republicans to dismantle labor laws and to get rid of collective bargaining and even the Labor Center, as if the middle class would have been around without labor fighting for it? What is your message for the hardworking Iowans who are not seeing much more income, but are seeing more inflation taking away from what they bring home.

What about jails and prisons in Iowa. What is your plan to make sure that we don't incarcerate unfairly and make it less likely that prisoners will be returning to prison?

Iowans need to hear from you about that.

Best of Luck,

Popular Progressive (Redux)