Rettig, Carberry win Johnson County supervisors race

JOHNSON COUNTY - Democrats Janelle Rettig and Mike Carberry have won the election for Johnson County supervisor.

Incumbents Rettig and John Etheredge faced challenger Carberry. Rettig took 56 percent of the vote and Carberry took 57 percent, leaving Etheredge with 39 percent. One percent of the vote was write-in.

The vote pitted a Republican incumbent against two Democrats in heavily Democratic Johnson County. Etheredge, 30, of Lone Tree, was elected to the Board of Supervisors in a special March 2013 election - the first Republican Johnson County supervisor in 50 years.

But in a general election, he wasn't able to keep his seat.

Rettig, 49, of Iowa City, was elected during a January 2010 special election and was re-elected to a full four-year term in November 2010. She said she would focus on issues related to food security going forward, as well as on growing demand on county services, infrastructure and roads.

'We really have to start focusing more on people who are falling behind in our county,” she said.

Carberry, 53, of Iowa City, is a professional environmental and sustainability advocate and owner of Green State Solutions. He made sustainability central to his campaign, saying he supported infill development and developing outward from city boundaries instead of building in the middle of cornfields.

He said he planned to jump right into work.

'I'll be doing all my homework on the budget,” he said. 'With declining revenue, we might have to make some cuts. We might have to make some tough choices.”