Longtime ex-supervisor to challenge Linn Auditor Miller

CEDAR RAPIDS - Former Linn County Supervisor Jim Houser is challenging Auditor Joel Miller in the Democratic primary.

Houser, of Cedar Rapids, filed for the June 5 ballot on Thursday.

Houser was a county supervisor from 1990 until November 2010, when he was narrowly beaten by Supervisor John Harris, R-Palo. Harris edged Houser by 166 votes of 16,778 cast despite being unable to campaign in person the last two months of the election season due to cancer surgery.

It's the second primary challenge for Miller, first elected in a February 2007 special election after then-Auditor Linda Langenberg resigned to be appointed deputy secretary of state. He won his first full term in 2008 after turning back a primary challenge from former Cedar Rapids Finance Commissioner Lyle Hanson.

Miller has had his differences with the board despite its 3-2 Democratic majority. He filed suit against the supervisors February 2010 after they refused to authorize the promotion of a deputy auditor whose duties would include reviewing independent accounts maintained by county department heads. That suit is pending.

Last year, Miller requested a partial audit by the state auditor's office of the county's accounting practices. The state auditor's report released in October recommended several changes, most of which had been adopted before the audit was completed.

Miller had questioned the practice by some department heads of maintaining the independent accounts, funded through service fees or fines, to conduct day-to-day business. Five of 14 such accounts maintained by the sheriff's office were shifted to the county treasurer's office before the state audit began last year.

The auditor's salary will be $92,574 for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Candidates have until March 28 to file for the primary. Petitions of candidacy must be accompanied by at least 100 county voters' signatures.

Two incumbent supervisors, Ben Rogers D-Cedar Rapids, and Brent Oleson, R-Marion, are the only other candidates to file so far.

Calls to both Houser and Miller were not immediately returned Thursday.