Plenty at stake in today's vote

Gazette Editorial Board

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It's Election Day, time to take time to get to your polling station and vote in local city council elections, if you haven't already voted absentee or early. And Corridor residents certainly have plenty of reasons to get themselves to the ballot box.

In Cedar Rapids, where only one incumbent, Monica Vernon in District 2, is up for re-election, there are several candidates running on platforms that represent a dramatic departure from the council's current view, especially when it comes to rebuilding downtown.

District 4 candidates Steve Rhodes and Jean Leaf, at-large candidates Carl Cortez and Justin Wasson, and District 2 candidate Taylor Nelson all have said they think the council is spending too much money on projects downtown. Cortez has gone as far as to say Cedar Rapidians are “sick of” downtown.

Other candidates, including Ann Poe, at large, and Scott Olson, District 4, say the anti-downtown sentiment is unnecessarily divisive. They argue that since downtown suffered the most damage during the 2008 floods, it only makes sense that it would take a significant amount of funding for repairs.

Thus, today's results could have a significant impact on the council's priorities in the future.

In Iowa City, current Mayor Matt Hayek is the only incumbent running for one of the four of the council's seven seats to be filled in today's election.

Other council candidates have raised a number of issues they say are important - from budgets to public safety to chickens.

But in that town, too, the downtown development direction is perhaps the biggest issue voters will weigh in on via the candidates they choose.

That's especially true in candidates' varying views about the best way for the city to encourage economic development, and what to do about a perceived unfriendliness toward businesses and developers.

In Coralville, candidates disagree about economic development policies, too, with some saying the city needs to reign in its use of tax increment financing, or TIF, on new projects.

And in Marion, candidates are split in their support of the central corridor development plan - especially in the mayoral race.

Mayoral candidate Nick Glew, currently an at-large member of the Marion City Council, has called the project a critical investment in Marion's future. His opponent, Allen Bouska, opposes the project as proposed, and has offered an alternate plan he says is more reasonable, less “grandiose” as critics have leveled against the project as it stands.

And then there's the state Senate District 18 race where the winner of the special election to fill Swati Dandekar's seat - Liz Mathis or Cindy Golding - will either preserve the Democrats' slim majority or throw the mix into a 25-25 tie in a race that has drawn national attention.

Important decisions in local and state government hang in the balance today. Citizens in the Corridor clearly have ample reason to make their voices heard, and vote. That's true in many other area communities, too.

Will you and other voters take the time to exercise what your right and responsibility? Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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