Oleson seeking challengers to unseat two Linn supervisor colleagues

Supervisor Brent Oleson has launched a campaign to replace Democrats with Republicans in Linn County government.

Democrat Supervisors Jim Houser and Lu Barron, both up for re-election and the longest-tenured members of the county board, will likely face Republican challengers recruited by Oleson if they make it through the June primary, and Oleson is trying to drum up challengers to run for Treasurer and Recorder.

The District 4 supervisor from Marion is calling it the “4 Challengers, 4 Change” campaign and is writing about it on his blog.

Oleson's efforts to trim the budget or cut building projects consistently fail by a 4-1 vote on the Board of Supervisors, leaving him to make a speech or write a blog post to express his dissent. He said until he gets two like-minded supervisors on the five-member county board, he won't accomplish anything.

“I can count, and until I can count to three, it doesn't matter,” he said. “I can talk all I want, I'm just howling in the wind.”

John Harris, the mayor of Palo, has filed papers to run for supervisor in District 4 as a Republican. He will face Houser in November if both of them make it through the primary.

Houser called Oleson's explicit push to run him and Barron out of office a “purely political” move. The two men often argue from opposite ends of the table during supervisor meetings. Houser, who sees himself as a quiet public servant dutifully working to provide services to a taxpaying public, is irked by Oleson's aggressiveness.

“I'm all for people's differences of opinion,” Houser said. “But at the end of the day you're supposed to do what's right for the people of Linn County.”

Even in a year when Republicans expect good turnout in November, unseating incumbent Democrats in Linn County won't be easy. Houser, Barron and Recorder Joan McCalmant have a combined 47 years experience in office.

Treasurer Mike Stevenson said Monday he won't run for re-election. Sharon Gonzalez, one of his deputy treasurers, filed papers to run for the post.

Oleson said he isn't looking for an opponent to Democrat County Attorney candidate Jerry Vander Sanden, who hopes to replace his boss, outgoing County Attorney Harold Denton.

Houser, who announced his re-election bid Monday, will face at least two challengers in the Democratic primary - Palo Mayor Pro Tem and Alliant Energy employee Paula Gunter, and Eric Johnson, a Cedar Rapids native and third-year law student at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.

Lu Barron is running for re-election in District 1. No challengers have filed papers. The deadline to file nomination papers with the Linn County Auditor's Office is March 31 and the primary is June 8.