Bergus’ challenge to Taylor is politically-motivated

With chaos throughout the world, there is understandably not much to discuss with this year's Iowa City Council Election. But people are asking why at-large Council member Laura Bergus jumped from running at-large to run against incumbent District A Council member Pauline Taylor.

The answer starts with the meeting on Jan. 10, when the council met to appoint a successor to Council member Janice Weiner, who resigned after being elected to the Iowa Senate. There were four rounds of nominations before the council selected Andrew Dunn. Laura Bergus nominated Mandi Remington in each round.

Only months later, city council candidates were gathering signatures to run in this year’s election.

For most of the summer, it appeared that incumbent Pauline Taylor would be unopposed in District A, and it appeared that three people would be running for two at-large seats: incumbent Laura Bergus, and candidates Mandi Remington and Josh Moe.

If both Laura and Josh Moe were to win the two at-large seats, Laura’s protege Mandi Remington would be left out in the cold. One week before the filing deadline, Laura jumped into the District A race against Pauline Taylor. Laura is a resident of District A, so this is legal. But in my 45 years of following the Iowa City Council I have never witnessed last-minute political maneuvering like this.

All Iowa City voters can vote for the District A seat. On Nov. 7, we’ll find out if Laura's gamble will trump Pauline's eight years of helping constituents in Iowa City.

Gary Sanders

Iowa City