Four Cedar Rapids at-large candidates recalibrate campaigns

Four candidates still standing in a field of seven in the race to win one of two at-large City Council seats were back at it on Wednesday, retooling their campaigns for a Dec. 3 election runoff vote in which a small turnout is apt to take place.

In Tuesday's city election, 22.3 percent of the registered voters cast ballots for at-large candidates. In a runoff election in December 2009 in a Cedar Rapids at-large council race, 9.5 percent of the registered voters voted.

"Just getting voters to turn out again for a runoff is a real struggle," said Ralph Russell, the retired former president and CEO of engineering firm HR Green Co., who finished second in the field of seven at-large candidates on Tuesday.

Tim Box, deputy Linn County auditor, said his office will be ready the week of Nov. 18 for early voting and absentee voting in the Cedar Rapids at-large council runoff race.

The seven at-large candidates in Tuesday's race needed to win 25 percent of the total vote plus one vote to avoid the Dec. 3 runoff, and none of the candidates did. The top four candidates will now compete for the two seats.

Incumbent council member Chuck Swore, who was Tuesday's top vote-getter with 7,949 votes, finished 241 votes short of the votes needed to win outright, the Linn County Auditor's Office said Wednesday.

Russell was second, with 6,340 votes, Susie Weinacht had 6,226 votes and Carletta Knox-Seymour, 4,927 votes.

Swore, 70, who runs a one-man business consulting firm and is a retired general manager and vice president at Acme Electric Co., on Wednesday said it was difficult to obtain the required number of votes to win on Tuesday in what he saw as a qualified field of seven candidates.

Russell, 67, went further, calling it "impossible" in such a large field.

Each voter was allowed to cast two votes for the two at-large seats - so obtaining 25 percent of the total vote was similar to obtaining a vote from 50 percent of those who voted.

Sufficiently sure that a runoff was coming, Russell said he already had prepared contract proposals to secure space on five billboards in the city in anticipation of the runoff round.

Susie Weinacht on Wednesday said she was still working out her campaign strategy with her supporters for the month ahead. Her face on billboards in the city will stay in place for now, she said.

"I'm a fresh face, and I have a positive perspective that will move us forward," said Weinacht, 50, part-time manager for RWDSU-UFCW Local 110 and part-time executive director of the Iowa PTA. "That's where I'm sticking and that's where I'm staying."

Carletta Knox-Seymour, 60, owner and operator of a small business and a member of the City Planning Commission, on Wednesday said she was "relieved and excited" that round one of the at-large race was over and the runoff was ahead.

Knox-Seymour said incumbent Swore's inability to win re-election on Tuesday was an indication that voters are looking for change in the at-large council seats on the council.

"They want someone to come in with a different perspective to bring diversity to our City Council," she said. "I am ready … to bring something different to the table, to make sure all the different voices in Cedar Rapids are heard."

Incumbent Swore said his central message won't change in the runoff round.

"I'm proud of what we've done, and I look forward to another four years. I want to keep the team in place that has gotten us where we are," Swore said.

Russell said he will try to differentiate himself from the others by emphasizing his long career at HR Green, where he said he spent 44 years working with cities and their infrastructure projects. With Tuesday's approval of the local-option sales tax for streets, Russell said he has the technical background to help make sure the $18 million a year in new city revenue is spent wisely.

Russell raised the most among the at-large candidates in campaign contributions before Tuesday's election, with Weinacht and Swore raising less, and Knox-Seymour much less. Much of what has been raised to date has been spent, according to their campaign disclosure reports.

Overall, Tuesday's city election in Cedar Rapids was an endorsement for the current direction of City Hall.

Mayor Ron Corbett easily won a second term, and two-term incumbents Kris Gulick in District 1, Pat Shey in District 3 and Justin Shields in District 5 all easily won re-election.

At the same time, voters in Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Fairfax voted as a block to extend the 1-percent local-option sales tax for 10 years.

In the Cedar Rapids council races, Shields was unopposed, and Shey and Gulick each won the most votes in their respective council district precincts.

Corbett won the majority of votes in all but two of the city's 44 voting precincts. In Precinct 9, which voted at St. Pius Catholic Church, 4949 Council St. NE, Corbett won 150 votes to challenger Greg Hughes' 164.

And in Precinct 34, which voted at the Linn County Election Depot, Corbett won 128 votes to Hughes's 133.

The precinct-by-precinct tallies are only so informative because early votes are not listed in precinct results, but instead, are reported in one separate group.

Corbett, Shey, Gulick and Swore all won the most early votes in their races.

Corbett won more than 80 percent of the vote in three precincts: Precinct 12, which votes at Oakland Church of the Nazarene, 3000 42nd St. NE; Precinct 24, which votes at Bethany Lutheran Church, 2202 Forest Dr. SE; and Precinct 25, which votes at Calvin Sinclair Presbyterian Church, 715 38th St. SE.

Only five of 62 voting precincts in the five cities of the metro voting block - Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Fairfax - voted against the extension of the 1-percent local-option sales tax for 10 years. All five were in Cedar Rapids: Precinct 9 and Precinct 34, which voted against Corbett; Precinct 37, which votes at Hope Lutheran Church, 2736 Bowling St. SW; Precinct 38, which votes at the Elks Lodge, 801 33rd Ave. SW; and Precinct 44, which is one of two precincts that votes at the Kirkwood College Recreation Center, 6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW.