Incumbent Dave Jacoby faces challenge from Stephen Knoner for Coralville’s House District 86

State Rep. Dave Jacoby, a Democrat from Coralville with more than two decades of experience in the Iowa Legislature, hasn’t faced an opponent since 2010. This year, he’s being challenged by Stephen Knoner, a Republican and first-time candidate for House District 86.

The district, which is predominantly Democrat, covers Coralville and portions of Iowa City.

Dave Jacoby

Jacoby, 68, has served in the Iowa House since 2003, when he won a special election following the resignation of Rep. Dick Meyers. Before that, he served two terms on the Coralville City Council.

  Buy Photo

At the Statehouse, Jacoby is the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. He also serves on the Commerce, Natural Resources and Government Oversight committees. Jacoby has put his experience as a retired workforce development supervisor and STEM coordinator at Kirkwood Community College and the University of Iowa to work as a member of the Iowa Workforce Development Board and the Governors STEM Advisory Board, each for 10 years.

When asked to name the three most important issues facing the state, Jacoby lists four: restoring personal freedoms by removing government from “our bedrooms, patient rooms, libraries and checking accounts”; addressing water quality and cancer rates “simultaneously”; tax reform; and eliminating puppy mills, which he said can be achieved through inspection and enforcement.

Jacoby, who last year supported a bill that limits future growth of Iowa property owners’ tax bills, said he supports “true tax reform.”

“The last decade has been spent on political ploys that benefit the very rich,” he wrote in a questionnaire distributed to candidates by The Gazette. “We must simplify the system of property taxes, reduce sales taxes, and develop a real flat tax that benefits the middle class.”

While Jacoby doesn’t say he would support spending more money on education, he does believe the state should provide education funding that is “predictable, steady and reviewed annually” and he says the Legislature should eliminate unfunded mandates that are “thrown at” local government and school boards.

“The last decade has been a Republican defunding of our public schools, test scores have dropped, and we are no longer 1st in education,” he wrote. “But we can be with smart and steady funding.”

Jacoby says the key to keeping young people in the state — fighting the loss of college-educated Iowans to other states — is improving water quality and guaranteeing reproductive rights.

“Improving water quality is important for health and economic development reasons,” Jacoby wrote. “While this issue has created a significant urban and rural split, we must take off the gloves and document the true causes of pollution.”

Jacoby also writes that by “creating measurable benchmarks” to clean waterways, Iowa will see a decline in its cancer rates.

On the issue of abortion rights, Jacoby says the state should “let the people vote.”

Steve Knoner

  Buy Photo

Knoner, of Coralville, did not complete a questionnaire sent to him by The Gazette. Instead, he emailed a list of eight priorities “based on resident feedback.”

Those priorities begin with property taxes, which he said are “significantly” higher in District 86 than in other parts of Iowa. The Iowa Department of Management ranks Coralville’s consolidated tax rate — the sum of all property tax levies for Coralville residents — as 127th of 946 cities.

Among Knoner’s other priorities is the protection of property rights from eminent domain for the construction of carbon dioxide sequestration pipelines, which he said do not “deliver value for the broader good.”

He also says he would support law enforcement and veterans, and he believes state representatives should be constitutionalists who push back against “federal overreach.”

Knoner, 62, describes himself as a “pro-life candidate.” He said illegal immigration is a problem in Iowa — not just at the southern U.S. border.

“Iowa’s legislative bodies need to demand the federal government do their job, and still do what we can locally to protect the citizens of Iowa,” he wrote in an email to The Gazette.

Knoner wrote that energy is a “huge driver of inflation” and said he supports working toward “energy independent” for all Iowans.

District voter breakdown

Iowa House District 86 has a total of 23,115 registered voters, 6,555 of which are inactive. Of the active voters, 8,528 are registered as Democrats and 2,713 are registered as Republicans. There also are 84 active voters registered as Libertarian, 5,210 registered as no party, and 25 listed as other parties, according to Oct. 1 data from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office.