Incumbent Harris, former supervisor Houser win Linn supervisor seats

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linn County voters like what they've had.

One-term Republican incumbent Supervisor John Harris defeated Democratic challenger Becky Shoop, a Linn County deputy auditor, in the District 5 supervisor race, though the win last night was a nail-biter.

In the District 1 supervisor race, Democrat and former Linn County supervisor Jim Houser defeated Realtor Dennis Petersen, a Republican, and independent Tom Podzimek, the owner of a small construction company and a former Cedar Rapids City Council member.

'I'm terribly gratified that voters saw fit to give me another four years,” Harris said last night after the final votes came in. 'We worked hard, and that got recognized.”

Harris, 61 of Palo, had 9,027 votes, or 50.9 percent of the total, to Shoop's 8,680 votes or 49 percent.

'It's very disappointing because anybody who knows me knows I don't ever do anything I really don't want,” said Shoop, 57, of rural Walker. She congratulated Harris and said she as deputy auditor and Harris as supervisor will continue to work together.

Last night's victory for Houser, 60, is a return to a spot on the Board of Supervisors that he held for 19 years before losing to Houser in 2010 by just 166 votes out of more than 16,700 cast.

Supervisor district boundaries changed in 2012, putting Houser in District 1. where incumbent Lu Barron is retiring.

'This will be my sixth term on the board,” Houser said last night. 'I'm humbled by the results. The campaign was a lot of hard work, and I had great help. I'm looking forward to a return to the board.”

Houser finished with 7,660 votes (50.4 percent) while Petersen had 5,499 votes (36 percent) and Podzimek had 2,013 votes (13 percent).

This was Petersen's second defeat in District 1.

As election results came in last night, Houser was well ahead from the start in the District 1 race, while the Harris-Shoop race in District 5 went back and forth.

Shoop was ahead when the early votes were counted; Harris eked ahead; then Shoop; and then Harris had a final burst to victory.

During the campaign, Shoop said she did not think the five supervisors worked full time, even though they decided in 2013 to move from 80-percent time employees to full-time ones.

Podzimek - who served on the Cedar Rapids City Council from 2006 through 2011 - stood out in the race when he said Linn County voters should change the county's form of government and go to part-time supervisors with a full-time professional manager. Voters in Cedar Rapids did just that in 2005, and Podzimek was elected to Cedar Rapids' first part-time council that year.

Tuesday was a big day for Podzimek despite his distant third-place finish. He and his partner of 10 years, Connie Lehman, got married at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, four hours before the election results came in.

'We always wanted to remember it as a great day,” Podzimek said.