Supervisor Harris, former Supervisor Houser win Linn primaries

CEDAR RAPIDS - One-term incumbent John Harris won the Republican primary in the Linn County District 5 supervisor race while veteran former Linn Supervisor Jim Houser bested three first-time supervisor candidates in the Democratic primary in supervisor District 1.

Headed into the Tuesday vote in District 1 without an incumbent in the race, it was not certain if one of the four Democrats would be able to secure the state-required 35 percent of the vote to prevent the decision being made by about three dozen delegates at the Linn County Democratic Central Committee.

In the hour that the election results gradually came in, Houser, 60, hung around the 35-percent mark with Andrea Jackson, 45, a Regis Middle School teacher, and Kim Taylor, 45, a senior constituent advocate for Sen. Tom Harkin, each were just a few percentage points behind.

As the last District 1 precincts reported, Houser had secured 799 votes or 36.4 percent, enough to win. Taylor had 667 votes or 30 percent and Jackson, 621 or 28 percent. A fourth candidate, former Robins Mayor Ian Cullis, 65, had 101 votes or 5 percent.

Political veteran Houser was overjoyed with the result.

He said Taylor and Jackson worked very hard in the campaign and to defeat them was an accomplishment.

'They're very credible candidates,” he said. 'I want to thank them for running a good, clean campaign.”

In the Republican primary in supervisor District 5, incumbent Harris, 61, a retired Rockwell Collins program manager and former mayor of Palo, had 1,028 votes or 61 percent and while challenger Mark Banowetz, 56, a business owner in Ely, got 670 votes or 39 percent.

'I'm just thankful and a little surprised,” Harris said last night. 'You never know in these elections. We worked hard.”

In the Nov. 4 general election, Harris will take on Becky Shoop, 57, who was unopposed in Tuesday's Democratic primary. Shoop of rural Walker is first deputy in the Linn County Auditor's Office.

Houser of Cedar Rapids will face Dennis Petersen, 56, in the November election. Petersen, a Realtor, was unopposed in Tuesday's Republican primary.