Bar owner Jake Brummer to run for Cedar Rapids mayor

CEDAR RAPIDS - Small business owner Jake Brummer said he will run for Cedar Rapids mayor as a 'normal guy.”

Brummer, 29, said he was motivated to seek office because he thinks people are unattached to their city leaders, and he takes issue with the 'country club elite running our city.”

He still is collecting signatures to his nominating petitions to get his name on the ballot.

'It's time that David beats Goliath, and we get somebody in office that truly listens to all voices and not just the ones that they want to,” Brummer said. 'I am running this campaign purely based on my personal frustration with lack of insight from the City Council.

'I feel the majority of them are very disconnected from the regular person in this town, the normal person in this town, and you're seeing that at the ballot box when only 20-ish percent show up.”

Brummer joins a field of candidates challenging Mayor Brad Hart for the city's top elected position. The field, to date, includes Hart, community activist and businesswoman Amara Andrews and Tiffany O'Donnell, CEO of the nonprofit Women Lead Change.

Brummer, the owner of a bar in Czech Village, said he is out in the city every day and is someone that blue-collar voters can relate to.

He plans to self fund his campaign and won't take even small donations or run ads and commercials. He may consider accepting union support or other groups' backing.

He has a Facebook page and said he will probably get a website in the coming weeks. He plans to hold question-and-answer sessions weekly at local businesses and at least two events in city parks through the summer. He said he also anticipates a lot of door-to-door campaigning.

'There's no money involved,” Brummer said. 'Everyone who's going to help me is going to do it on their own goodwill because they're backing me.”

He said the city's response to the Aug. 10 derecho also prompted him to run for mayor.

Emergency communications were delayed, and residents were left without power and struggling to get food, water and other supplies. Some residents of destroyed apartment complexes were left sleeping outside in tents.

'That's what people lived through,” Brummer said. 'And it's because your city leaders hesitated. In the moment they were needed most, they hesitated. I don't know too many who are OK with that, and I don't know anybody who's forgotten it.”

Brummer said he wants to see the city grow in unison and not leave any people, quadrants or neighborhoods behind. 'Everybody is a person, and they all deserve to be heard,” he said.

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