Linn County Auditor Miller exploring run for county supervisor

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linn County Auditor Joel Miller is exploring running for the Linn County Board of Supervisors in 2018.

Miller filed a document in November with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board setting up an exploratory committee for a supervisor bid.

The document was filed less than a week after the Nov. 8 election, which saw Linn County residents vote to reduce the five-member Board of Supervisors to three members in two years.

Miller, 61, of Robins, is a Democrat and has been county auditor since 2007. He was re-elected to a four-year term in November.

He said Friday he hasn't decided whether he'll run in the November 2018 election, but it's an option.

'The five to three (board member) vote obviously changed the landscape, and there are a lot of things that I cannot seem to get changed as auditor that I may be able to get changed as supervisor,” he said. 'I'm just trying to explore that situation and see how the electorate feels about that.”

Because of the vote decreasing the number of supervisors, the terms for all five current supervisors will expire at the end of 2018. Voters in November of that year will select three supervisors to form a new board in January 2019.

County residents now vote on supervisors by district. If the county continues with districts, a temporary redistricting committee will need to draw new district boundaries before the 2018 vote, and have those districts approved by the state.

No redistricting will be required if the county moves to electing all supervisors at-large, meaning all voters vote on all the candidates.

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com