Candidates for Iowa City Council share final thoughts ahead of March 4 special election

IOWA CITY — In-person early voting has already begun for a March 4 special election to fill a vacancy on the Iowa City Council.

The District C seat was left vacant after member Andrew Dunn announced his resignation effective Jan. 1, with three years left on the term.

Real estate agent Ross Nusser and Oliver Weilein, who works for Systems Unlimited serving adults with intellectual disabilities, advanced to the general election after emerging as the top two vote-getters in a Feb. 4 primary. Weilein received 69 percent of the vote, while Nusser received 27 percent.

Only voters who live in District C — which includes downtown Iowa City and north-central Iowa City — were eligible to cast ballots in the primary. About 5 percent of the 18,316 registered voters in District C cast ballots in the primary.

All eligible Iowa City residents can vote in the March 4 general election.

With less than 10 days until the election, The Gazette asked each candidate for their final thoughts on their campaign efforts. Their responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Ross Nusser

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Nusser, 38, is a lifelong Iowa City resident running on a platform of expanding access to affordable housing and mental health care by working with existing area nonprofits.

Nusser specifically sees a need for more detox beds and inpatient treatment centers for juvenile and female patients. He hopes to expand access to affordable housing by coming up with solutions relative to a household’s percentage of area median income.

Nusser is president of the board of directors at Community and Family Resources, which provides treatment and education about substance abuse and mental illnesses. He also serves on the board of Successful Living, a nonprofit that helps those dealing with chronic mental illness.

Q: Why should Iowa City residents vote for you?

A: Iowa City should vote for me because I bring a plethora of experience — real life, lived experience — in the realms of affordable housing, mental and behavioral health, substance use treatment and local food. I had been invested in Iowa City my entire life. I have volunteered in the community my entire life, and I've tried to get back to the community my entire life and I hope that my experience can help earn votes.

Q: What has the campaign process been like for you?

A: I've tried my very best to focus on just the positives of this community, the positives of my experience, the positives of what the future for Iowa City can hold amongst just a flurry of this negative vitriol, which I believe is stemming from the national political scene. It's been very different than what I thought might happen, which is OK, but at the end of the day, for my campaign the important message is to promote positive experiences, positive growth avenues, and what we can do in these very uncertain times. I’m trying to spread that message in as many ways as possible.

Q: How did you feel after the results of the primary?

A: I moved on. I was one of the two to move on, and so I didn't think too much about the results of the primary. I thought that I need to get my message out to the community. I believe that my experience and merit should speak for itself. I've just been focusing on introducing myself to the community, showing the community who I am, what work I've done for Iowa City in the past, and what work we're going to do in the future. And part of that work includes fighting smart. I mean, we have to with all of the all the headwinds that are coming our way. We have to fight smart. We must fight smart. It's something that if we don't, if we take a different approach, a single misstep, could backfire and affect all the vulnerable populations that we aim to protect. These are very serious times, and they require very serious people.

Q: Do you have any stances or policies that you want to make sure are clear to voters?

A: I just said this, but to reiterate, because I do want to make sure it's clear. For immigrant and most vulnerable populations, it is imperative that we fight smart. Like I said, a single misstep could backfire, further exposing these already vulnerable populations. So I want to make that clear.

Q: Regardless of the outcome of the election, what will you take away from this campaign?

A: I'll still be here. I’m still going to be helping. My takeaways from this campaign are I was able to connect on a deeper level with people who I haven't been able to connect with prior to this. I've been able to experience perspectives and gain insight into areas that I wasn't as familiar prior to running. The human connection is so vital to our shared humanity and it's been wonderful to get to know these people better and to feel the support from some and to recognize that with others, we might just not agree on something, and that's OK. It's totally OK, and it doesn't make you bad, it doesn't make me bad, we just don't agree on it. Just getting to know people in our community a little bit better than I did before, and even people I thought I knew. I've been able to get to know them on a deeper level, and that's been meaningful to me.

Oliver Weilein

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Weilein, 30, has lived in Iowa City for more than a decade and is running for city council because he wants to expand permanent supportive housing in the city.

Throughout his campaign, Weilein has said that he would not shy away from decisions that may upset lawmakers at the statehouse, particularly any legislation that may target members of the LGBTQ or immigrant communities.

Weilein is active in the local arts scene, serving on the board of Public Space One and playing in multiple local bands. He also is a founding board member of Iowa City Tenants Union and has a history of advocating for tenants’ rights.

Q: Why should Iowa City residents vote for you?

A: I think Iowa City should vote for me because I am a working class person who through my lived experience, I represent the vast majority of people who live in Iowa City. I'm somebody who loves to problem solve and loves to do research and loves to put my heart and soul into trying to make the community a better place. I feel like that's what you'll get if I get elected is my heart and soul on my sleeve. I love to work with people and talk with people and connect. I'm somebody who, through my experience as being an activist my whole adult life, I'm someone who is not going to be afraid and will always be thoughtful at the same time. I can bring my experiences with standing and working with working class people, marginalized people and oppressed people.

Q: What has the campaign process been like for you?

A: It's been hectic but it's been fun. It's been fulfilling. It's kind of like going on a back country hike. It's fulfilling, but it's exhausting, and you're glad you are doing it, but you are also looking forward to the finish line. I've met so many amazing people. I've connected with people I didn't know in the city. I'm happy that I've connected with different communities that I didn't know existed in the city, and I've been very intentional about trying to reach out to parts of the community that I might have a blind spot to or might not know about. It's been really fruitful doing that, because now I know so much more about the city than I did, and it makes me even more excited to represent the city, not just my district, but the city as a whole.

Q: How did you feel after the results of the primary?

A: It's good to know that the district that I will be directly representing voted overwhelmingly that I was the person that they wanted to have represent them. It made me feel good about our chances in the general. It made me feel good that it gave hope to myself and people in general, that we don't need to accept the status quo. We can go into these uncertain and scary times with courage and not back down, always look after our community members. I think that's why people support me, because they feel those values in themselves reflected in me. It gave me hope and I think it gave a lot of other people hope.

Q: Do you have any stances or policies that you want to make sure are clear to voters?

A: People seem to think that my headstrong attitude going into this moment of right wing authoritarianism on a state and federal level is somehow reckless or ill informed, or virtue signaling, not smart or unstrategic. Those are all things that have been said about my approach to just saying that we will not abandon anybody in our city, and I'm not. Words have been put into my mouth because I said [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has no place in our community. They think that means that I'm going to be flippant or careless in how I go about combating these things. I've said multiple times that we need to be smart and strategic with how we go about these things and be careful. But what I will not do is hide my personal values, and I won't let anybody in the community think that they're being abandoned. The transgender community, migrants, anybody who's currently under attack from the state and federal government. If everything has been tried, if we face no other recourse than to risk losing funding as a city to protect our people, I am not willing to sell out a single human being in our city for a dollar amount. I think that is how communities resist fascism, by not making concessions to people who will not be placated. You need to stand strong. You need to stand with each other. You need to not pit each other against one another. If it absolutely comes down to it, I am not willing to sell even one person out for a dollar amount.

Q: Regardless of the outcome of the election, what will you take away from this campaign?

A: I'll take away that there is so much desire in our community to not run with the status quo, to organize on a grassroots level and build systems of defense and support for our community that doesn't ask permission and just does it. People really are fighting to have somebody on city council who sees that vision and is willing to help in that struggle, while trying to make the citizens of Iowa City as materially better off as possible. There’s lots to be hopeful for, lots of people who want to build power from the bottom up and create a more equitable and just society.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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