Linn Recorder running for re-election

Joan McCalmant, the low-key Linn County recorder, is running for re-election.

McCalmant, 50, a Democrat, was appointed to the position in 1997 after serving as chief deputy recorder for 11 years. She has run unopposed since winning her first election in 1998.

The Recorder's Office took on several feet of water in the 2008 flood, damaging some historic records and sending the office to Westdale Mall.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” McCalmant said. “We still have some very important records that need to be restored.”

McCalmant is running for re-election, she said, because there's so much to do. She wants to continue to improve recording standards and the statewide Web site, and focus on better indexing of real estate records.

“We just started doing electronic recording three years ago,” she said. “There's a lot of different projects that I don't want to give up.”

McCalmant made some rare waves in August when she signed a Gazette column with Treasurer Mike Stevenson and Auditor Joel Miller that argued the county should not move its offices back to the Administrative Office Building, 930 First St. SW.

County supervisors complained that the column killed the county's chances for $8.8 million in I-JOBS funding for the project. McCalmant and Stevenson responded by supporting the project after all. Supervisors are hoping to get an earmark for the project from the state legislature.

McCalmant has a bachelor's degree from Central College in Pella. She and her husband, Gary Kaplan, live at 2204 Deb Lane NE, Cedar Rapids.

No candidate has announced a campaign to unseat her. The county primary is June 8. Candidates who want to run must file nomination papers by March 31.