Column -- Climbing out of the Trenches

So will it be the early bird or the patient ponderer?

Will it be the former Iowa House speaker unstained by flood muck, or the city council member who has been down “in the trenches?”

Ron Corbett, former Iowa House speaker and current trucking executive, and council member Brian Fagan are the leading candidates to be Cedar Rapids' next mayor. Corbett announced his run back in March. Fagan got in just last week. Now the fun begins.

The biggest problem facing Fagan, 37, an attorney, is that conventional wisdom says he's toast.

Lots of people will tell you they're fed up with the council and want change. They're itching to follow the Grand Forks model, where another flooded community tossed its waterlogged elected officials to the curb.

But are the loudest voices for change in this town truly representative of the majority? It's possible there's a broad segment of folks who think the council has done the best it can under tough circumstances. But probable? I have my doubts.

But Fagan's run depends on that possibility, and on his ability to change some minds.

So he's hitting the trail arguing that the council's cautious, methodical approach to big post-flood decisions has been the right and responsible path. Failing to plan is planning to fail, says the patient ponderer.

He may be right. Trouble is, we won't know for certain until long after the election. Fagan may someday be able to stare down his critics and say “I told you so.” But it might not be from the mayor's chair.

Talking proudly about past process, however, takes time away from talking about the future, which is what elections are about. And while Fagan's arguments are nuanced and layered, Corbett has boiled the council's performance down to a bumper sticker.

“Culture of delay,” Corbett, 48, says again and again in describing City Hall. Catchy, and no doubt poll-tested.

Corbett's advantage, plainly, is that he hasn't been in the trenches.

That's not to say he hasn't invested plenty of shoe leather meeting with locals, raising money and handing out ice cream sandwiches at parades. But he hasn't had to take an unpopular vote, balance a strained city budget or look a flood victim in the eye and tell them, yet again, to be patient.

That means not having to be the bad guy. And that means getting to be what's next instead of what's broken, which is a huge advantage in a change-oriented election.

There's still time for Fagan to make his case and cut that advantage. But climbing out of the trenches can be tough.