Thorny partisan issues are not the mayor's thing

Mayor, definitely. Congress, probably not.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett is now officially running for a second term. So far, he's the only one interested in the job. Four years ago, there was plenty of buzz around mayoral possibilities. This time, zilch.

“I'm sure that before the filing deadline comes that there will be other individuals who step forward,” Corbett said while being interviewed for an “Insights on Iowa” podcast. (The full podcast will be posted at TheGazette.com and here on Monday.) “I sometimes run into people in the community who say you couldn't pay me enough to do your job.”

History suggests he'll have an opponent. “I haven't done the research, but I think it's probably been maybe 30 years since someone ran unopposed for a mayoral race,” Corbett said.

NONPARTISAN PREFERENCE

So that takes care of 2013. What about 2014?

Corbett's name has popped up in the blogosphere as a possible Republican candidate for Congress in Iowa's 1st District. He spent 13 years in the Legislature, including time as speaker of the House. He's the mayor of Iowa's second-largest city. More than enough to buy you a spot on the speculation train.

But Corbett seems reluctant to ride.

“I really do enjoy serving as mayor,” Corbett said. “You know, one thing that is different is the nonpartisan nature that local city politics has. I've really grown to appreciate that type of environment. So at this time, I have no interest in jumping back into the partisan environment.

“Actually, if you do have a heart for public service, which I do, you can probably have more of an impact locally in changing your community than you can heading off to Washington D.C. and try to make changes inside the beltway. So I'm very comfortable in my position of being mayor and hope that the voters give me four more years,” Corbett said.

So Hizzhonor is much more comfortable talking about flood recovery projects on the verge of completion, the metro's low 5.1 percent unemployment rate and its economy-defying increase in manufacturing jobs. And how the local media don't do enough to toot the city's booster horn.

Corbett is willing to lobby Washington on our need for flood protection. Floods are notoriously nonpartisan.

RIGHTS ISSUES

Toward the end of our conversation, I got a keen sense of Corbett's discomfort with thorny partisan issues.

A few weeks back, I was doing some research for a piece when I stumbled upon a 1989 Associated Press story on a debate in the Iowa House over legislation extending state civil rights protections to homosexuals. Corbett was in his second term in the House at the time, and he rose to oppose the bill.

“A person can't choose their sex. A person can't choose their national origin. A person can't choose the color of their skin,” Corbett was quoted in the article. “Yes, people do have a choice in whether they want to be a homosexual or not.”

Sure, it's been 24 years. But while Corbett spoke that day, I was an 18-year-old page in the same House, listening to a debate that profoundly changed the way I've thought about civil rights and gay rights, to this day.

So I asked him about it. Corbett was clearly displeased. More displeased than I anticipated.

“And what would you like me to say? Would you like me to say do I still stand by those views?” Corbett said.

I said a lot of politicians have evolved on the issue.

“I think certainly people evolve on a lot of different issues,” Corbett said. “Here in Cedar Rapids we've extended those rights to not just to gay people, but we've added transgender, also. That wasn't debated at that point in time.

“I appoint people to the civil rights commission that take a balanced approach. I think social tolerance is important for a community,” he said.

We talked about how equality has come a long way in 25 years, even in the last five years. Opposition has waned. Young people are more supportive. His kids have good friends who are gay. The mayor said he has friends and supporters who are gay.

Has he ever been asked to take a public position on marriage equality? Corbett said he has not.

He has been asked, as mayor, to take stands on a number of big issues, such as gun control and immigration reform. He'd rather not get involved.

“I really kind of refrain from getting into some of that national debate and discussion, only because we've had so much on our plate,” Corbett said. “Unless it really has a link to Cedar Rapids in a strong way, I've stepped back from some of these highly partisan issues. Tried to really manage the city in a nonpartisan way and not to get into some of those issues.

“But, maybe, say, on immigration, if Rockwell, for one, was extremely concerned about the immigration law going in one direction too far, and not having enough H-1B visas in a pipeline for their hard-to-find talent, and they were looking for support from the mayor, that might maybe influence me a little bit more to be involved in that issue.

“But other than that, I've just tried to stay focused on the local issues and move our economy forward,” Corbett said.

Maybe if a company that makes same-sex wedding cake toppers ever moves to town, Corbett will join the fight. But then the paper will probably bury the good news.