What happens after Iowa’s contentious 2021 city and school elections?

Election Day marks the end of the contentious 2021 election season for Iowa’s school boards and city councils. Tomorrow, most of us will go back to not caring about local government.

Iowa set voter turnout records in the 2018 midterm and the 2020 general election. Early signs ahead of Tuesday’s contests — an influx of candidates on some ballots and high participation in early voting — suggest it could be a record setter for local elections.

Even with a shorter early voting period — down from 29 days to 20 days under a GOP election reform bill passed this year — Linn County and Johnson County have already topped their absentee ballot figures from 2019, the first time Iowa held combined city and school elections. Linn County had received nearly 9,000 ballots as of Monday morning, up from 4,702 in the whole 2019 election.

Political factions like the ones involved in these elections are good at supporting candidates. They’re not good at holding them accountable.

The high turnout coincides with local candidates adopting messaging, tactics and fundraising lists from the national political scene. They’re taking our political and cultural dividing lines and mapping them onto local politics.

In Cedar Rapids, there is a four-way race for mayor featuring an incumbent and two well funded challengers. Three candidates reported raising almost $400,000 combined. The top fundraiser in the race got only about a third of her funds from Iowa donors.

There is particularly high interest in school races, apparently a response to schools’ COVID-19 policy and debates over teaching about racism and other historic injustices in school.

There are fewer seats up for grabs than in 2019 but more candidates on the ballot, according to figures from the Iowa Association of School Boards. The number of candidates per seat is up to 1.83 from 1.28 two years ago.

Much has been said about the role of partisanship in Iowa’s local races this year. Trump supporters are running slates of school board challengers while local Democratic Party apparatuses are actively backing city and school candidates.

Both sides will have some winning candidates in today’s elections. Once they’re in office, they will probably discover governing isn’t as much fun as pretending to be a partisan politician on the campaign trail. The perverse glamour of spouting off about politically charged national issues will fade into the mundanity of work sessions and budget presentations.

Political factions like the ones involved in these elections are good at supporting candidates. They’re not good at holding them accountable.

Once your guy is in office, you probably won’t check in to make sure he’s holding true to the values he espoused as a candidate. That’s especially true if your whole identity is wrapped up in your political affiliation.

Americans have a backward view of the democratic process. We put a lot of emphasis on voting, even to the point of ridiculing those who don’t participate. But almost nobody cares about the real work of representative government that happens between elections — following the issues and putting pressure on politicians to do the right thing, even if they’re your guy.

So, be careful who you make bedfellows out of. They might still be there the morning after the election.

(319) 339-3156; adam.sullivan@thegazette.com