Corridor voters seem trusting

Gazette Editorial Board

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During a Cedar Rapids City Council meeting last July, Chuck Swore offered that if voters didn't trust council members, they should “throw us out.”

Well, they didn't. Swore finished first Tuesday  in the at-large race for two seats, albeit a close one that will require a runoff next month, while two other incumbents, Pat Shey, District 3, and Kris Gulick, District 1, all won decisive victories, as did Mayor Ron Corbett.

And as further evidence that many local voters do apparently trust the current council and mayor, the proposed extension of the one-cent local-option sales tax for 10 more years to pay for badly needed street repairs in Cedar Rapids, as well as needs in adjoining communities in the metro area, where votes are counted as a block, drew 62 percent approval.

Although voter turnout was not heavy, the message here seemed clear enough: You're doing a good job overall, we really want those crummy streets fixed soon, and the sales tax is the way to go.

At the other end of the Corridor, the results were much the same in Coralville, where a large field of candidates and the issue of how much the city should steer economic development and at what level of debt drew statewide and even national attention. Voters apparently liked the results, returning two incumbents and a like-minded newcomer to the three open council seats, while moving longtime council member John Lundell into the mayor's role. It seems to vindicate current strategy.

And in Iowa City, perhaps the biggest - and we think some of the best - election news was a decisive defeat of yet another attempt to remove the 21-only bar ordinance from the books. We also see the at-large city council victory by Kingsley Botchway II, a young African American, as an especially significant voter decision.

Congratulations to all the winners and all the challengers who contributed to many robust municipal races up and down the Corridor. The voters who showed up had many good choices to consider, and that's a big plus for the region.

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