Washington

Candidates for Washington County supervisor Districts 3 and 5 and Iowa House District 92 gathered in Washington last Thursday for a candidate forum. Seated at tables, the candidates answered questions from moderator Michelle Redlinger, director of the Washington Chamber of Commerce.

Participants included District 3 incumbent Republican Marcus Fedler and Democratic challenger JoAnn Whitmore; District 5 Democrat Lynette Iles and Republican Brendan DeLong; and House District 92 incumbent Republican Heather Hora and Democratic challenger Brittany Erickson.

Questions covered why the candidates were running, their qualifications and priorities, education, accountability and other issues.

District 3

District 3 includes Riverside, Ainsworth and Crawfordsville, along with surrounding rural areas.

During the forum, both supervisor candidates discussed county funding and the challenges posed by the state’s 2% cap.

Fedler said he believes the county is adequately funded despite the constraints.

“The state implemented the 2% cap. … So, it creates some pinching, I guess you could say. I've always said that the best government is small government, and the second best government is county government. And the reason why I say that is because in Iowa we have home rule. … But I think we're adequately funded,” Fedler said, adding that the county can efficiently meet its state-mandated responsibilities.  

Whitmore also discussed county funding, pointing to a conservation project as an example of stretching available resources.

“Iowa Senate File 2472 passed this last May limits many county tax levy increases to only 2% regardless of things like the rate of inflation, and this is going to be a big challenge to any county to try and determine how we maintain the services and programs we have that residents depend on. … A wonderful example of this is how our county's been really smart about doing more with less. … [County] conservation recently saved significant money on the construction of the pickleball and playground facilities at Mar Park by using their own employees to do a lot of the construction around their regular duties.”

Fedler also said that, if re-elected, he would like to continue consolidating the IT budget, developing the HR department and moving forward with the buildings and grounds planning process.

“Those are things that I intend to continue to work on directly. So that would be the IT department, which we’re consolidating that budget; the HR department, which we’re developing the process in which to implement that and how that’s going to look; and then the buildings and grounds side of things, we have a committee now, and so my hope is to fulfill that. So, continue that process.”

Whitmore called for making supervisor meetings more accessible to the public.

“Nobody can come to a meeting at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, and the recordings aren’t available. So, there’s really very little opportunity for people to even hear what goes on. And then beyond that, well, you can Zoom, but you can’t speak, so there’s no opportunity for input.”

District 5

District 5 includes Wards 1 and 2 in the city of Washington and rural portions of Jackson, Marion and Washington townships.

With Richard Young retiring at the end of the year, Iles and DeLong are seeking the open seat.

Asked about her approach to decision making, Iles described a process guided by data and her oath.

“There are two things that are very front and center in my decision making. The first thing is data. The second thing is my oath that I took at age 23, which above all does no harm. … There are many ways to follow laws and rules, and one has to be thoughtful and creative.”

DeLong said he would seek advice from appointed officials and others with relevant experience, while also listening to constituents.

“I'm going to trust the people that we appointed to give me some advice on it, and that's probably the first place I'm going to go. … So, I'm going to talk to them first, and secondly, I'm going to talk to some constituents. … And at the end of the day, it's about the people we represent.”

Iles also proposed a county moratorium on data centers for at least one year.

“I would also like to have a moratorium against data centers passed in the county for at least a year, so that we can decide whether we actually want a data center that’s well-regulated or no data centers at all in the county.”

On school vouchers, DeLong praised Hora’s support for the legislation and said parents should be able to choose where their children attend school, with funding following them.

“If a person does not want to send their kid to that school and wants to send them to the private school, that money should follow them to that private school.”

District 92 (State Representative)

Incumbent Republican Heather Hora and Democratic challenger Brittany Erickson are running for Iowa House District 92, which covers all of Washington County and parts of Johnson County.

Asked about education and school funding, Hora said strengthening rural schools has been a priority since she began serving at the Capitol.

“I believe that we need to strengthen rural schools. I believe that school funding is not fair to rural schools, and we’ve been looking at different ways that we could allocate, maybe weighting the students differently or things like that. So, I will continue to work on that.”

Erickson discussed the challenges facing families in communities without an elementary school and the time children spend traveling to and from school.

“I really like Heather’s idea of elementaries in each little town. When I went door knocking in Hills, I actually met up with an old classmate who explained that now she has to bus her children all the way over to Wellman and back, and they lose so much time of that per day. We have to solve that.”

Both candidates also discussed how they would remain accessible to voters.

Hora said constituents can reach her by phone, text or email, or speak with her in the community.

“I’m always available by phone, by text, by email, whatever that may be. I am always out and about in the community. Don’t ever feel like you can’t come to me and if you have a problem or need something, I feel like I am readily available for that. I’m home on Fridays, and so I’m always available to do coffee.”

Erickson said she would be available by phone, text and email and would like to hold town hall meetings in both counties if elected.

“I already have a person set up to take care of the business phone line because I’ll make it available for you. So, email, text, phone, all of those things are your everyday get a hold of your representative type thing. I would like to hold town halls in the different cities of Washington County and Johnson County, probably on a weekend.”

Election Day

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Washington County residents can vote early at the county auditor’s office on the first floor of the courthouse in Washington. Regular office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.