State, federal races start to take shape

Jasper County voters will have plenty of choices to make this election year.

With Friday’s filing deadline come and gone, races for state and federal offices are starting to take shape. Every race in Jasper County will be contested this year, including Rep. Greg Heartsill’s house seat. Heartsill, a three-term Republican from Columbia, announced earlier this month he will not seek re-election in the fall.

Ten candidates will vie for the state’s highest office, including Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. She’ll face Newton native Ron Corbett, the former mayor of Cedar Rapids, in the June primary. Both Reynolds and Corbett waited for the final week of the filing period to file their affidavits, with Corbett’s affidavit still awaiting final approval from the Secretary of State’s office on Monday morning.

It’s been no secret Reynolds has planned to seek re-election, but thus far she’s declined to debate Corbett on the grounds she had yet to formally enter the race, a move that’s drawn ire on the governor. In an interview with the Newton Daily News last month, Corbett said he’s ready to meet the governor in a face-to-face debate. While polls show Reynolds as the clear frontrunner, Corbett said he believes he still has a fighting chance.

“Her numbers aren’t that strong,” Corbett said. “She’s underperforming from where she should be on her poll numbers.”

With six Democratic candidates filing by Friday’s deadline, each gubernatorial candidate will have their work cut out for them as they look to separate themselves from the pack. Businessman Fred Hubbell and Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, are the clear front-runners on the Democratic ticket, but Cathy Glasson, Andrea McGuire, John Norris and Ross Wilburn will be looking to make up ground wherever they can. Many Democratic party officials believe the race will represent an important turning point in state politics, a sentiment Boulton echoed when he visited Newton last year.

“We know Iowa needs a better path forward, if we’re going to win this in 2018 we have to show that we have a vision for Iowa,” Boulton said.

Boulton may have got an early start with his campaign, but Hubbell has managed to build plenty of momentum on his own. On Saturday, Hubbell’s campaign announced they had turned in more than 8,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office, 2,000 more than any other candidate. In a visit to Newton last month, Hubbell said his campaign continues to grow.

“We feel very positive, we have a lot of momentum,” Hubbell said. “Everywhere we go we get more and more people coming to meetings, more and more people wanting to volunteer.”

Reynolds isn’t the only incumbent who’ll face a bevy of challengers, US Rep. Dave Loebsack will square off against one of two Republican challengers this November. Both Ginny Caligiuri, of Osceola, and Dr. Christopher Peters, of Coralville, will face off in the June primary election for a chance to unseat Loebsack. When Peters visited Newton last year, he told residents he’s convinced Washington could benefit from his outsider’s viewpoint.

“We’re not going to give citizens what they deserve until we fix this process,” Peters said.

Both local house races will be contested this year, with incumbent Rep. Wes Breckenridge up against Ann Howell, a Republican from Colfax. While Howell has no previous experience, she feels her lifelong background in education has given her a window seat to the be able to understand the needs of local voters.

“Seventeen years in the school system as an assistant to the building administration, I have watched the erosion of social skills, civility, decency, decorum, accountability, family values and America’s values,” Howell said. “It has been replaced with political correctness, self-importance, dependency and lack of forethought.

Howell’s father, Tim Shay will also be joining her on the ballot this year. Shay will challenge Sen. Chaz Allen in Senate District 15. Like his daughter, Shay is also a political newcomer, but the retired Navy veteran said he wants to mount a defense of the second amendment.

“I am a staunch believer in the second amendment,” Shay said. “I feel many people want to interpret the Bill of Rights to fit their own ideas of their own agenda.”

On Saturday, Allen said he plans to focus his campaign on meeting the needs of rural Iowans, including increasing access to rural health care.

“I want to continue to work on economic development and rural development, just bringing rural Iowa to the forefront,” Allen said. “I’m excited to run again and see what happens.”

House District 28 will have four candidates, two Republicans and two Democrats each looking to fill Heartsill’s former seat. Democrats Ann Fields, of Knoxville, and Zachary Pendroy, of Monroe, will vye for the Democratic nomination in the June primary. Republicans Jon Van Wyk, of Sully, and Jon Thorup, of Knoxville, will attempt to keep the district under Republican control. Speaking at the Jasper County Republican Convention earlier this month Thorup, a former state trooper, will make reopening Knoxville’s shuttered Veterans Affairs facility a priority.

“We have several talented people in the community that have tried cutting through the red tape out there. I think the state has a few resources that could help those people do something positive with that campus.  It’s just a matter of lining things up the right way at the right times,” Thorup said. “(In regards to mental health,) the earlier in a person’s life that we can recognize and treat any mental health concerns, the better the chances that they can live a happy and productive life.”

Contact David Dolmage at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or ddolmage@newtondailynews.com