Democratic nomination for supervisor still up for grabs; Boswell, Vandall win
By ANDY KARR NDN Editor
Nearly 3,000 votes were cast in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election and Democrats still don’t have a candidate for Jasper County Supervisor. None of the four candidates on the ballot managed to earn the 35 percent of the vote needed to secure the party’s nomination.
Denny Stevenson led all candidates with 861 votes, followed by Jerry Sawin with 766, Sandy Shaver with 670 and incumbent Max Worthington with 615. Total ballots cast in the Democratic primary numbered 2,980 — 28.28 percent of registered Democrat voters, while Republican turnout was lower with 716 ballots for a total of 9.99 percent of registered Republicans.
Rep. Leonard Boswell cruised to an easy victory in Jasper County over challenger Ed Fallon 1,993 to 929 in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district. Across the district, Boswell held a commanding lead with most precincts reporting (see below).
In the Republican primary for District 41 State Representative, Adam Vandall defeated Susan Schmidt by a total of 358 to 166. Vandall will face incumbent Democrat Paul Bell in the fall.
All that’s left to determine now, is which Democrat will face off against Republican candidate Jack Suiter next fall for county supervisor.
Jasper County Democrat Chair Joe Brock said the party is planning a rules committee meeting for Thursday at 6 p.m. at a location to be determined. The committee will decided the time and place for the county convention where delegates will choose the nominee.
“The delegates that were chosen at the caucus in Januray, 240-some if I remember correctly, and they’ll have the opportunity to pick our next county supervisor (candidate),” he said.
Brock recalled a similar situation for county attorney back in the late ’80s.
“I remember that going fairly smoothly and I anticipate this will also,” he said.
Although Denny Stevenson found himself in first place after all the votes were counted, he was a little disappointed this morning not to have secured the nomination.
“It was a good outcome,” he said. “But I’m glad that part of it is over. It was a positive experience, though.”
Stevenson credited his first-place showing to hard door-to-door campaigning in nearly every town in Jasper County. He said he had no definite strategy when the county delegates meet to choose a candidate for the November ballot.
“It’s going to be interesting,” he said. “I’ll just contact the delegates and say here I am, and we’ll go from there.”
Shaver, Sawin and Worthington each nabbed significant vote totals as well. All four supervisor candidates had at least 20 percent of the votes. Furthermore, delegates aren’t necessarily restricted to choosing one of the candidates on the ballot.
“Something we need to remember is that another candidate at this point could enter the race,” Brock said. “So anything could happen.”
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Staff Writer John Jennings contributed to this report
