Notes from election night in Iowa City

Posted on Nov 03, 2009 by Jennifer Hemmingsen.

That’s all she wrote. At 8:38 p.m., the Iowa City votes all are counted with financial planner Susan Mims and downtown business owner Terry Dickens  taking the at-large seats. They earned with 75 percent and 70 percent, respectively — no big surprise there.

University of Iowa students and candidates Dan Tallon (16 percent) and Jeff Shipley (18 percent) brought a lot of life to the race, but just couldn’t bring the votes. Their big chance, with on-campus satellites, fell flat –only a few handfuls of people voted there.

Neither of the men had much money to spend or existing networks of influence to tap into — unlike their grown-up opponents, both of whom have served on school boards and in other orgs.

What is surprising is how close the District B race was. Three-term incumbent Connie Champion won it with only 51 percent of the vote, to Realtor Mark McCallum’s 47 percent. That’s a squeaker in my book, especially considering how close the two candidates were on the issues. When the editorial board met with them recently, McCallum kept stressing that he didn’t know Champion was  even running and that he thought she was doing a fine job. Not the kind of case you’d normally make against an incumbent.

And in case you were wondering if it could get any more genteel, Gazette reporter Gregg Hennigan tells me Champion apparently gave  McCallum a ride to this multi-candidate celebration at Blackstone. 

All the candidates are here – Dickens, Mims, Tallon and Shipley in addition to Champion and McCallum. So is City Ckerk Marian Karr and number of city staffers, miscellaneous activists, supporters and friends.

People still are arriving, although the drama, such as it was, is over. We’re up to probably 150 people spilling out of the party room and into the restaurant itself.

Funny how well attended it is, considering this election saw record-low turnout — a measly 9 percent of voters bothered to fill out a ballot — fewer than some school board elections. Seriously, people. Maybe Auditor Tom Slockett should have offered flatbread pizza and half-price margaritas at the polls today. Is that what it’s going to take to turn you all into citizens?

All right, that’s it for me. Turn the channel to Hennigan’s blog for continued updates tonight.