Cedar Rapids election night winners and losers

Posted on Nov 03, 2009 by Todd Dorman.

Winners

Business Leaders – Winning mayoral candidate Ron Corbett gave his opponents the business Tuesday with the help of strong backing from business leaders. Corbett tapped their anger over the pace of city hall decision making. Now Corbett has to deliver on his promises to end the “culture of delay.” Fast.

Unions – Corbett celebrated his victory Tuesday night in a union hall and had plenty of labor backing. Some nice political bridge-building for the former Republican House speaker. But unions will now be expecting Mr. “Buy Local” to deliver the goods.

Flood-affected Residents – Corbett promised to do more to speed up recovery and to spend local option sales tax proceeds on rebuilding. “We’re going to take care of people. That’s what a government is for,” Corbett said in his victory speech Tuesday. But can he make the federal government fast and efficient? Good one.

Veterans Memorial Building – Almost every candidate running Tuesday sang the historic building’s praises as a local landmark, and the vast majority want at least some city functions to be headquartered there. Corbett has been among the most vocal advocates of moving city hall back to May’s Island. Perhaps he’ll take his oath of office there.

Football Metaphors – We’re going to hear a lot of from Mayor Fullback. We’ll be breaking huddle and moving the ball and running a budgetary bubble screen. So snap your chinstraps.

Republicans – Corbett’s victory is another gold star on a pretty good political resume. So in 2014, if this Branstad thing doesn’t work out…

Losers

Fans of nice, short and cheap local election campaigns for part-time jobs – Corbett’s campaign stretched eight months, cost more than $100,000 and was every bit a textbook political campaign crafted with the help of consultants from Victory Enterprises. So much for sparing the voters until August.

City Manager Jim Prosser – Corbett says he’ll give the city manager a chance and plans a 90-day assessment of Prosser’s performance. But Corbett won running against some of the very same revenue diversification ideas that are the foundation of Prosser’s plans for the city’s fiscal future. That fundamental disagreement could be a flash point, among others.

Young Voters– Second-place finisher Brian Fagan was seen as a next generation candidate supported by young voters. Judging by his lopsided loss, too few of them showed up. Corbett had a 20-point lead in our poll among voters over 56.

Young Candidates– Aaron Saylor lives on to fight in an at-large runoff against Don Karr, but Nick Duffy, Tim Pugh and Ryan Russell all lost council bids. Fagan, 37, lost to Corbett, 49.

New City Hall/Campus/Taj Mahal — It’s pretty clear after watching the fall campaign that virtually no one favors building an expensive new city hall, or at least is willing to say so publicly. A surprising co-location agreement between the city and county might revive the idea, but that’s a long-shot.

Consultants– They took a beating during the campaign. So did Fagan, the mayoral hopeful who staunchly defended the use of pricey outside experts.

District 3 Council member Jerry McGrane– McGrane tried to win with last-minute negative ad blitz against fellow council member Pat Shey. But McGrane didn’t deliver a fatal blow, and now faces Shey in what promises to be testy runoff. Sometimes, what doesn’t crush a candidate makes them stronger.

Civic Engagement – 27 percent voter turnout was  better than 2007, but still pathetic in the big scheme of things. Where were the other seven in 10 people?