The Scott County Republican Party (SCRP) leadership a few days ago put out a list of candidates who happen to be registered Republicans and who are on the ballot for the November 5 municipal elections. The municipal races are officially “non-partisan” and so the official ballot does not present them with party affiliation.
Local elected office is a useful breeding ground/launch pad for state legislative runs and other partisan higher office. Knowing the affiliations of all the candidates, in lieu of other useful information, at least provides a rough guide to help avoid ignorantly voting for those candidates. That such a guide is no longer present on ballots is regrettable.
Some years ago, Davenport Democrats and Republicans were pretty much asleep at the switch, and a cabal of the usual suspects, downtown business interests and the newspaper, got a ballot issue passed no doubt on the sub rose assumption that they would have more influence over matters if they did not have to put up with the political party processes. Not totally, but we think it has pretty much worked as such for those groups to the detriment of the citizens.
Good government in Davenport is served better apart from that cabal and the elections should be returned to officially partisan. If for no other reason then because Democrats have essentially been injecting themselves into the process, probably from the beginning. Unfortunately,the term “non-partisan” however vacuous, sounds so sweet, so returning to philosophical identification in the current political climate is not likely to happen soon. Therefore conservative Republican partisanship (a meaningful philosophy ) should be injected into it regardless.
As mentioned above, the SCRP leadership, in spite of big talk, as far as we can tell, took only a minimal approach to impacting the overall election this year by issuing a list of the Republicans on the ballot, to hard core Republicans. Maybe they set up a municipal PAC and kicked in a few bucks as well. We hope so.
It was a simple process for them to look up the candidates’ affiliations using the Scott County Auditor’s (SCA) registered voter data base. They chose to only post Republicans. That short changes Republican voters with regard to the process as it exists. Some of the races do not have identified Republicans running (raising another need for Republican sponsored forums serving to identify the better of those running who have elected to not affiliate with any party) or fewer Republicans than there are offices to fill.
Bullet voting has mixed good governance usefulness and it is not lost on Democrats to do so when they think it suits them. Given their adherents zombie like discipline, in various scenarios, they can prevail. But keep in mind that candidates who are not affiliated with a party (so called NP’s) may nevertheless be on the conservative side of the political spectrum(Phil Yerington) and should be supported to keep the Democrats out . Our instinct is that few of them would be to the left of Democrats.
As a matter of rolling the dice, knowing nothing else about them, we are content to pick NP’s over a Democrat when Republicans are not on the ballot, because they presumably won’t have the Democrat machine to be beholden to should they get elected, or the unexpurgated Democrat sympathies.
However, rather than just rely on party affiliation, as regards key issues of importance, we encourage readers to call the candidates and ask them their positions on those issues. E-mail and phone numbers are available in a convenient look-up by visiting this Auditor Office Web page.
In summary then, readers of this site are no doubt interested in verification of the party affiliations of all the candidates. Our more complete listing herein seeks to be of service in that regard. Many people end up voting in municipal elections for weaker concepts than party affiliation. But if they knew the candidates party affiliation (or non-affiliation), that would influence their decision. We do not think that is a bad thing. Voters often realize too late that the person they may have voted for, for superficial reasons, has a political philosophy reflected in party affiliation that they do not appreciate. A philosophical mind set, roughly reflected in party affiliation, is very much relevant in municipal affairs.
SCOTT COUNTY MUNICIPAL CANDIDATES — NOVEMBER 5th, 2013
Party affiliations for candidates are set forth below. They are as revealed on the 3/13/13 registerd voter data disk available from the Scott County Auditor (SCA). The candidate listing is also from the official list provided on the SCA Web site as viewed on 10/30/13. The symbol (i) indicates the incumbent for that office. Note that the City of Bettendorf staggers alderman terms, therefor First, Third and Fifth aldermanic wards and one of the Bettendorf alderman at large positions are not up for election in 2013.
In all cases we will vote for the R first if available, and then the NP as appropriate. No D deserves our vote. When there is no NP opponent for the D, we will either not vote that race or write in a candidate. The symbol (*) refers to highlighted races, where mistakenly voting for a D is particularly worrisome. If “R’s” are under-represented in a given race, consider writing one in, especially if it will be at the expense of a Democrat.
Assume “vote for one” unless otherwise indicated. We hope this more complete party identification package will be helpful. Please consider distributing a link to this page to your contacts so that they may have more complete voter information for the November 5th election. R Mall
(corrected)
Bettendorf – Alderman At Large – Chad A. Miller R, Gary M. Mohr NP
Bettendorf – Second Ward – Scott Naumann (i) R , No printed ballot opposition
Bettendorf – Fourth Ward – Greg Adamson (i) R, No printed ballot opposition
Bettendorf Park Commissioner – Vote for no more than two
Larry Makoben (i) R, Steven P. Wilger R , Thomas E. Dryg D
Blue Grass Mayor* Timothy Brandenburg NP Branson Kinzer (i) D
Blue Grass City Council – Vote for no more than two
Charles A. Barton (R) James B. Goodin (R)
Buffalo Mayor – Doug Anderson (R) – No printed ballot opposition
Buffalo City Council – Vote for no more than three. Dana Jo Smith R
Olin L. Meador II (i) D, Sadi Negus D, Sally Rodiguez D, Art Bartleson D,
Davenport Mayor* – includes announced write-in candidate Phillip Yerington NP, Bill Gluba (i) D, Keith Meyer D,
Davenport At Large* – Vote for no more than two Gene Meeker (i) R, Jason Gordon (i) R, Dale Gilmour R, Kevin Perkins D
Davenport First Ward: – Rick Dunn D no printed ballot opposition
Davenport Second Ward – Bill Edmund (i) R, no printed opposition
Davenport Third Ward: – Carlton Wills D, Bill Boom (i) D
Davenport Fourth Ward: *- Ray Ambrose (i) R, Robby Ortiz D
Davenport Fifth Ward: * – Barney Barnhill (i) R Sheilia Burrage (i) D
Davenport Sixth Ward: – Jeff Justin (i) R, no printed ballot opposition
Davenport Seventh Ward: – Mike Matson D, no printed ballot opposition
Davenport Eighth Ward:* – Kerri Tompkins R, Jamie Woods D
Dixon Mayor: Steve Laughlin (i) NP, no printed ballot opposition
Dixon City Council: Vote for no more than three — Sue Motz (i) R, write ins
Donahue City Council: Vote for no more than three — Stacy Rose R, Timothy Arp (i) NP, Rachelle Troje Hayslett (i) NP
Eldridge Mayor:* Adam M. Feldman R. Martin P. O’Boyle (i) D
Eldridge City Council:* Vote for no more than two Brian L. Dockery (i) R, Frank King NP, Brian Wood, D
LeClaire Mayor:* Robert Scannell (i) NP, Judy Hartig D
LeClaire City Council: Vote for no more than three — Barry Long (i) R, Shawn Ream NP, Justin Graff ?, Ray C. Allen D,
Loren Long (i) D, Debra D. Smith D
Long Grove Mayor: Michael Limberg R, Ida Weibel (i) D
Long Grove City Council: Vote for no more than two —
Cindy Blinksop R, Andy Cook NP, Donald Thiessen (i) NP
Maysville Mayor: Kelly Johnson (i) R, no printed ballot opposition
Maysville City Council: Vote for no more than five —
Marvin Reimers (i) R, John Keppy (i) NP, Rodney Ferris (i) D,
Duane Harvey D, David Sindt (i) D
McCausland City Council: Vote for no more than two — Karen Carsten R, write in, McCausland City Council vacancy: Danielle Whitcanack NP
New Liberty Mayor: Raymond Pratt (i) D, no printed ballot opposition
New Liberty City Council: Vote for no more than three — Lonnie Spengler (i) R, Dusty Pratt (i) D, Chris Zogg D
Panorama Park Mayor: William Minard R, no printed ballot opposition
Panorama Park City Council: Vote for no more than five — David White (i) R, Merle Andy White (i) NP, Rachel Gill NP, Ronald Rice ?, Stacey Cary D, Julie Naab (i) D
Princeton Mayor: Keith Youngers R, Brent Herman (i)
Princeton City Council:* Vote for no more than two – Daryl Welke (i) R, Chantele Craig R, John Cunard R, Mark lee (i) D, Karen Woomert D
Riverdale Mayor: Sonya Paddock R, no printed ballot opposition
Riverdale City Council: Vote for no more than two — George Seaberg R, Linda Hupp (i) D
Walcott Mayor: John Kostichek (i) R
Walcott City Council: Vote for no more than two —
Cloe McKinley NP, Virgil Wayne Latimer (i) D, Jackie Puck (i) D
