In Search of City Voters

A few days before the October 9th city council primary election I tried to identify some issues of importance for the contest. Who receives development dollars, energy efficiency for new construction, a variety of new jobs, and public transit were issues people contacted from my business card file helped me identify.

The day before the primary the Des Moines Register ran an article with four questions it asked of the three candidates running for an at-large council seat. The Register’s issues were the utility franchise fee, property tax increases versus budget cuts, retail growth in center city neighborhoods, and a shelter for the homeless. These are issues on which the paper has reported recently.

I wanted to talk with more people about municipal elections so I went to the downtown farmers market on October 20th. I was able to interview 12 people (7 women, 5 men), including a married couple and a mother/daughter pair. Here are their responses to a series of questions:

Do you know there is an election on November 6? (7 yes, 3 no, 2 hint of an idea)
Have you received or seen any campaign information? (4 yes, 8 no)
Have you heard or seen any news coverage? (6 yes, 6 no)
Locations: (1 Des Moines; 4 West Des Moines; 1 Clive; 2 Johnston; 1 Ankeny, 1 Adair; 1 Grinnell; 1 New Sharon)
Do you support or oppose any particular candidate? (0 yes; 12 no)
What issues do you consider important in the municipal election? (health care, a safe courthouse, special education, general school issues, making government smaller, illegal immigrants, sexual offenders, commuter transit services, quality of streets, police and fire departments, and realistic growth)

The first person with whom I spoke was a convicted felon. She said she had been told she could not vote so I gave her information about restoration of voting rights. A couple people were more interested in the presidential election than in what happens locally. Several people said they had not thought about what issues concerned them. When issues were offered, they were often not in context of a city council’s authority, e.g., schools and a county courthouse. Christine from Ankeny was the most opinionated of the 12 interviewees. Although she lives north of Des Moines, Christine is worried that the Des Moines city council is not doing enough to keep employers in the city. She commutes to Des Moines for work and thinks the last bus back to Ankeny needs to leave later than 5:30 p.m. As for Ankeny’s city council, she thinks it is making too big a fuss over yard signs. Yet, she is greatly concerned about growth in terms of eminent domain, loss of farmland, and the lack of open space. Despite her interest in municipal issues, Christine did not know if anybody was running for Ankeny’s city council. I was able to direct her to the Polk County Auditor’s web site which shows local municipal ballots. Ankeny has 4 candidates for 3 at-large council seats.

Guest Writer: M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.