Kamm, Schwickerath win seats as Floyd County supervisors

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

Experience won out as the incumbent and a former Floyd County supervisor each took seats on the county board in Tuesday’s election.

Elected were incumbent Doug Kamm, who was seeking re-election after serving two four-year terms, and Roy Schwickerath, a former Charles City fire chief who had also served a term as county supervisor, ending two years ago when he had lost a bid for re-election to current supervisor board Chairwoman Linda Tjaden.

Another longtime supervisor, Mark Kuhn, who was also a former Iowa legislator, decided not to seek re-election this year, thus ensuring at least one change in the membership of the county board.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Schwickerath said Tuesday evening regarding the results. “We’ve got a busy four years ahead of us.”

Kamm and Schwickerath defeated challengers Stewart Dalton and Michael Staudt.

Unofficial supervisors results were:

• Kamm – 3,389, 32.7%.
• Schwickerath – 2,765, 26.6%.
• Dalton – 1,807, 17.4%.
• Staudt – 2,416, 23.3%.

In the only other contested Floyd County race, longtime Treasurer Frank Rottinghaus easily won another term against challenger Todd Schriever.

Unofficial treasurer results were:

• Rottinghaus – 3,387, 56.0%.
• Schriever – 2,656, 44.0%

County Recorder Deb Roberts and County Attorney Rachel Ginbey also won additional four-year terms, having both run unopposed. Roberts received 5,414 votes in her race and Ginbey received 5,110.

There were few if any major disagreements among the candidates for supervisor or between the treasurer hopefuls during the campaign.

At a community question-and-answer forum for the supervisor candidates and another that featured the supervisor candidates and the treasurer candidates, all the candidates emphasized fiscal responsibility and customer service, and all were more likely to agree with his opponents’ answers than to take exception to them.

“The campaign was very friendly,” Schwickerath said after the election Tuesday. “On the local level we don’t have any negative advertising. We don’t backstab our opponents. We’ve all very friendly to each other. It was a good campaign.”

Chief among the responsibilities facing the supervisors in the next term is overseeing the construction of a $13.5 million law enforcement center and making updates to the county courthouse that was built in 1941.

Voters overwhelmingly approved in May a bond referendum to fund the project which will include a new county jail and offices for the sheriff’s department to replace the jail and Sheriff’s Office currently on the top floor of the courthouse.

Kamm, 64, of Charles City, who owns Kamm Excavation Corp., has construction experience and has been involved in the LEC project since it was conceived. Schwickerath, 65, of Charles City, had led the committee on the new LEC when he was a supervisor.

The Board of Supervisors results from Tuesday maintain the political party division among members. Tjaden and Kamm are Republicans and Schwickerath is a Democrat, replacing Democrat Kuhn.

Even so, all the candidates had emphasized that other than some help in organizing for an election, party politics plays a minor or non-existent role in the day-to-day operations of the board.

Kamm had said during one of the community forums, “I will go to my grave maintaining that I’m not a politician.”

Schwickerath will be on the board with Tjaden, the person who defeated him in the last county election.

“I’ve been to meetings with Linda and actually worked with her a little bit on the campaign for the courthouse bond issue and we got along good. I look forward to it, and I think we’ll be a productive team,” he said.

“Obviously I’ve worked with Doug before and got along good with him all the time. You know, we have differences of opinion at times but that’s what makes up a board. We worked as a team to get things done and I think we will in the future,” Schwickerath said.