Filings begin for county elected offices in 2022 election

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

There will be at least one new Floyd County supervisor elected this year.

County offices up for election this year are county attorney, county treasurer, county recorder and all three supervisor seats. Filing period for nomination papers for county offices began Monday and will end at 5 p.m. Friday, March 25.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said Monday he was not planning to run for reelection. He said that he had said when he was first elected that he would serve two terms, and he is finishing his second — even though there was a two-year hiatus between them.

Supervisors Doug Kamm and Linda Tjaden both said Monday they had not yet made up their minds whether they would run again.

But even if all three incumbent supervisor ran for reelection there would still be at least one new supervisor, because two of the supervisors live in the same district under the new supervisor districts that are in effect for this election.

Usually elections for supervisor seats – which are for four-year terms – are staggered, with only one or two seats open every two years, to avoid the possibility of every supervisor being new to the office after an election

All three seats are open this year because this is the first election after a special referendum held last summer that made Floyd County a “Plan 3” county.

Under Plan 3, the county is divided into equal population supervisor districts. Candidates running to represent a district must live in that district, and only voters living in that district can vote for the supervisor that will represent them.

Also, only people living in the district can sign nominating petitions to put candidates for that district on the ballot.

Current supervisors Kamm and Schwickerath both live in the new Supervisor District 1, which is made up of the southern tiers of Floyd County townships and Charles City Precinct 1. In fact, they both live in Charles City Precinct 1, so it was virtually assured they would be in the same supervisor district once the new district lines were drawn.

Since Kamm is a Republican and Schwickerath is a Democrat, they could choose to run against each other for the seat if they both decided to run, but only one of them could be elected to serve.

As just one more curveball in this election, Supervisor District 1 was chosen at random to be for just a two-year term, so the supervisor elections can get back to being staggered. That means whoever is elected for District 1 will serve for just half of a usual term.

Kamm said Monday he had mostly decided to run for reelection, but after District 1 was chosen to be the two-year term he is giving it some more thought.

The third supervisor, Tjaden, lives in Supervisor District 3.

The party primary election will be held on Tuesday, June 7. The general election day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Current incumbents in the county offices whose seats are up for election are:

• County Supervisor (3 districts) – Doug Kamm, Linda Tjaden and Roy Schwickerath.

• County Attorney – Rachel Ginbey.

• County Treasurer – Frank Rottinghaus, who has said he will not seek reelection.

• County Recorder – Amy Assink, who was appointed to the position and said when she was appointed that she planned to run for a full term.

In addition to the county offices, area state and federal offices that will be on the ballot this year and the incumbents are:

• Iowa House District 58 – Rep. Todd Prichard, D-Charles City; Prichard has said he will not seek reelection; Jim Wright, R-Sumner, has filed for the Republican primary.

• Iowa House District 60 – Rep. Jane Bloomingdale, R-Northwood; Bloomingdale has said she will seek another term.

• Iowa Senate District 29 – no incumbent; Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, has filed for the Republican primary.

• Iowa Senate District 30 – Sen. Amanda Ragan, D-Mason City, and Sen. Waylon Brown, R-St. Ansgar; Brown has said he will seek reelection; Ragan has said she will not seek reelection.

• Statewide offices – State offices on the ballot will be governor/lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor of state, treasurer of state, secretary of agriculture and attorney general.

• U.S. House District 2 – After 10 years of being on the eastern edge of the sprawling northwest U.S. House District 4, Floyd County is now near the western edge of U.S. House District 2, which covers the northeast corner of the state. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R- Marion, is the incumbent in what was District 1 and has said she will run to represent the new District 2.

• U.S. Senate – The seat of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is open this year; Grassley has filed for the Republican primary.