Meet and hear from Floyd County candidates at Charles City forums

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The public is being invited to hear from their candidates for the contested Floyd County Board of Supervisors, Iowa House and Iowa Senate races at a pair of candidate forums next week at the Charles City Senior Center.

Both forums will begin at 7 p.m., with the county supervisor candidates featured on Wednesday, Oct. 12, and the Iowa House and Senate candidates looking to represent most of Floyd County at a forum the following evening, Thursday, Oct. 13.

The forums are being hosted by the Charles City Area Chamber of Commerce and the American Association of University Women (AAUW). They are open to the public and will be recorded for playback on the Charles City Public Access Network (Mediacom Channel 4 or online at www.charlescitypan.com).

The public will not be able to ask questions directly to the candidates at the forums, but are encouraged to submit questions in advance for consideration to info@charlescitychamber.com. A review panel will select from the submitted questions to be asked of the candidates “based on appropriateness, fairness and to avoid duplication,” according to information from the organizers.

Questions can also be written down and submitted by the audience during the first half of each forum for consideration.

Candidates running for the three Floyd County supervisor seats are: Julius Bryant, Doug Kamm and Mark Kuhn in District 1; Dennis Keifer and Joshua Mack in District 2; and Jeff Hawbaker, Jim Lundberg and Jayson Ryner in District 3.

Running for Iowa House District 58 are Dene Lundberg and Charles Thomson, and the candidates for Iowa Senate District 29 are Jenn Wolff and Sandy Solomon.

All of the above candidates were invited to participate and all have confirmed they will take part, with the exception of Ryner who is unavailable those two nights.

“We appreciate each of these candidates being willing to step forward and represent us in Floyd County,” said AAUW member Anna Burnham. “We hope the public will take this opportunity to meet and hear from the candidates as they make informed decisions on who to vote for come Nov. 8.”

This is the first election in recent history where county supervisors are elected in districts, after voters approved the change last year in a special election. Candidates have to be residents of the district they are running to represent, and voters chose the form of supervisor districting where only the voters in each district can vote for the candidates running in their district.

Supervisor District 1 consists of the southern half of Floyd County, with Scott, Ulster, Union, Pleasant Grove and Riverton townships and most of St. Charles Township, plus Precinct 1 of Charles City, which is everything in the city limits south of the Cedar River.

Supervisor District 2 consists of Precincts 2 and 3 of Charles City, which is everything north of the river, along with a northern section of St. Charles Township.

Supervisor District 3 is the northern tier of townships – Rock Grove, Rudd, Floyd, Cedar, Niles and Rockford townships.

Both Iowa House 58 and Iowa Senate 29 include all of Floyd County except for the two northwest townships of Rock Grove and Rockford.

The new supervisor districts were drawn and Iowa House and Senate districts remapped after the results of the 2020 U.S. Census were announced. Floyd County also moved from the U.S. House District 4 in the northwest part of the state, to U.S. House District 2, in the northeast part of the state.