Current Iowa City councilmembers Laura Bergus and Pauline Taylor will be on the ballot for the council seat in District A in the November election after finishing first and second, respectively, in Tuesday’s primary election.
Bergus finished far ahead of Taylor and the other candidate in the race, Tim Borchardt. Bergus received 58.4 percent of the 649 votes cast, according to results published by the Johnson County Auditor’s Office. Bergus won all nine of the district’s precincts as well as a majority of the absentee vote. Taylor received 25 percent of the vote, and Borchardt got 16.5 percent. There was one write-in vote cast.
This was the first district-only primary in a regular city election since 1985, according to the auditor’s office, and it had a very low turnout. Only 6.58 percent of the 9,680 registered voters in the district, which covers most of Iowa City’s southside and westside, participated in the election.
Pauline Taylor has represented District A on the Iowa City Council for two terms. In 2015, she defeated then-incumbent Rick Dobyns in the 2015 city election, and faced no opponent when she ran for reelection in 2019. Taylor formally announced she was running for a third term on Aug. 22.
“I believe the city and the city council has, in general, made great strides over the last few years,” she told the Daily Iowan at the time. “I would like to continue that and have a few more years to work toward the goal of having better access to affordable housing and child care.”
Laura Bergus is completing her first term on the Iowa City Council. She was elected to an open at-large seat in 2019, and announced in May she would run for a second term. But it wasn’t until Aug. 28 that Bergus announced she was running for the District A seat instead of her current at-large position.
“When I first ran, I lived in a district that did not have a seat up for election at that time. The district boundaries have changed since then, and now I live in District A,” Bergus, who resides in Iowa City’s South District, said in a statement when she filed her election paperwork on Aug. 28.
“My reasons for wanting to serve have not changed,” she said. “I am asking to continue to serve the whole community. I will continue to lead with love, courage, and conviction. Together, we can do hard things.”
In addition to the District A seat on the council, the seat in District C and two at-large seats will be on the ballot in the Nov. 7 election.
Andrew Dunn, who was appointed in January to the at-large council seat left open following Janice Weiner’s election to the Iowa Senate, is running unopposed in District C. Incumbent John Thomas announced in April he would not seek reelection.
There are three candidates for the two at-large seats: Josh Moe, Mandi Remington and former councilmember Mazahir Salih.
Registered voters can already request absentee ballots for the Nov. 7 election. Early in-person voting for the election will begin Wednesday, Oct. 18.