It’s still August, but the political scene is already heating up in advance of the November 8th general election. One of the big things that people see are the political yard signs in yards and on properties in the area. The race for Winnebago County Recorder has taken an interesting twist.
The daughter of Winnebago County Treasurer Julie Swenson is Shanna Eastvold who is the Republican candidate for the County Recorder position. Kris Oswald is running for the same post as an independent. Both have very strong support for the position. Oswald is very aggressive in her job as the current Drainage Clerk for the county in making sure projects are done efficiently and effectively. She is taking the same approach in her candidacy. As such, county residents have probably noticed a number of her yard signs are already out.
According to Winnebago County Democratic Chair Lisa Ralls, “There’s been an unwritten rule that we don’t put up campaign signs until after Labor Day. But Kris Oswald kept her signs up after the primary. The Republican chair called me up to ask if I would support them if they went and talked to her about that. I said I would, although it had no impact on the Democrats, since we have no one running in that race.”
Charles Tweeten is the Winnebago County Republican Chair. He stated that Oswald was unaware of the rules so measures of fairness had to be taken.
Other candidates for Governor and the Senate race have signs throughout the county.
The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office who is in charge of elections in Iowa referred KIOW News to the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board. Zach Goodrich is the Executive Director and Legal Counsel for the agency.
Goodrich explained that there are constitutional reasons behind the no time limit rule.
Area counties and cities do not have laws or resolutions on the books dictating when signs can be placed or taken down due mostly to the constitutional issue. Goodrich also stated that this deregulation is fairly common in the state.
It is expected that the Winnebago County Recorder race will be vigorously contested between two well qualified individuals.
