On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

Scott County Republicans are calling a special convention to pick a person to run for Scott County Auditor.

Steve Ahrens, the former Davenport alderman who now works for the city levee commission, is going to run for the post. Bryan Sievers, the county GOP chair, says he’s the only one he knows of who’s doing so.

Delegates will be seated at 9:45 a.m. and the convention will begin at 10 a.m. It’s at the 4-H Building at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, 2815 W. Locust St., Davenport.

Only precinct delegates are eligible to vote. Registration starts at 9 a.m.

So far, no word from the Democrats on nominating a person to run.

UPDATE: Former Davenport aldermen Roxanna Moritz and Tom Engelmann are seeking the Democratic nomination. Moritz is a county supervisor now. Engelmann works as an accountant. This could get more crowded, too. Here’s my story in Tuesday’s Times. Ex-party chair Karl Rhomberg says he’s “strongly considering” a bid. There could be others.

The auditor’s office should be a local race to watch this year. It’s an open courthouse post, but the auditor also is one of three who make up a committee that fills vacancies on the county board.

The panel had been in Republican control for years, but Rita Vargas election as county recorder a few years ago swung that power to the Democrats. Whichever party wins the auditor’s job this fall will control the appointment committee next year.

First, the Democrats have to pick a nominee, and it could be a tough fight for the nod. Engelmann is touting his background, both as an election official and an accountant. The auditor not only deals with elections but also with other matters, some of them dealing with finances.

Moritz notes her work as an alderman. She’s also won county-wide, and has a lot of friends in the political/labor community. Engelmann can’t claim to have won county wide. In fact, he lost a county wide race. He can argue, however, it was to an incumbent, Republican treasurer Bill Fennelly, who is widely popular.

Moritz, meanwhile, will have to push back against the argument that nominating her will open up a seat on the county board, which is majority-Democrat for the first time in years. Should she get the nomination, then win the general election, it’s likely Republicans will ask for a special election to challenge whichever Democrat is picked to replace Moritz.

This is all insider baseball stuff, but it’s exactly the kind of thing delegates to a reconvened county convention – the people who will make the decision on who will be the Democratic nominee – that will be considered.

No date for the Democrats has been set yet, but the talk is that it will be in the third week of June.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under On The Campaign Trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.