Fairfield Chamber cancels candidate forum

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce has announced that it is canceling the primary candidate debate planned for Tuesday, June 2 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.

“Due to the political climate in the upcoming primary election, we have chosen to cancel the candidate forum scheduled for June 2,” stated a news release from the chamber. “We at the Chamber want to remain neutral in all political issues that may affect our community.”

The chamber news release indicated that the organization wants residents to be informed, and supplied the email addresses to the candidates who were slated to debate that day.

The forum was going to feature three races, two of which for an Iowa House seat and one for Jefferson County Attorney. The county attorney race pits two men vying to represent the Democratic Party in November: incumbent Chauncey Moulding and challenger Ed Harvey.

The second debate was going to feature two current Iowa House representatives who will square off in the Republican primary race for House District 87: Jeff Shipley and Joe Mitchell. Shipley resides in Birmingham while Mitchell resides in Mt. Pleasant, which meant that the two were in separate House districts until the new district map was approved by the Iowa Legislature in 2021, putting them in the same district.

District 87 covers all of Van Buren County, the southern half of Jefferson County including Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City, and the central and western part of Henry County including Mt. Pleasant.

Lastly, the third debate was supposed to be between two Republican candidates vying to represent the party in House District 88: Helena J. Hayes and Dustin D. Hite.

District 88 covers the northern half of Jefferson County that is not in District 87, plus all of Keokuk County and slightly more than half of Mahaska County including Oskaloosa.

Below is the contact information for each candidate.

State Representative District 87

Jeff Shipley: j.j.shipley@gmail.com

Joe Mitchell: joeforiowa@gmail.com

State Representative District 88

Dustin Hite: dustin.d.hite@gmail.com

Helena Hayes: helenahayes74@yahoo.com

County Attorney

Chauncey Moulding: jeffcoatty@lisco.com

Ed Harvey: edwardharvey98@yahoo.com