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Fairfield’s Ward 3 council seat will be decided in runoff election Sept. 30
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD - There was a surprising amount of drama in what appeared to be an uncontested race for a Fairfield City Council seat that will now go to a runoff election because no candidate received 50 percent of the vote.
Brian Horsfield was the only name on the ballot to fill the Ward 3 vacancy created by the passing of former city council member Judy Ham in June. Despite this, the special election held on Tuesday, Sept. 2 ended up being close, with Horsfield having to battle a last-minute challenge from write-in candidate Victoria Thompson. Horsfield received 46 votes to Thompson’s 44, and 16 votes went to other candidates.
Jefferson County Elections Clerk Abbie DeKleine announced that, since no candidate broke 50 percent, the top two vote-getters will now compete in a runoff election in four weeks, to be held on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Just as before, the election will only be open to residents in Ward 3, the western and northwest part of town, and poll hours that day will be from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Nazarene Family Center, 507 W. Briggs Ave. Absentee voting can be done in the Jefferson County Courthouse.
When The Union reached out to Horsfield Tuesday night, he said he had not heard anything from the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office about a potential runoff. Horsfield said he didn’t learn that Thompson was mounting a write-in campaign until the morning of election day. That night, when Horsfield went to the courthouse for the vote counting, he assumed he had lost based on what he could overhear.
Horsfield said that, regardless of how this election turns out, he feels that he’s done a lot of work to bring attention to the city’s plan to replace the golf cart bridge at Walton Lake with a culvert. He said no voter he spoke with was in favor of the project, and he hopes the Fairfield City Council will change course.
“[The voters] all feel it’s outrageous, and it should not be public funds,” said Horsfield, who added that the Walton Club had built a golf cart bridge at its own expense twice, and it makes sense for the club to be responsible for replacing the current golf cart bridge, not the city.
The Union attempted to reach Victoria Thompson for comment but was unable to do so. Horsfield said that, in the upcoming four weeks of campaigning before the runoff election, he will emphasize his commitment to fiscal responsibility as the central issue, such as “speaking up when I see unnecessary or wasteful spending, which I believe is the case with the Walton Lake golf cart bridge.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
