Some Iowa cities lack enough candidates to fill city council seats in November elections

Maresa Strano was quoted in a Cedar Rapids Gazette article on Iowa’s city council candidate shortage.

To build the bench of future council members, some point to a need to spur volunteerism and civic engagement — to get people involved, especially those who may not traditionally engage with city government.

Maresa Strano, deputy director of the Political Reform program with nonpartisan think tank New America, said research done by political scientists and experts in community organizing have identified several

tactics that have shown success in encouraging “a more diverse range of people to take the plunge and run,” especially women and historically underrepresented groups that lack connections to traditional fundraising networks.

Strano said public financing programs can help reduce financial barriers to candidates who’ve rallied some community support. New York City has a small donor match program that uses public funds to match

low-dollar contributions from state or local residents to candidates who opt in. Seattle has pioneered property-tax funded democracy vouchers to give residents four vouchers each worth $25 that can be pledged to eligible candidates seeking local offices.

Another possibility Strano mentioned would be to create organizations that recruit, train and support candidates to run or reinvigorate institutions such as local political party organizations that have long held a role in candidate emergence.

“Parties have a bad name these days and many local elections are nonpartisan,” Strano said, but party organizations have historically been stronger in rural areas and were key to supporting candidates. With the hollowing out of local parties, she said, this has impacted the volume and variety of people running for office, especially in rural areas.