Bill Bumgarner is a retired former health care executive from northwest Iowa who worked
in hospital management for 41 years, mostly in the state of Iowa.

With the Iowa primary elections behind us and important statewide contests for governor and U.S. Senate coming up in November, I was struck by curiosity.

Does Iowa – 99 counties strong – have a bellwether county?

Over the years, you may have heard about bellwether counties that have correctly selected the U.S. presidential winner many election cycles in a row. (That distinction currently belongs to Blaine County, Montana and Essex County, New York, which have selected every winner since 2000.)

This project is a bit different. It seeks to learn if a single Iowa county’s general election candidate preference percentages closely mirror statewide results over time.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. 

Talk about lousy optics — and I am not referring to out-of-style eyeglasses. Public perception is the topic for today.

A couple of recent news nuggets illustrate in different ways an uncomfortable fact of life in Iowa: too many state and local government officials are not comfortable with the public looking over their shoulders as they perform their official duties.

One case overflowing with irony involves the Des Moines County Board of Supervisors. The other involves State Treasurer Roby Smith.