Joe Van Erdewyk’s growing City Council campaign grilled hot dogs and veggie burgers and laid out drinks and snacks at a pavilion at Emma McCarthy Lee Park for their “kick-off party” Saturday. 

The campaign had a table with a clipboard set up for supporters to sign up with them.

The park sits in Ames City Council’s fourth ward, which Van Erdewyk is seeking to represent. The ward also includes the Iowa State campus and Campustown.

Dirk Deam, senior lecturer of political science at Iowa State, attended the event. Deam said he is involved in the campaign because both Van Erdewyk and his campaign manager, Bryanna Walton, had assisted him in one of his congressional campaigns.

Walton said many of the people who were at the event had met Van Erdewyk several years ago in Deam’s Law and Politics class and remained friends.

There is at least one other candidate seeking election to the fourth ward seat. Van Erdewyk registered his campaign with the Iowa Secretary of State about a month ago, Andrew Manion James, finance director of the campaign, said.

Van Erdewyk told the Daily in an interview they had raised about $1,900, “blow[ing] away” the goal they had set.

“Basically, right now it’s not so much about getting out the vote,” Van Erdewyk said. “It’s much more about me wanting to talk to people who live in the community.”

Van Erdewyk said people in the area have asked him for his views on the proposed Healthy Life Center. Van Erdewyk said he supports the facility, and he said he thinks it would help to bring a lot of different parts of the community together.