Allamakee County voters return Dennis Koenig to Board of Supervisors, help Kristi Hager unseat incumbent Patti Ruff in race for Iowa House District 56
Results from the Tuesday, November 8 General Election yielded differing results in the most localized races, Allamakee County voters retaining an incumbent in one contested race while helping oust another. Allamakee County Board of Supervisors incumbent Republican Dennis Koenig of Postville was able to fend off another challenge from Mark Reiser of Lansing, while Republican Kristi Hager of Waukon ended up defeating two-term incumbent Democrat Patti Ruff of McGregor in District 56 of the Iowa House of Representatives.
According to the Allamakee County Auditor's office, this year's General Election saw 7,034 ballots cast representing 69.62% of the 10,104 registered voters in Allamakee County. That ballot total, according to the Auditor's office, exceeded those same counts for each of the previous three Presidential elections, with the 2012 election featuring 6,633 ballots cast, 6,580 being cast in 2008 and 6,356 being tallied in the 2004 election.
Of this year's ballot total, 3,098 were absentee, also just a bit higher than in previous Presidential election years. This year's local election figures also featured 1,160 straight ticket ballots for Republicans, while only 680 straight ticket Democrat ballots were cast.
With this being the first Presidential election she had to oversee as Allamakee County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections since being elected to that position during the last such election in 2012, Denise Beyer said she did not have much to compare this election to, besides noting that it is the same type of work as for other elections that she has run but "on a much larger scale." She did note that there seemed to be a high number of election day registrations, where those who did not pre-register by the October 29 deadline were required to prove their identity and residency with proper documentation before they would be allowed to vote.
Beyer also gave credit to this year's Presidential race for the local turn-out following the noted higher trend experienced nationwide, but said that may not always be the case and can depend upon other County office races or whether or not some type of public measure also appears on the ballot. "The Presidential race can't always get the credit for a good turnout, in my opinion," she said. "Although this year, I believe the credit does go to the Presidential race."
COUNTY OFFICES
Within the most local contested race, the one for Allamakee County Board of Supervisors, Republican incumbent Dennis Koenig of Postville fended off another challenge by, this time, unaffiliated candidate Mark Reiser of Lansing to retain his seat on the Board of Supervisors for a second four-year term. Having bested Reiser by just 57 votes in the Republican Primary Election that yielded just over 1,350 total votes in June of this year, that vote total and Koenig's margin widened to just under 6,300 votes cast and a 3,511-2,778 margin of victory for Koenig.
Although Reiser won six of the 11 voting precincts in the contest, those margins could not overcome the 1,517-1,142 margin Koenig enjoyed in absentee voting. The breakdown by precinct for that Allamakee County Board of Supervisors race can be found in the colored chart at left.
Additional Allamakee County offices up for election this year and listed on Tuesday's General Election ballot featured those of Auditor and Sheriff, with neither Republican incumbent facing any opposition in their respective race. Auditor Denise Beyer tallied 5,630 votes in her bid for retaining that office, with Sheriff Clark Mellick garnering 5,821 votes to do likewise.
IOWA HOUSE DISTRICT 56
In the only ousting of an incumbent candidate on the local November 8 ballot, Republican Kristi Hager of Waukon was successful in her bid to unseat incumbent Democrat Patti Ruff of McGregor in District 56 of the Iowa House of Representatives. Hager rode a margin of more than 1,400 votes, 4,127-2,710, from Allamakee County voters to ultimately claim the District 56 seat by a final districtwide result of 7,881-6,587 (nearly 55% of the vote total).
IOWA SENATE DISTRICT 28
The other state-level legislative race on this year's General Election ballot for Allamakee County voters was for District 28 of the Iowa Senate. Incumbent Republican Michael Breitbach of Strawberry Point easily fended off a challenge from Democrat Jan Heikes of Decorah and Libertarian Troy Hageman of Calmar with a districtwide favor of 58.3%, garnering 17,442 votes to 10,794 for Heikes and just 1,645 for Hageman. Breitbach experienced even greater favor among Allamakee County voters with 62.4% of that vote total, tallying 4,163 votes in comparison to 2,179 for Heikes and 326 for Hageman.
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 1
The two federal legislative offices on this year's General Election ballot also saw incumbent candidates easily retain their seats while getting a stronger show of support from Allamakee County residents than they did statewide. In one of those races, U.S. District 1 Representative Republican Rod Blum retained that office with 53.8% of the statewide vote in comparison to Democrat challenger Monica Vernon's 46.0%, a 206,275-176,447 vote margin. Blum's approval among Allamakee County voters rose to 61.1% in comparison to Vernon's 38.7%, as he experienced a local vote advantage of 4,043-2,562 over Vernon.
U.S. SENATE
Similarly in the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Republican Charles Grassley easily held off a challenge from a full field of four other candidates by winning 60.1% of the statewide vote in comparison to his closest challenge of 35.6% managed by Democrat challenger Patty Judge. Grassley racked up 923,489 votes statewide, in comparison to Judge's 547,042 votes, 41,609 garnered by Libertarian candidate Charles Aldrich, 17,571 for New Independent Party Iowa candidate Jim Hennager, and 4,417 votes for Michael Luick-Thrames, who was nominated by petition.
Grassley's approval soared to 65.5% among Allamakee County voters, with Judge falling to 30.8%. The veteran Senator garnered 4,450 local votes in comparison to 2,089 votes tallied by Judge, 167 for Aldrich, 61 for Hennager, and 24 for Luick-Thrames.
PRESIDENT
Neither the state of Iowa nor Allamakee County followed the overall popular vote trend for the nation in this year's General Election, where the Democratic presidential pair of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine won the popular vote over the Republican duo of Donald Trump and Michael Pence by more than 300,000 votes, a margin of 60,122,876-59,821,874. That popular vote margin, however, did not fall in the right states as the Clinton/Kaine pair came up shy in the electoral vote total, where the Trump/Pence campaign won the presidency by a 279-228 result.
The Clinton/Kaine nationwide advantage in popular vote, however, was not fueled by Iowa voters, including those in Allamakee County. Iowa voters favored the Trump/Pence card by just shy of a full 10 percentage points, 51.2%-41.7%, with Trump/Pence managing 798,943 statewide votes in comparison to just 650,862 votes for Clinton/Kaine. That trend ballooned to a 59.1% approval by Allamakee County voters in comparison to just 35.0% of the vote for Clinton/Kaine, as Trump/Pence enjoyed an Allamakee County vote advantage of 4,072-2,409.
JUDICIAL RETENTION
Allamakee County voters followed the statewide trend of giving considerable approval to retaining all eight of the judges on this year's General Election ballot. However, Allamakee voters were just slightly less approving of all eight of those judges in comparison to statewide results that ranged between 64%-76%. Allamakee County vote totals (and "Yes" approval percentages) were as follows:
Supreme Court Judges: Brent Appel (61.7%) - 2,819 Yes, 1,753 No; Mark Cady (62.9%) - 2,880 Yes, 1,698 No; Daryl Hecht (63.1%) - 2,992 Yes, 1,748 No.
Court of Appeals Judges: David Danilson (67.9%) - 2,962 Yes, 1,398 No; Richard Doyle (68.1%) - 2,995 Yes, 1,402 No; Amanda Potterfield (68.9%) - 3,068 Yes, 1,386 No; Gayle Vogel (69.3%) - 3,013 Yes, 1,337 No.
District Court 1A Judge: Michael Shubatt (71.1%) - 3,174 Yes, 1,288 No.
OTHER ALLAMAKEE COUNTY BALLOT ITEMS
Rounding out this year's General Election ballot on the local scene was representation in Allamakee County in both countywide entities and within individual county townships. All three candidates seeking to fill three seats on the Allamakee County Soil and Water District Commission each averaged about one-third of the vote as follows: Josh Dee - 3,583 votes, Michael McCormick - 3,862 votes, Michael O'Hare - 3,781 votes.
Likewise, all four of the candidates listed for the Allamakee County Ag Extension Council each garnered about one-fourth of the local vote total as follows: Blake Everman - 3,595 votes, Nate Gebel - 3,473 votes, Annette Stock - 3,305 votes, Brittany Tilleraas - 3,576 votes.
The Township Trustee results saw all candidates listed on the ballot elected into their respective roles. Those results are as follows:
Center - Brad Larkin (120)
Fairview - Tom McCormick (69) and Bill Moody (69)
Franklin - Curtis Kraus (139)
French Creek Trustees - John Curtin (80) and Jeff Leppert (78)
French Creek Clerk - Bob Hager (91)
Hanover - (39 write-in votes)
Iowa - John Gibbs (115)
Jefferson - Harlan Yohe (189)
Lafayette - Raymond J. Mullarkey (174)
Lansing - Daryl Gruber (148) and Greg A. Rea (161)
Linton - Mike Lloyd (103)
Ludlow - Todd Snitker (244)
Makee - Robert Hanson (221)
Paint Creek - Terry Oesterle (162)
Post - Angie Mohs (126)
Taylor - Mike Collins (156)
Union City - Alan Heitman (112) and Charles A. Schroeder (99)
Union Prairie - Tom Baxter (215) and Bernard H. Berns (214)
Union Prairie (to fill a vacancy) - Perry P. Fahey (266)
Waterloo - (21 write-in votes).
