Allamakee County voters don’t necessarily follow broader trends in 2018 General Election results

Byrnes, Schellhammer returned to Supervisors seats by Allamakee County voters, Egan edged by Osmundson in Iowa House District 56

Increased voter turnout proved to be the theme across the nation and the state of Iowa for the 2018 midterm general election held Tuesday, November 6, and the local level of voting in Allamakee County proved to follow that same trend. According to Allamakee County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Denise Beyer, just over 57% of the county’s 9,997 registered voters cast a ballot in this year’s general election (5,712 total votes), well up from the typical midterm election turnout percentage that has historically hovered much lower than that at around 40%.
That local trend obviously contributed to the historical Iowa trend that saw more than 1,320,000 votes having been tallied in the November 6 general election, the most votes ever cast in a midterm election in the state of Iowa. Despite that historical number of total votes cast, however, the 61 percent of Iowa’s registered voters who participated in the November 2018 midterm election still lagged a bit behind Iowa’s 1994 midterm election voter turnout of 62 percent.

NOT FOLLOWING ALL TRENDS
Although the local trend followed the Iowa and national trend of higher voter turnout, there were some significant differences in the results Allamakee County voters produced in comparison to the broader results in some races. Most notable of those differences was in the lone federal race on this year’s local ballot, the United States Representative District 1 race won by Democratic challenger Abby Finkenauer over multi-term incumbent Republican Rod Blum. Finkenauer was elected by District 1 voters with 50.9% of the vote in comparison to 45.97% for Blum. However, Allamakee County voting results showed the reverse of that trend, giving Blum 54.41% of the local support (3,069 votes) in comparison to just 41.59% for Finkenauer (2,346 votes).

STATE OF IOWA RACES
That local Republican reversal of statewide trends continued in two state-level races that also elected Democrats to those offices. The return of incumbent Michael Fitzgerald to the office of State Treasurer with 54.75% of the statewide vote (702,796 votes) in comparison to 42.82% of the vote for Republican challenger Jeremy Davis (549,630 votes) was not as supported by Allamakee voters, who instead gave Davis a slight edge in Allamakee County support with just over half, 50.35%, of the local vote (2,787 votes), with Fitzgerald only receiving 46.96% of the local support (2,599 votes).

Likewise in that same trend but not in the final result was the State Auditor race, where, instead, Republican incumbent Mary Mosiman was not re-elected to her office, receiving just 46.53% of the statewide vote (596,850 votes) in comparison to Democratic challenger Rob Sand’s 50.87% of the vote (652,589 votes) that pushed him into that office. On the local level, Mosiman again received more Allamakee County support, with 52.51% of the vote (2,903 votes), compared to Sand’s 2,493 votes that represented just 45.16% locally.

The statewide race with the closest comparison in Allamakee County support vs. statewide results was the office of Attorney General, where incumbent Democrat Tom Miller had no Republican challenger. Miller garnered 76.5% of the statewide vote (871,640 votes) in comparison to his lone challenger, Marco Battaglia of the Libertarian Party, who received 22.79% of the statewide support (259,628 votes). That trend was nearly at the same level locally, Allamakee County voters giving Miller 73.74% of the local vote (3,493 votes) in comparison to Battaglia’s 1,218 votes for 25.71% of local support.

The remaining three statewide offices each featured support of seven to 10 percentage points higher from Allamakee County voters in comparison to statewide results. The race for the state’s highest office saw the incumbent Republican gubernatorial pair of Kim Reynolds and Adam Gregg re-elected with just over half the statewide vote (50.4% - 662,633 votes) in comparison to 47.4% support (623,099 votes) for the Democratic challenging pair of Fred Hubbell and Rita Hart. That support of the Reynolds/Gregg ticket locally was considerably higher, 58.58% of the vote total with 3,321 votes, with the Hubbell/Hart ticket receiving 2,160 votes for 38.1% of the local support.

Likewise, Secretary of State Republican incumbent Paul Pate also received much higher local support, 61.74% of Allamakee County votes (3,421 votes), with Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear receiving 35.63% of the local tally (1,974 votes). Pate managed just 52.87% of the statewide vote (681,088 votes), with DeJear garnering 44.74% of statewide results (576,349 votes).

The Secretary of Agriculture race also saw increased local support, with Republican incumbent Mike Naig’s local support being about seven percentage points higher than his statewide result. Naig’s election came from a statewide margin of 50.48% (646,928 votes) in comparison to Democratic challenger Tim Gannon’s 46.48% (595,703 votes). Naig’s support percentage raised to 57.26% among Allamakee County voters (3,169 votes) in comparison to just 39.36% (2,178 votes) for Gannon.

The only other governmental state-level race was more local in nature, and the Republican contingency prevalent in Allamakee County resulted in a somewhat similar result in District 56 of the Iowa House of Representatives. In that race featuring two new candidates after current District 56 Representative Kristi Hager opted not to seek re-election, Republican Anne Osmundson of Volga defeated Democrat Lori Egan of Waukon by an overall districtwide result of 57.94% of the election tally (7,057 votes) in comparison to Egan’s 41.93% (5,107 votes). Although hailing from Allamakee County, Egan did not receive a majority of the support from voters in her Republican-heavy home county either, managing just 44.94% of that local support (2,524 votes) in comparison to Osmundson’s 54.93% (3,085 votes).

JUDICIAL RETENTION
In the seven election ballot items featuring retention of judges at both the State of Iowa Court of Appeals and District 1 levels, the Allamakee County percentage of support was nearly the same as the statewide or districtwide results. The three Iowa Court of Appeals judges on this year’s ballot were all retained, including Anuradha Vaitheswaran (70.01% and 646,895 votes statewide vs. 68.19% and 2,774 votes locally), Michael Mullins (75.26% and 702,030 votes statewide vs. 74.06% and 2,966 votes locally) and Mary Ellen Tabor (76.11% and 714,163 votes statewide vs. 74.54% and 2,963 locally).

Likewise, four judges in District 1A were also all retained, including John Bauercamper of Waukon, who received 79.55% approval (3,695 votes) locally and 79.15% (41,242 votes) in District 1A. Thomas Bitter (79.0% and 43,105 votes districtwide vs. 73.08% and 2,837 votes locally) and Monica Wittig (73.0% and 39,029 votes districtwide vs. 73.18% and 2,867 votes locally) were also retained, as was District 1A Associate Judge Robert Richter with 81.33% of the districtwide vote (43,040 votes) and 78.39% of the Allamakee County vote (3,222 votes).

ALLAMAKEE COUNTY RACES
At the Allamakee County level of government, the only change to report was in the office of County Attorney, where current County Attorney Jill Kistler is not seeking re-election, and Assistant Allamakee County Attorney Anthony Gericke was seeking that top office without opposition. Gericke received 98.9% of the vote with his 4,571 votes.

Two other Allamakee County offices also saw no opposing candidates for incumbent Republican candidates. Allamakee County Treasurer Lori Hesse was elected to another term in that office with 99.35% of the vote (5,065 votes) and Allamakee County Recorder Debbie Winke received 99.38% of the votes cast in her race (4,844 votes) to also win re-election.

The lone County government race to see opposition featured complexity with three candidates seeking two seats up for re-election on the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors. The incumbent pair of Democrat Dan Byrnes and Republican Larry Schellhammer were each able to win re-election to their seats, holding off a challenge from Republican Kristi Hager. Byrnes won 35.97% of the votes cast (3,138 votes) in comparison to Schellhammer’s 34.19% (2,983 votes) and Hager’s 29.56% of the tally (2,579 votes).

COUNTY NON-PARTISAN
All Allamakee County voters also had some decisions to make regarding leadership positions in a pair of countywide groups. The Allamakee County Soil and Water Conservation Commission had two seats up for election this year but only one officially declared candidate in Jack Knight, who was easily re-elected to the Commission with 97.06% of the votes cast (4,095 votes). The other seat will be filled by the write-in candidate who received the most votes. There were write-in votes cast for 90 different individuals, with all but 11 of them receiving just one vote. Donald Elsbernd received the most write-in votes with 16, with the next closest write-in candidate receiving just three votes.

The Allamakee County Agriculture Extension Council had the opposite issue for voters to decide, with six candidates on the ballot vying to fill just five seats. The five top vote recipients were elected to the Council, including Kevin Fossum (3,497 votes), Bobbi Jo Baxter (3,147 votes), Chad M. Waters (2,990 votes), Caitlin Johnson (2,905 votes) and Lynn Reburn (2,479 votes). Angela Carlson was the sixth candidate on the ballot, and she received 2,412 votes.

TOWNSHIP OFFICES
A total of 47 different township trustee or clerk positions were also on this year’s ballots in various precincts represented by those positions. The voting results for each candidate on the ballot or the top vote recipients for any position that required a write-in candidate are as follows:
Center Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Dennis Nebendahl (98) and Kenneth Johnson (89).
Center Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Michele Troendle (97).
Fairview Township Trustee (vote for 1) - Russell Jones (65).
Fairview Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Samantha Donahue (65).
Franklin Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Larry Lamborn (125). There was no second candidate declared, and the write-in candidate with the most votes (2) was Brent Miller, who was already serving as a trustee but did not seek re-election and has declined his write-in election. Two other write-in candidates, Colleen Martins and Lesa Moose, each received one vote, so an appointment will likely have to be made for that second trustee position, according to the Allamakee County Auditor’s office.
Franklin Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Diane M. Kraus (121).
French Creek Township Trustee (vote for 1) - Thomas Weighner (90).
French Creek Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Bob Hager (83).
Hanover Township Trustee (vote for 1) - Mark D. Howe (80).
Hanover Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Robert Larkin (78).
Iowa Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Don Zoll (79) and Mike Reburn (98).
Iowa Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Robin Harmon (114).
Jefferson Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Gregory Kerndt (157) and Bradley L. Winkie (141).
Jefferson Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Michelle Donahue (185).
Lafayette Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Mark Kruse (128), Dan Conway (124) and Jean Gavin (89).
Lafayette Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Mary Delaney (184).
Lansing Township Trustee (vote for 1) - Ben Mettille (171).
Lansing Township Clerk (vote for 1) - No candidate on the ballot. Five individuals each received one write-in vote: Vicki Staheli, Nathan Aldrich, Jeff Morris, Scott Beaton and Natalie Baugher. That race may have to be determined by the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors, according to the Allamakee County Auditor’s office.
Linton Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Sue Rose (102) and Daniel W. Cahoon (100).
Linton Township Clerk (vote for 1) - David D. Cahoon (116).
Ludlow Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Randy Kruger (200) and Lars Palmer (195).
Ludlow Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Audrey Peterson (220).
Makee Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Brad G. Berns (179) and Adam Bieber (172).
Makee Township Clerk (vote for 1) - William Steffenson (194).
Paint Creek Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Lori Johanningmeier (127) and Kent McCormick (120).
Paint Creek Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Virgil Thorstenson (136).
Post Township Trustee (vote for 2) - William Christofferson (114) and Richard Berns (108).
Post Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Cindy Berns (131).
Taylor Township Trustee (vote for 1) - Ron Cota (174).
Taylor Township Clerk (vote for 1) - No candidate on the ballot. Tom Cota received five write-in votes; Brigid Cota, Dave Wolfe, Mike Collins and Steve Karabatsos each received one write-in.
Union City Township Trustee (vote for 1) - George Beardmore (109).
Union City Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Charlene Paus (111).
Union Prairie Township Trustee (vote for 1) - Perry P. Fahey (237).
Union Prairie Township Clerk (vote for 1) - Tony Baxter (224).
Waterloo Township Trustee (vote for 2) - Jeffrey S. Tyribakken (77) and Todd Passig (61).
Waterloo Township Clerk (vote for 1) - David Schulte (94).