Allamakee County voters elect new faces to County positions; Support of Bob Hager not enough to return him to Iowa House of Representatives

Although close in many regards, Allamakee County voters didn't necessarily follow the trend of nationwide or statewide results all the way through the Tuesday, November 6 General Election. With 6,927 voters representing a 71.5% voter turn-out for this year's election, that percentage was a bit higher than the previous presidential election participation of 70% from 2008's day of choice but still lagged behind the 2004 General Election participation level of 77%, according to information from the Allamakee County Auditor's Office.
Regardless of voter turn-out, Tuesday's end results did not bode well for local incumbent candidates. Area residents elected new faces to the seats of Allamakee County Auditor and Allamakee County Supervisor, and this area's representation in the Iowa House of Representatives will also come from a new face.

COUNTY OFFICES
At the county level of Tuesday's election results, voters chose Dennis Koenig of Postville, the Republican challenger for Allamakee County Supervisor, to replace incumbent Democrat Lennie Burke of Dorchester in a tight race, with Koenig garnering just over 51% of the final tally (3,459) and Burke managing 48% (3,245). Likewise, Republican candidate for Allamakee County Auditor Denise Beyer came out ahead in a three-person race with nearly 43% of the votes (2,881), topping Democratic candidate Janice Thorson’s 30% (2,072) and incumbent Pam Benjegerdes (nominated by petition) with 26% (1,757).
Running unopposed for the position of Allamakee County Sheriff, Republican Clark Mellick garnered 5,405 votes to replace retiring Sheriff Tim Heiderscheit.

NEW DISTRICT RACES FOR STATE LEGISLATURE
Redistricting following the 2010 Census resulted in some familiar faces vying for new places. Tuesday's results, however, did not necessarily let that happen in the local area.
Allamakee County voters supported Iowa House of Representatives incumbent Republican Bob Hager of Dorchester with 59% of the local vote (3,995) over Democrat challenger Patti Ruff of McGregor (40% with 2,758 votes) for State Representative for District 56. However, Ruff benefited from support in other areas of the new District, winning the overall race and the House seat by just over 300 votes (7,304 to 7,000).
Allamakee County voters also chose Republican newcomer Michael Breitbach of Strawberry Point as their Senator for the new District 28 with 51% of the vote (3,413) compared to the 48% (3,251) earned by Democrat John Beard of Decorah. With that race being even closer in the overall District 28 results, an immediate winner was not declared. But Breitbach has since been reported as the winner by a margin of just 43 votes (14,791 to 14,748).

FEDERAL RESULTS FOLLOW TRENDS
Nationally, Allamakee County voters sided with other voters statewide and nationwide in choosing to re-elect Democratic incumbents Barack Obama and Joe Biden as President and Vice President of the United States, with Allamakee voters preferring the Democrats by a 51% (3,511 votes) to 47% (3,230) margin. Those percentages were somewhat in between the state of Iowa averages of 52% to 46% and the national support percentages of 50% for the Obama/Biden ticket and 48% for the Romney/Ryan challengers.
In District 1 of the U.S. House of Representatives, Allamakee County voters chose Democrat incumbent Bruce Braley over Republican challenger Ben Lange by a narrow margin of just 49% (3,241 votes) to 48% (3,189 votes), while district-wide Braley won the race by a comfortable margin of 57% to 42%.

CITY OF LANSING
In other local elections, voters in the town of Lansing chose Joe Strobel as their Mayor over Deb Volker by a 279-126 margin. A vacancy on the Lansing City Council also appeared on the ballot, but with no candidate declared on the ballot, Ross Kolsrud earned that seat with 37 write-in votes. It has not yet been announced whether or not Kolsrud will accept the position, and there were no other real challengers to that vote total as 143 write-in votes for the position were fairly widely scattered.

OTHER BALLOT ITEMS
Within the respective township elections throughout Allamakee County on this year's ballot, the following trustees were also elected with their respective listed vote totals, with Linton, Post and Waterloo townships not having declared winners in their elections as of print deadline:
Center - Brad Larkin (134) and Robert Troendle (137)
Fairview - William Moody (71) and Tom McCormick (67)
Franklin - Curtis Kraus (117)
French Creek - Robert A. Leppert (80) and John Curtin (76)
Hanover - Rick Schulte (84)
Iowa - John Gibbs (97)
Jefferson - Harlan Yohe (213)
Lafayette - Ray Mullarkey (171)
Lansing - Greg Rea (179)
Linton - (25 write-in votes)
Ludlow - Todd Snitker (252)
Makee - Robert L. Hanson (221)
Paint Creek - Terry Oesterle (158)
Post - (30 write-in votes)
Taylor - Mike Collins (133)
Union City - Alan P. Heitman (121)
Union Prairie - Gordon Ellingson (228)
Waterloo - (19 write-in votes).
Two other countywide ballot items involved the election of resident representatives as Soil and Water Conservation Commissioners and members of the Agriculture Extension Council. Three candidates, Lynn Stock (3,833 votes), Michael McCormick (3,833 votes) and Clinton Welsh (3,629 votes) were elected as Soil and Water Conservation Commissioners. All four candidates on the ballot for the Extension Council were also elected with the following totals: Kim Welsh (3,994 votes), Nita Grangaard (3,651), Ken Winke (3,620) and Nate Gebel (3,482).
In the Judicial Retention questions on this year's ballot, all 13 judges listed received approval from Allamakee County voters, all but one of them by percentages of 65% or greater. Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins had his support dip to just 53% from Allamakee County voters. The following results were reported for Allamakee County:
Supreme Court: Edward Mansfield - 3,064 Yes, 1,388 No; Thomas Waterman - 3,097 Yes, 1,363 No; David Wiggins - 2,639 Yes, 2,330 No; Bruce Zager - 3,070 Yes; 1,414 No.
Court of Appeals: Michael Mullins - 3,168 Yes; 1,169 No; Mary Ellen Tabor - 3,219 Yes, 1,153 No; Anuradha Vaitheswaran - 2,839 Yes, 1,488 No.
District 1A: Monica Ackley - 3,161 Yes, 1,251 No; John Bauercamper - 3,991 Yes, 1,083 No; Thomas Bitter - 3,032 Yes, 1,305 No; Margaret Lingreen - 3,509 Yes, 1,261 No; Randal Nigg - 3,029 Yes, 1,298 No; Robert Richter - 3,279 Yes, 1,115 No.