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The voters of Chisago County produced some mixed results in Tuesday’s election balloting. In some cases incumbents were victorious, but in other races change was in the wind.  

Voters in this county did not support returning the highest office-holders like those seats in congress and for governor. Bucking the overall winning results, Chisago County voters went for Stewart Mills, Mike McFadden and Jeff Johnson who were all defeated by Rick Nolan, Al Franken and Mark Dayton, respectively. But when it came to local races like county office-holders and the school boards, the incumbents ruled.

In local offices:
Lora Walker fended off a challenge for County Commissioner from Jill Behnke.  Walker was returned to office with 2,047 votes to Behnke’s 1,353. The other County Board seat on a ballot was held by Ben Montzka,  who was unopposed in Dist 4.

County Attorney Janet Reiter also won re-election with 9,697 votes to Jesse Johnson’s 6,891.

The sheriff race pitted incumbent Rick Duncan against Ron Rollins, and there was an organized write-in challenge from Mark Osland. Duncan comes back to serve with 9,707 votes.  Rollins got 7,127 and the total write-ins came to 1,163.

A few cities have new mayors.  Center City elected Larry Houger over Scott Johnson.  Houger got 164 votes to Anderson’s 74. (Incumbent mayor Jill Behnke ran for County Board instead.) The two incumbent council members were unopposed.

North Branch voters elected Kirsten Kennedy for mayor with incumbent Ron Lindquist not on the ballot. Kennedy got 1,843.  Council member Theresa Furman ran for mayor and got 1,157 votes, but retains her council seat as it was not the end of that term.  

Council members elected to serve North Branch were newcomer Robert Canada with 1,376 and Kathy Blomquist 1,331.  Candidate Cindy Erickson got 1,298.

In Shafer the new mayor is Dan Vogel with 220 votes and he was unopposed.

For council the two expiring seats went to incumbent Patty Mattson with 179 and Jeff Behnke with 88. There was a vacant seat from a resignation that nobody filed for, and which may be filled by appointment. Candidates Tim O’Connor got 79 votes and Koree Denmark got 62.

In Chisago City,  Mayor Bob Gustafson was unopposed.  For Council Mark Anderson won a seat with 864 votes and incumbent Ron Swenson was re-elected with 950.  Joe Sroga got 560 votes.  A recent resignation by Council member Don Taylor left an open seat and is being filled by appointment, the city is accepting applications now.

Wyoming Mayor Eric Peterson was challenged by Linda Nanko Yeager. Peterson won with 1,650 and  Yeager got 1,396.  

For council seats the top vote getters were Lisa Iverson with 1,632 and Claire Luger with 1,529. Roger Elmore got 1,110.

Wyoming citizens were voting on a referendum for roads and street repairs.  The referendum vote was 1,652 NO and 1,477 YES.

In Stacy mayor Mark Utecht was unopposed. For council Samantha Denney got the most votes at 178, with Tony Olivolo at 161.  Other candidates tallies are:  Michael Carlson 144, Chuck Lucia 89, Thomas Hedican 73.

Voters in Taylors Falls had all incumbents running unopposed.  Mayor Mike Buchite and council members will be back. The same can be said for Rush City. Mayor Dan Dahlberg ran unopposed, as well as council members Bob Oscarson and Al Hoffman.

School Board voting results sent the incumbents back to serve
In Chisago Lakes there were seven vying for three seats and Mark Leigh, Dani Strenke and Tom Lawlor all won their seats back.  Challenger Jacqueline Smallman, was the next up in totals with just 13 fewer votes. Steve Cvinar had 933 and Lance Hoff 967.  Chisago Lakes had an extraordinary 93 write in ballots as well. ** The Chisago County School Board results webpage has Chisago County vote totals,  and there is one Chisago Lakes District 2144 precinct in Washington County -- so our school board totals were provided by the state auditor.

North Branch School Board has Kirby Ekstrom and Aaron Gibbons back on the Board.  A special election to fill a term gap, after an appointment, seated the lone person who filed, newcomer Shari Breezee, who got 3,940 votes.

Ekstrom had the most votes at 3,285 and Gibbons got 2,807 for two full term seats.  Cathie Pascavage  had 2,691.

For MN House voters in the county were participating in three districts.  Bob Barrett was returned in Dist. 32 with 8,459 votes in this county to Laurie Warner’s 6,707 votes.  In District 32A Brian Johnson was re-elected with 2,133 votes to challenger Paul Gammel’s 1,627 in this county. (This district has more than one county in it, but Johnson was the overall winner.)  

In Dist. 39 which includes mostly Washington County and a corner of Chisago-- Bob Dettmer won re-election with 9,730 total and 555 in this county.  Tim Stender had 7,028 total and 390 in this county.

Good mid-term turnout
Chisago County has 32,009 registered voters according to the county data.  There were 20,364 votes cast overall.  The Auditor reported some of the highest turnout locations as Amador Township with 70.8 percent, Shafer Precinct ‘A’ had 68 percent, Chisago Lake North and Taylors Falls had 67 percent turnout and Center City and Wyoming enjoyed a 66 percent voter turnout. These are all unofficial vote totals and election results are certified and made final in coming days.

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