Loeffler beats Einspahr for mayor; two new council members elected

    By a 56-vote margin, Craig Loeffler defeated Duncan Einspahr in Tuesday’s General Election to be Imperial’s next mayor.
    Imperial will also have two new council members, possibly three, while Nebraskans elected a new Governor in Jim Pillen, a Columbus hog farmer who also has property and a hog operation in Chase County.
    It was a closely watched mayor’s race in Imperial as voters went to the polls to cast ballots to replace three-term Mayor Dwight Coleman, who chose not to run again after 12 years in office.
    Loeffler, a Black Hills Energy service specialist, tallied 401 votes to 345 for Einspahr, a deputy in the Chase County Sheriff’s Office. That margin reflects a 54-46% split.
    Imperial will have at least two new council members on board with the election of Nick Colton, who gained 488 votes in Imperial’s two precincts, and Jan Elliott, 480. Incumbent Chad Yaw tallied 389.
    The council’s other incumbent, Charlesa Kline, did not seek reelection for one of the two open seats.
    However, there may be a third new face on the council as Loeffler was a sitting council member with two years left in his term.
    According to Mayor Coleman, Loeffler’s city council seat is not officially open until he takes office as mayor in December, so Loeffler will make the council appointment after that, which requires council approval.
    In school board races for Chase County Schools and Wauneta-Palisade, voters in both districts preferred their incumbents.
    At CCS where four were elected, Steve Wallin led the field with 868 votes, followed by Dan Reeves 809, Jeff Olsen 754 and Cindy Arterburn 702. New candidates Jason Burke and Jason Banks drew 644 and 603, respectively.
    The CCS district also extends into parts of Dundy County, but votes there didn’t affect the outcome.
    At WP, their three incumbents led a field of six seeking school board seats. The WP district extends into three other counties besides Chase—Dundy, Hayes and Hitchcock.
    Adding votes from all four counties, elected were Marty Wheeler, the top vote-getter with 370, followed by Laurie Maris 344 and Allison Sandman 306.
    Vanessa Fanning tallied 232, Shane Gerhartz 164 and Brock Malcolm 135.
    In another contested race, Brock Stromberger of Champion won reelection to the Upper Republican NRD at-large board seat over Brad Dixon of Benkelman, 1,788 to 1,144.
    Stromberger carried Chase and Perkins counties, while Dixon won in Dundy County.
    Incumbents Dean Large in NRD subdistrict 6 and Jason Kunkel in subdistrict 4 ran unopposed, and were reelected.
    All three incumbents in the Wauneta village board race were unopposed. Page Johnston topped the trio with 185 votes, followed closely by Beau Kramer 179 and Crystal Walgren 176.
    Nolan Spady and Doug Wilson were elected to the two Imperial Airport Authority seats with 529 and 504 votes, respectively.
    Rodd Wiest was the only candidate for three open seats for Lamar village board and garnered two votes.
No races for Chase
County offices
    All Chase County office holders were unopposed in Tuesday’s General Election, and five of them will be new to their positions next year.
    Elected and their vote totals were Assessor Tori Otzel 1,369, Attorney Joel Burke 1,335, Clerk Wendy Moe 1,368, Treasurer Rebecca Bernard 1,377 and Commissioner Dist. 3 Kurt Bernhardt 401.
    Incumbent county office holders reelected were Sheriff Kevin Mueller with 1,361 votes and Commissioner Dist. 2 Jacci Brown, 485.
    With no candidate running, there were 63 write-in votes for Chase County Surveyor, a position that’s been unfilled for years.
    County Clerk-Elect Moe said there were a variety of names written in on the write-in line for surveyor. Dickinson Land Surveyors garnered the most write-ins, Moe said, but in Nebraska write-in candidates must have an affidavit filed with the state. None such affidavit for Chase County Surveyor was filed.
Voter ID, minimum wage measures pass statewide
    Chase County voters mirrored that of the statewide vote on two of the three issues before voters Tuesday.
    Initiative 432 passed requiring photographic voter ID in future elections. Statewide, it passed 66-34%, while Chase County voters approved it by an even wider margin, 1,249 to 226 or an 85-15% split.
    The minimum wage issue in Initiative 433 passed big across the state 58-42%, but Chase County voters voted no overall. Here, the vote was 843 against to 632 for, or a split of 57-43%. With its statewide passage, per-hour pay will gradually rise to $15 by 2026.
    Amendment 1 on airports passed with strong numbers, allowing cities or counties that own airports to use money to develop commercial air service. It passed 1,065 to 302 in Chase County. Nebraska voters passed it 78/22%.
State races
    Republican Pillen and running mate Joe Kelly won 60.5% of the state’s vote for Governor and Lt. Governor, while the Democratic team of Carol Blood and Al Davis garnered 35.5%. In Chase County the margin was even bigger as Pillen/Kelly collected 85% of the vote.
    In other state races, Republicans won all the seats—Bob Evnen as Secretary of State, John Murante as State Treasurer, Mike Hilgers Attorney General and Mike Foley for Auditor.

    Republicans won all the congressional seats, as well—Adrian Smith in Dist. 3 which includes Chase County; Mike Flood in Dist. 1; and Don Bacon, Dist. 2. All were incumbents.
    Chase County voted heavily for Smith, giving him 89% of the vote.
    Teresa Ibach of Sumner will be the next Dist. 44 state senator and was unopposed Tuesday after Ed Dunn of Grant withdrew from the race this summer. Ibach replaces term-limited Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango.
    Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte won the Dist. 7 State Board of Education seat, beating incumbent Robin Stevens of Gothenburg district-wide with 71% of the vote. In Chase County, she enjoyed a 73-27% margin.
    For the Dist. 7 Board of Regents seat, incumbent Kathy Wilmot defeated Matt Williams by a 6,400 vote margin, or a 54/46% split. Wilmot earned 54% of the Chase County vote to Williams’ 46%.
    Tyler Pribbeno of Imperial was unopposed for the Dist. 2 seat on the Mid-Plains Community College board and was elected to a first term.
    Cheri Burke of Imperial and Allison Sandman, Wauneta, were unopposed for reelection to their ESU #15 board seats.
    Voter turnout was strong in Chase County with just shy of 64% going to the polls Tuesday or voting early. That bettered the statewide turnout of 52.8%.
    Chase County turnout Tuesday also topped the last midterm election in 2018 when 62% voted, but missed the record-setting 79.5% voting two years ago when there was a U.S. presidential race.
    Of the 1,546 Chase County ballots cast in this year’s General Election, 243 of them voted early, representing 15.7% of the electorate.