Election 2011: Haggard & Medina Win

Prowers County election judges sifted through 1007 ballots that were delivered to the county courthouse (yesterday) Monday.  The day before, they processed 1,500 total.  The last-minute ballots resulted in an almost three-hour wait after the polls closed before the results were known for Prowers County.  Prowers County Clerk and Recorder, Jana Coen, noted that because it was a mail-in ballot election this year, her office did not need to wait for the ballots to be driven in from all the outlying precincts.  However, the write-in candidate for Holly School Board did account for a minor portion of the wait. 

There were only two contested positions before the Lamar voters this year, City Council and Lamar School Board.  Incumbent Bev Haggard kept her seat on the Lamar City Council by defeating her challenger, Angela Warren for Ward 3 by a vote of 204 to 131…60% of the vote for Haggard and 39% for Warren.  That position carries a four year term. 

Ann-Marie Crampton ran unopposed for the council seat in Ward 1, held by Jim Larrick.  The councilman decided not to run for another term.  Mayor Roger Stagner was unopposed for his at-large seat this year, as was Skip Ruedeman from Ward 2.  Stagner will serve a two-year term and Ruedeman will have a four-year seat on the council.

The Lamar School Board had one extremely close contest with challenger Monty Thompson vying for Allan Medina’s board seat.  Medina won with 826 votes to 805  for Thompson.  Medina had 50.64% of the vote, while Thompson had 49.36%, for a 1.28% margin.

Mike Harvey, Danny Tinnes and Ron Peterson will serve on the Lamar Re-2 School Board.  Mike Harvey ran unopposed and replaces Elizabeth Whitham in District C.  Peterson and Tinnes did not face opposition for their board seats.  Peterson will represent District D and Tinnes will complete his first full term representing District F.  Tinnes had been filling the seat left vacant by Connie Brase.  These positions are all four-year terms.

Voters were faced with two issues on the ballot.  Lamar residents decided to continue the city’s Home Rule Ordinance and maintain The Lamar Ledger as the local newspaper to provide financial information regarding city spending.  The vote was 680 to remain the same to 587 to use the city’s website as an information source for posted payroll and assorted city finances.  The city would have saved approximately $3,500 a year if the change had been enacted.

County voters decided resoundingly against Proposition 103 which would have increased state tax and state sales tax for five years to provide $3 Billion to be used for public education needs.  The county vote was 1,797 against and 671 in favor for 72.8% versus 27.1%.  The proposition was defeated in state-wide balloting.

The Granada RE-1 District had three open seats for Districts B, D and F.  They will be filled by Regina J. Dorenkamp for B, Dee Melgosa for D and Joette DuVall for District F, as all three were unopposed in their election bid.  Three member-at-large board seats will be filled for the Wiley RE-13JT District.  John Waggoner and Jeff Millspaugh were term limited on the board and Donny Marsh and Andy Prosser will fill the positions.  Neither were opposed in the election.  The remaining board position will be filled by appointment.

The Holly School Board contest had three candidates for two positions.  Benny Kennedy had 303, Cory Thompson had 296 and write-in candidate Teresa Neugebauer had 87.  These figures are unofficial at this time.  The swearing-in ceremonies for Lamar City Council will be conducted at the November 14 meeting, according to Linda Williams, City Clerk.  As the city council also serves as the Lamar Redevelopment Authority, the question also arises if swearing -in ceremonies will need to be conducted for that body.

by Russ Baldwin