Allamakee County voters confirm incumbent Sheriff as Republican nominee, nominate Gearhart as Iowa House District 64 Representative

The June 4 Primary Election offered Allamakee County voters contested races between declared candidates in just two ballot items, both on the Republican ballot. Within those contested races, voters overwhelmingly declared they don’t see a need for change within the office of the county’s top law enforcement agency at this point in time, while they also followed the overall trend in selecting a new district representative to be their voice within the state level of government.

With the Republican ballot holding the lone contested races this year, 39.4% of registered Republican voters in Allamakee County participated in this year’s Primary Election. With U.S. Senate District 2 candidate Sarah Corkery being the lone candidate at all listed on the Democrat ballot in Allamakee County for this year’s Primary - and Corkery running unopposed for that Democratic nomination - just 7.1% of registered Allamakee County Democrats cast a vote in the June 4 Primary. A breakdown of the vote totals by precinct in the two contested races on local ballots accompanies this article.

In the most local contested race on the Allamakee County Primary ballots, Republican voters strongly confirmed their choice of incumbent Allamakee County Sheriff Clark Mellick as once again being the Republican nominee for the General Election, scheduled for November 5 of this year. Mellick claimed over 80% of his party’s vote total to fend off the first challenge he’s faced in seeking that office since initially being elected to that leadership position in 2012, defeating his challenger, Waukon Police Chief Paul Wagner, by a vote tally result of 1441-350. Mellick will now seek his fourth four-year term as Allamakee County Sheriff on the November General Election ballot, and Wagner will have the opportunity to remain in his leadership position as Chief of Police for the City of Waukon.

The only other multi-candidate contested race on any Allamakee County ballots was at the state level of government in District 64 of the Iowa House of Representatives, where current office holder Anne Osmundson is not seeking re-election to that seat. Jason Gearhart of Strawberry Point and Doug Wolfe of Elkader were vying for the Republication nomination for that District 64 seat, which includes all of Allamakee and Clayton Counties and a small portion of Dubuque County.

Within District 64’s overall voting results, Gearhart won the Republican nomination with 1,904 votes (54.9%) in comparison to Wolfe’s 1,551 votes (44.8%), advancing Gearhart on to November’s General Election, where only one other candidate, Ian Zahren of Lansing, has declared his intentions of seeking that District 64 office as an Independent candidate, which does not require nomination within the Primary Election process.

Allamakee County voters followed a similar trend in their support of Gearhart within those overall numbers, although to just a bit lesser degree, percentage-wise, as Gearhart received 856 votes (53.5%) from Allamakee County supporters, with Wolfe garnering 738 votes (46.12%). Clayton County voters were in greater support of Gearhart (1,033 votes/56.6%) in comparison to Wolfe (790 votes/43.3%), while the small involvement of Dubuque County voters within that District 64 area actually fell in favor of Wolfe (23 votes/60.5%) over Gearhart (15 votes/39.5%).

With this year’s Primary Election in Allamakee County having just one overall Democratic candidate listed, and no candidates listed for any races on the Libertarian ballot, there were three other offices up for nomination on the Republican ballot, all of which listed a single unopposed candidate. In the lone federal office on the Primary ballot, U.S. Senate District 2 incumbent Republican Ashley Hinson received 1,506 (99.27%) Allamakee County votes as part of her District 2 overall total of 22,622 votes (98.58%), advancing her to November’s General Election against the previously-mentioned Democratic candidate, Sarah Corkery. The other state level race on the local ballot had Republican incumbent Mike Klimesh of Iowa Senate District 32 receiving 1,478 votes (99.33%) in Allamakee County within his overall District 32 total of 3,663 votes (99.30%).

Otherwise, two other county-level races included just a single Republican candidate listed in each for this year’s Primary Election. Incumbent Denise Beyer ran unopposed in her bid for returned nomination for the office of Allamakee County Auditor, receiving 1,605 votes (99.75%).

Newcomer Tom Clark was also running unopposed for Republican nomination to the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors seat being vacated by Mark Reiser, who is not seeking re-election to that seat in this year’s election process. Clark received 1,555 votes (99.11%) to receive that Republican nomination.