Hackman, Kuhn and Holthaus claim supervisor races

Chickasaw County voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump Tuesday, and voters also elected two Republicans to the Board of Supervisors and a GOP auditor.
Republican Jacob Hackman beat back a challenge from Democrat Joan Knoll, who did not seek a fourth term as auditor, to claim the District 3 seat and will be joined on the board by fellow party member Matt Kuhn, who won an extremely competitive race in District 4.
Both seats cover parts of New Hampton and outlying townships. In the other supervisor race, Rick Holthaus, who ran as an independent, reclaimed the seat he lost to David Tilkes in 2016, by winning a three-way race in District 1.
Hackman received 730 votes, or 54.2 percent, to turn back Knoll, who garnered 617 votes, or 45.8 percent of the vote to win the seat that covers the western part of New Hampton and several townships to the west and south of the city.
Kuhn, meanwhile, received 697 votes, or 50.3 percent, to Democrat Ken Rasing’s 685 votes. Kuhn currently serves as an at-large member of the New Hampton City Council while Rasing was the longtime emergency management director of the county before retiring in 2017.
Holthaus won a relatively easy victory over Tilkes, who bested Holthaus in both the Democratic primary and the general election four years ago. Holthaus got 585 votes, or 49.2 percent, while Tilkes finished with 401, or 33.7 percent. Mark Knoll garnered 196 votes in the largely rural district that covers the northern part of the county.
Mashek cruised to her win as she beat Mary Beth Kamrath-Ovel 4,015-2,397, but the biggest win of the night belonged to incumbent Democratic Sheriff Marty Hemann, who received 4,628 votes to Republican challenger’s 1,769.
The county’s two representatives in the Iowa Legislature, State Rep. Todd Prichard, D-Charles City, and State Sen. Waylon Brown, R-St. Ansgar also easily won re-election.
— For more on the election, see the Nov. 5 Reporter and Nov. 10 Tribune