Republicans enjoy great success in Chickasaw County
Voters make their choices Tuesday morning at the Chickasaw Event Center in New Hampton.
By Bob Fenske
The Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors will have two new members when the calendar flips to 2023; one was a given while the other was up in the air until Tuesday evening when the unofficial vote totals were tabulated.
In District 5, which covers much of the eastern part of the county, Republican challenge Travis Suckow knocked off Democratic incumbent Jason Byrne, who was seeking a third term on the county board.
Suckow garnered 576 votes, or 54.9 percent of the vote, while Byrne was the choice of 473 voters, of 45.1 percent. Byrne had first been elected to the board in 2010, and after losing his seat to Dan Carolan in 2014, he won a rematch in 2018.
Suckow’s win was part of a red wave that roared through the county as Republicans were the choice of voters in almost every race.
The Fredericksburg resident will be joined on the board by fellow Republican Scott Cerwinske, the former Nashua city councilman who knocked off incumbent Tim Zoll in the June primary and ran unopposed in Tuesday’s general election.
That will leave the board with four Republicans and just one Democrat, Steve Breitbach, who won a March special election by just two votes.
Meanwhile, the GOP also got a win in the race for country treasurer as Matt Ysbrand received 2,837 votes, or 58.3 percent, to easily turn back Democrat Keith Hoey, who received 1,684 votes, or 34.6 percent. Jackie Bohr, who lost the Republican primary, mounted a write-in campaign, and although the Auditor’s Office did not release the names of the write-ins, 349, or 7.2 percent, of voters did cast write-in ballots for the office.
Ysband will replace Sue Breitbach, the Democrat who announced earlier this year that she will retire at the end of the year.
The lone Democrat to win in the county was Recorder Shirley Troyna. She received 2,891 votes, or 58.8 percent, while Zoll, who was nominated by a special Republican convention, garnered 2,016 voters, or 41 percent.
Auditor Sheila Shekleton and County Attorney David Laudner, both ran unopposed.
And Republicans dominated the rest of the county vote to, helping Charley Thomson win the Iowa House of Representatives District 58 race and current State Rep. Sandy Salmon claim the State Senate District 29 seat.
Turnout for the election was relatively high, especially for a mid-term election, as 5,026 ballots were cast, meaning 60.6 percent of registered Chickasaw County voters either voted early or headed to the polls on Tuesday.
The Auditor’s Office reported that it received 2,153 absentee ballots by the time polls closed. Under a law passed in 2020, absentee ballots must be returned to the Auditor’s Office by that time.
All results from Tuesday’s election are unofficial until the Board of Supervisors canvas the election, which is expected to take place next week.
