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Drish, Sandquist elected to Jefferson County board
Andy Hallman
Nov. 4, 2020 12:02 am, Updated: Nov. 4, 2020 3:43 pm
FAIRFIELD – Democrat Susie Drish and Republican Dee Sandquist have been elected to the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors, and Republican Bart Richmond will be the county's next sheriff.
Jefferson County's election results came in at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night. They showed Drish and Sandquist as the top two vote-getters among the four candidates running for the Board of Supervisors. Sandquist has been on the board since her election in 2016, and Drish will take the place of the retiring Lee Dimmitt, who has served on the board for 12 years.
Sandquist received the most votes with 5,088 (37 percent), edging Drish by a single vote. Coming in third place was Republican Nick Adam with 3,096 votes (22 percent), and fourth place went to independent Keith Vlademar with 598 (4 percent).
Sandquist said she watched the results come in that night on the county's election website. After learning of her victory, Sandquist commented, 'Thank you to the residents of Jefferson County for my re-election. I look forward to serving as your county supervisor for the next four years.”
Richmond, currently the chief deputy of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, won his race with 4,764 votes (55 percent), defeating Democratic challenger and deputy Tracy Vance who had 3,905 votes (45 percent). Richmond will replace Sheriff Gregg Morton, who is stepping down from the role.
Dee Sandquist is a family farmer and retired registered dietician. During the campaign, Sandquist listed her priorities as roads, emergency services, ambulance, mental health, public health and safety. She said she wanted to develop coordination between the jail, mental health, substance abuse services and the court to prepare people to function in the workforce.
Nick Adam is a farmer from the Batavia area who has been on the school board and ran for state representative in 2000. He is active in church council, Lions Club, Farm Bureau, corn growers, Knights of Columbus and the soybean association. Adam said during the campaign that he wanted to create incentives for rural housing and to help the county grow. He also talked about the importance of controlling taxes.
Susie Drish is retired from Indian Hills Community College where she worked as an employment and training specialist for 39 years. She has been chair of the Jefferson County Democrats for the past 12 years. Drish has spoken about her desire to 'trim the fat” in the budget, which she said would be especially important in the COVID-19 era. She said dealing with nuisance properties needs to be a bigger priority for the supervisors.
Keith Vlademar is retired from the Iowa Department of Transportation, where he worked as a district land surveyor. Vlademar said his priorities are simple, to represent the rural residents of Jefferson County. He spoke about what he perceived as cities attempting to impose their will on rural residents.
Sheriff's race
In the sheriff's race, the two candidates made their differences known over the course of a pair of forums held at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center in late September and early October. Vance favored a policy to hire an additional officer who would focus on drug enforcement. He said he would pay for the added expense by reducing jail administration by simply failing to replace administrators as they left or retired. Richmond argued that such a change was unnecessary because the county was able to tackle the problem with current staffing. Richmond said the department has focused on drug enforcement through prevention and arrests, which he said has led to reduction of drug use and other types of crime.
Dee Sandquist Republican
Susie Drish Democrat
Bart Richmond Republican