Washington County elects Fedler, Mangold

Washington County’s election unofficial final election results came in shortly after 9 p.m., showing 2,550 total votes cast out of 15,464 registered voters, a turnout of 16.49%. With the ballots counted, results are expected to become official once approved by the county supervisors in the coming weeks.

Of those voters, 1,958 cast Republican ballots, representing 76.78% of the votes, while 592 voted in the Democratic races, making up 23.22%.

Fedler narrowly wins supervisor re-election

Marcus Fedler took the majority in a hairsplitting 195-190 tally for the District 3 Supervisor position, inching past challenger Bill Poch.

The incumbent candidate campaigned on his construction background and qualifications to oversee the county’s major planned construction project at Orchard Hill, a plan that’s likely to use American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Sworn in partway through the current term, Fedler faced a redrawn map of constituents coming into the election, but pulled off a win on the promise of staying a strong fiscal conservative.

“Just buying rock for the roads is going to be a significant expense for the county, diesel for the trucks, things like that,” he said in an interview in May. “The trouble, I think, is going to be trying to keep those expenses in line, especially considering some of the changes that we made for the employees over the past year … along with all the inflation going on, the cost of government is going to increase.”

Fedler will go to the general election where he has very good odds, given an absence of Democrat challengers registered on the November ballot.

“I’m looking forward to representing the Republicans come November,” Fedler said. “I appreciate the trust that the voters have in me to represent them and I look forward to doing that.”

Bill Poch did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

County Recorder

The Washington County Recorder primary between Teresa Mangold and Dawn Fall-Hayes ended in a 1,226-523 landslide in favor of Mangold. Like the supervisor race, no Democrats are on the November ballot to oppose her in the general election.

Candidates for the barely-political office tend to run on their qualifications, and Mangold was no exception. A longtime administrative assistant for the local DNR office, she boasted a wealth of record-keeping experience and familiarity with the state’s open record laws that govern the office’s interactions with the public.

“I’ve been really appreciative of all the support,” Mangold said. “I look forward to hopefully serving the residents of Washington County in January and I appreciate everybody coming out and voting today.”

Like rest of state, County voters favored Grassley, Franken

Statewide campaigns included a variety of big names. While none of these races are decided by individual counties, each county’s contribution to the vote tally is important.

The unofficial Washington County tally for these races follows.

U.S. Senator (Republican)

U.S. Senator (Democrat)

Secretary of State (Democrat)

State Auditor (Republican)

Uncontested races

Many candidates on both party ballots ran uncontested primaries. At the state level, these campaigns are already gearing up for the general election in November.

At the county level, the field of incumbent Republicans all go unopposed into general election season, making their positions likely secure for another term.

The vote tallies below include only the results from Washington County.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com