Republicans dominate Grundy County Board election
By Sarwat S. Ahmad Correspondent November 6, 2012 10:50PM
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Updated: December 9, 2012 7:25PM
Republicans swept the Grundy County Board races, with only five of the 18 seats going to Democrats, four of them incumbents.
In District 1, with all precincts reporting, incumbent Republicans John Roth (12.71 percent), Millie Dyer (10.61 percent), David Welter (9.83 percent), and John Almer (9.67 percent) were successful in retaining their seats.
Newcomer Republican Vicki Geiger won a seat with 11.22 percent of the votes. Ken Iverson, the only Democratic incumbent on the ballot, was able to retain his seat with 11.01 percent of the votes.
In District 2, with all precincts reporting, all four incumbent Republicans were able to retain their seats, with two new Republicans having nabbed the other two.
Chris Balkema received 10.95 percent of the votes; John Galloway received 10.52 percent; current Chairman Ron Severson received 10.12 percent; while Eric Rasmusson received 9.87 percent. Newcomers Debra Warning (10.22 percent) and Teryl Lundeen (9.14 percent) each nabbed seats as well.
No incumbent Democrats were in this race. Democrat Jeremy Ly, who had chosen to run for the District 75 state representative seat against Republican incumbent Pam Roth, lost that race with 35 percent of the vote.
In District 3, incumbent Democrats Ann Gill (13.45 percent), Dick Joyce (12.87 percent) and Frank Halpin (10.86 percent) were able to keep their seats. Newcomer Democrat James Ryan won a seat with 11.14 percent.
Incumbent Republican Dave Boggs also retained his seat with 10.71 percent of the votes, edging out Democrat incumbent Tom Poole who received 10.60 percent. Poole had been on the board since 1996.
New Republican Harold Vota also nabbed a seat with 11.55 percent of the vote.
The current outgoing board has a majority of 11 Republicans, since the election of six new Republicans in the midterm elections in 2010 shrunk the board’s Democratic base to seven.
Mike Throneburg of District 3 was one of the seven, but he chose to not run for re-election.
On the Republican side, incumbent Dick Steele had also chosen not to run. Ralph Wagner, who was one of the new Republicans voted in 2010, lost his place on the ballot in the February primary.
“This was not a good night for the Democrats,” said Joyce. “It’s the lowest number of Democrats that we’ve ever had on the board.”
“All the races were hard-fought with good candidates on all sides. But the voters have spoken.”
