BREAKING NEWS: GNEMI OUSTED FROM COUNTY BOARD

There was an upset at the county level Tuesday as a two-term Steele County Commissioner was unseated, losing by almost 500 votes to a first-time candidate.

Josh Prokopec, of Owatonna, defeated incumbent Rick Gnemi, who has held the District 3 seat since 2016.

Prokopec had 57.3% of the vote; Gnemi had 42%.

Two other spots on the county board were open; incumbent Greg Krueger kept his seat in District 5, defeating challenger Scott Prestegard by about 8%.

Incumbent Jim Abbe ran unopposed in District 4.

Owatonna Races

Matt Jessop defeated three other candidates to become Owatonna’s mayor-elect, topping the next closest opponent by more than 20 percentage points.

Mayor Tom Kuntz, who has held the role since 2004, did not seek re-election.

Jessop hauled in 48% of the vote; Don Rooks had 26.6%. Donald Kramer and Jason Bastyr had 12.3% and 11.5%, respectively.

The city council will see one other new face: Don McCann was elected to fill the Ward 2 seat left vacant when Greg Schultz decided to step down. Schultz has served for 14 years and is the current council president.

McCann received 42% of the votes to defeat two other first-time candidates; Andi Arnold (38.7%) and David Gerhartz (18.7%).

Incumbent Doug Voss will keep his council member at-large role, easily winning his crowded race. Voss picked up 53.6% of the vote; challengers Joseph Petersen had 22.5%, Mark Breon garnered 15.2% and Marc Boyett had 7.7%.

Ward 4 incumbent Kevin Raney held on to the Ward 4 seat, defeating challenger Gordon Henricksen by a margin of 66.6% to 32.8%.

Two first-time candidates were the top vote-getters for the three available spots on the Owatonna School Board, defeating an incumbent.

Andrea Van Gelder and Ron Kubicek will join the board in January, joining incumbent Tim Jensen, who earned 14.4% of the vote. Van Gelder and Kubicek picked up 17.9% and 17.4%, respectively.

The remaining candidates were Nikki Gieseke (13.5%), April St. Martin (10.4%), incumbent Eric Schuster (9.8%), Mike Herman (8.6%), and Christina Ingvaldson (7.3%).

Blooming Prairie Race

Blooming Prairie will also see a new mayor: Mike Ressler defeated Bill Newman, a current city council member, by nearly 30 percentage points. The seat opened up after Mayor Curt Esplan announced he would not seek re-election.

Medford Races

Medford Mayor Danny Thomas retained his seat, garnering more than 60% of the vote and defeating challenger Bryan Duncan.

Paige Butterfield will join the city council, filling the seat of long-time councilor Chad Merritt, who did not seek re-election. She joins incumbents Amanda Mueller and Jason Winter, who picked up 29% and 26.6% of the votes, respectively.

Butterfield earned 396 votes, or 24%; Mark Heaser had 311 votes.

Voters here also replaced an incumbent for one of four open seats on the Medford School Board, though just 26 votes separated three of the candidates.

Incumbent John Anhorn received 24.4% of the vote, followed by newcomers Jessica Grayson (20.8%) and Aaron Harris (15.4%). Incumbent Betsy Chambers collected 15.2% of the ballots.

Incumbent Jon Sutherland had 14.8% of the vote; challenger Corey Samora had 8.6%.

The actual number of votes indicates how close the race was.

While Anhorn and Grayson had 1,156 and 986 votes, respectively, it was a horse race for the next two spots: Harris had 731 votes and Chambers had 716, just edging out Sutherland, with 705.

All vote totals and percentages are with 100% of the precincts reporting, as recorded on the Minnesota Secretary of State website.