Most incumbents retain seats after Tuesday's election
It will continue to be business as usual for Steele County: Voters kept nearly every incumbent in place in the county’s contested races.
Sheriff Lon Thiele defeated Deputy Darrin Helget for the second time in as many elections, garnering nearly 3,000 more votes and winning by more than 19 percentage points.
County Commissioners James Brady, John Glynn, Rick Gnemi and Jim Abbe all ran unopposed, as did Steele County Attorney Dan McIntosh.
At the state level, incumbent senators John Jasinski (R-Faribault) and Gene Dornink (R-Brownsdale) both won.
Incumbent Reps. John Petersburg (R-Waseca), Peggy Bennett (R-Albert Lea) and Patricia Mueller (R-Austin), also retained their seats in the legislature.
All results are preliminary, until votes are canvased and certified by the state.
Owatonna
Owatonna had the races to watch, with 11 candidates running for four open seats on the Owatonna School Board.
Incumbents Mark Sebring, Lori Weisenburger and Jolayne Mohs kept their positions, while challenger Elizabeth Hedlund unseated incumbent Nikki Gieseke.
Hedlund edged out another first-time candidate, Jan Guse, by just 86 votes.
The Owatonna City Council will look the same; three of the four incumbents were challenged, but retained their seats.
The tightest race was in Ward 5, where incumbent Brent Svenby defeated businesswoman Molly Kerr by about 4.5% – a difference of 91 votes.
Dan Boeke, incumbent Council Member at Large, defeated challenger Peng Olson by about 1,300 votes; Ward 1 incumbent Nathan Dotson bested challenger Seth Madole by nearly 11 percentage points.
Ward 3 incumbent David Burbank ran unopposed.
Medford
The tightest race of the night was in Medford, where four newcomers were vying for two open seats on the Medford City Council.
Craig Helgeson and Nick Sorensen appear to have won; Sorenson slipped past Jason Winter by just three votes – the exact number of write-in votes someone else picked up.
Corey Samora was the fourth candidate.
NRHEG
The only other incumbent to lose his seat was also a school board member – this one in the New Richland Hartland Ellendale Geneva School District.
Newcomer Aaron Phillips defeated Rich Mueller by 22 votes for a spot at the NRHEG Board table. There were 26 write-in votes.
Incumbent and Board Chairman Rick Schultz retained his position; challengers Amy Ihrke and Pat Theuer were also elected.
Blooming Prairie
The newest member of the Blooming Prairie School Board is Crystal Studer, who will join the three incumbents who ran for re-election.
Studer defeated the other first-time candidate, Bob Arett, by about 3 percentage points.
She joins Rodney Krell, Kelly Braaten and Dean Meshke, who retained their seats on the board, as well as Melissa Stoen, Jon Sunde and Jenny Thurnau.