Cerro Gordo County results — Watts, Callanan, Ginapp, O’Connor win supervisor primaries — Latham says he’ll run write-in campaign vs. Watts in November (AUDIO)

MASON CITY — Chris Watts beat fellow incumbent Tim Latham in the Republican primary for the new First District seat on the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors, but Latham says he’ll run a write-in campaign in an attempt to beat Watts in November’s general election.

Watts had 67% of the votes, winning by a 694-347 margin. Watts says the win was a bittersweet one since the two were grouped into the same district with the redistricting process.  “I’ve enjoyed working with Tim, and we’ve accomplished a lot in the last five-and-a-half years. We still have six months to work together and hopefully we can accomplish a lot more.”

Watts says he knows he faced a very solid opponent. “Tim’s very well known and very well respected, and I just feel sad about the situation we were thrown in because of the redistricting, but it is what it is, and I’m very happy that the voters of Cerro Gordo County showed their support for me to continue representing them.”

Click on the audio player to listen to our full interview with Watts

Latham told KGLO News after the vote was finalized that he would turn his efforts into a write-in campaign in an effort to oust Watts. “I’ll send out flyers again, I’ll knock on doors, I’ll advertise. You know it opens it up to the Democrats, the independents, and the Republicans. It was a very poor turnout in my opinion, and so I don’t feel that should define…that’s not going to define me anyway.”

Latham was disappointed with what he says was a low turnout of voters on Tuesday.  “It was a low turnout, 1042 people went out and voted. It is tough. I could not go out and campaign, I couldn’t knock on doors because I couldn’t take the chance of bringing something home to my wife with taking chemo treatments. That’s no excuse, but it is what it is, I congratulate Chris.”

Click on the audio player to listen to our full interview with Latham

 

No Democrats filed for their party’s nomination for the First District, which covers all of Mason City’s Third Ward; Ward Two Precinct Two; and Ward Four Precincts Two and Three

 

== The ballot is set for the Third District in the general election as Don O’Connor beat Travis Pike for the GOP nomination, while Lori Meacham Ginapp won the Democratic nomination over Paul Adams.

O’Connor beat Pike by a 408-276 margin. “It was exciting, it was a hard battle. You’re never 100% sure going into that what the voters are going to do. We worked hard here in the last month and a half, so it’s exciting to move on to November 8th and have an opportunity to represent Cerro Gordo County and give back to the area.”

O’Connor says the county will have to continue to work on infrastructure improvements.  “There so much of that needing to be done. They’ve done a lot, the previous supervisors have, but there’s a lot more work out there to be done.”

Click on the audio player to listen to our full interview with O’Connor

 

Meacham Ginapp beat Adams by 39 votes with a 346-305 margin. “I’m pleased that people are standing behind me and voting for me. I’m glad to see that there was a good turnout for the primary, it was higher than expected, which is very good. Now we’re going to have to start looking toward what we need to do to win the Democratic ticket in November.”

Meacham Ginapp says there’s a number of issues that the county needs to address.  “I think we’re going to have to see what direction, what we need to do to make Cerro Gordo County another strong county, that we can get people to retain here and live here, and keep our young youth here working in our community and in our county. Also we need to figure out the drainage districts that we are working with in the county, we need to work on those.”

Click on the audio player to listen to our interview with Meacham Ginapp

 

The Third District includes the rest of Mason City not in the First District along with the communities of Rock Falls and Plymouth, as well as the Falls and Lime Creek-Mason North townships.  

 

 

== Republican voters in Cerro Gordo County’s Second District reaffirmed their faith in Casey Callanan to be their choice for another term on the Board of Supervisors. Callnan won Tuesday’s primary with a 910-445 vote over challenger Kelly Mclaughlin. No Democrats filed for their primary election for the Second District seat that includes the communities  of Clear Lake, Ventura, Burchinal, Portland, Rockwell, Swaledale, Thornton, Meservey and Dougherty and their surrounding rural areas.

 

== In Cerro Gordo County’s other contested primary race, Peggy Meany won the Democratic nomination for County Treasurer. Meany, who has held the position of property tax deputy in the Treasurer’s office for the last 11 years, cruised to an 1185-662 win over Jacob Schweitzer.