Three new voices will be added to the Emporia City Commission come next year following the 2025 general election.
Newcomers Tammi Ogle, Monica Duncan and Kurt Steinkuhler were the top three unofficial vote getters in the Emporia City Commission race with Ogle and Duncan elected to a four year term and Steinkuhler set to serve a two year term. Ogle finished with 1,689 unofficial votes. When asked what resonated with voters, she said her approach.
Duncan ended the night with 1,458 unofficial votes. She plans to focus on taxes and the city’s relationships with different government entities
Steinkuhler finished just slightly behind Duncan with 1,430 unofficial votes. Steinkuhler thanked all of the residents who voted for him and says he has a short list of items he is looking to tackle as soon as he takes his seat early next year, starting with looking into options for reducing city spending.
Tyler Curtis, the only incumbent in the race, finished sixth with just shy of 900 votes. Curtis congratulated the winners and says he knew this was going to be an uphill battle from the start given the various controversial issues the commission has had to address over the last several months.
Finishing fourth with 1,101 unofficial votes was Denise Gilligan who says this election had a “different feel” to it than in years past for several reasons.
Aaron Larson finished fifth in the race with just under 1,100 votes saying he was very proud of his performance and for the community for getting out to the polls.
Don Loux finished second to last with 361 votes saying he was very proud of his performance in the election. Loux did offer some advice to the newly elected commissioners saying he hopes they will take time to focus on quality of life matters in addition to other topics.
Travis Hitt finished with 619 votes and there were 35 total write-ins, it is unclear at this time how many of those were for write-in candidate Kenneth Gardner. KVOE News reached out to both Hitt and Gardner for their thoughts on the election. Those calls have not been returned.
For the USD 253 Emporia Board of Education, the stated candidates on the ballot, incumbents Lillian Lingenfelter and Jami Reever and newcomer Barb Fowler, easily claimed those seats with no significant write-in presence. Fowler, replacing Jennifer Thomas who had decided against a re-election bid, had 2,342 votes, followed by Lingenfelter’s 2,210 and Reever’s 2,178.
Other results of note in Lyon County:
*Write-ins will fill all three Admire City Council positions, as well as one on Allen City Council, one on Bushong City Council and one on Neosho Rapids City Council after not enough candidates declared for those seats.
*In the contested school board races, Lisa Preisner defeated Rusty Heins for USD 251 North Lyon County District 3 Position 6. Michael Dieker beat Ryan Gasche for USD 252 Southern Lyon County Position 2.
