Conservative, school board member win primary, will face off for Johnson County board
Following Tuesday’s primary, a self-described conservative and a school board veteran will square off in the November election for an open Johnson County Board of Commissioners seat.
With all precincts releasing unofficial primary election results, Charlotte O’Hara and Stacy Obringer-Varhall were the two top vote-getters for the 3rd District seat, which represents southeastern Johnson County. Incumbent Steve Klika, who has served two terms, is not seeking reelection.
With unofficial results reported from all 513 precincts, O’Hara took the lead with 39.3% of the vote, and Obringer-Varhall had 32%. They’ll appear on the ballot in November, along with candidates for two other contested county board seats.
The third candidate in the primary, Pam Shernuk, had 20.5%, ending her bid for the seat.
Out of three Republican candidates, O’Hara, 69, campaigned on being “the conservative in the race.” She was the only candidate to oppose COVID-19 restrictions, such as the mask requirement, and said she prefers education over mandates.
As of 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, 136,932 ballots were cast in the primary. The election office reported that 87,407 ballots were cast by mail or at early polling locations. In total, that’s 31.6% voter turnout, with nearly 433,000 registered voters in Kansas’ most populous county.
Johnson County’s 167 polling locations looked different than ever on Tuesday, with hundreds of volunteers wearing masks and regularly sanitizing voting machines. Voters were instructed to social distance, and election workers were separated by Plexiglas.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, but the Johnson County Election Office will not release official results until after the canvass next week. Kansas law allows mail ballots postmarked on election day to be counted through Friday.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt has said her office expects to receive a record number of mail-in ballots. And with a record number of residents registered to vote, officials also expected historic turnout this primary election.
More than 106,000 voters requested mail-in ballots, according to the county. That’s more than the total number of votes cast in the 2016 primary, officials said.
As of Monday, only 65% of those ballots mailed to voters had been returned, so officials said there could be a significant number of ballots counted later this week.
Johnson County Commission race
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners, which was exclusively white and male for years until after the 2018 election, will gain a new female member.
O’Hara is a construction and development professional, who served one term in the Kansas House. She also ran for Overland Park mayor a few years ago, but lost to incumbent Carl Gerlach. O’Hara is campaigning on the need to curb the use of tax incentives for private development.
“If you want someone who’s very interested in transparency and accountability and who is a conservative, then I’m the person to vote for,” O’Hara said.
Obringer-Varhall, 47, is serving her second term on the Blue Valley school board. She supports ramping up mental health services, such as suicide prevention and combating drug abuse, as well as improving public safety and services for the aging population. She said she would have voted to mandate masks to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
“I am not running on a singular issue or political platform. I am running to serve because I love my local community and want to make sure that it remains the best place possible to live and work. It is very important to me that we keep this area moving forward and always improving,” Obringer-Varhall said.
November election
Though there was only one primary race for the Johnson County Commission, there will be two other contested seats in November.
Commissioner Jim Allen, who has represented the 2nd District in northern Johnson County for three terms, also decided to step down. Jeff Meyers and Rob Patterson are running for his seat in the Nov. 3 election.
Meyers, 61, succeeded Allen as mayor of Shawnee in 2004. He is a retired teacher and spent 32 years working for the Olathe school district. Patterson, 51, is a Shawnee resident and president of a trucking company in Kansas City, Kansas.
And 6th District Commissioner Mike Brown, 51, one of the strongest opponents of coronavirus restrictions, has a challenger this fall. Shirley Allenbrand, 63, is a member of the Olathe Planning Commission. And she said she would have supported the mask mandate and other restrictions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Also in November, District Attorney Steve Howe — first elected in 2008 before running unopposed in 2012 and 2016 — has a Democratic challenger: Zach Thomas. Thomas, from Lenexa, worked in the Johnson County public defenders office until 2014, before opening his own firm in Olathe.
If elected, his campaign said in a news release, Thomas would be the first person of color to serve as district attorney in the county.
Incumbent Sheriff Calvin Hayden, a Republican first elected to the post in 2016, is running for a second term unopposed.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 8:54 PM.
