Who won? Lead grows for Olathe school moderate, narrows for Blue Valley conservative
Two critical school board races in Johnson County remain undecided, as the election office counts more mail-in ballots through Friday.
Olathe school board candidate Julie Steele widened her lead after more ballots were counted Thursday, although she is still only 49 votes ahead of challenger Jennifer Gilmore. Steele was leading with 50%, to Gilmore’s 49.8%.
Gilmore, who campaigned against the district’s mask mandate and for “parent choice,” was in the lead election night, but after more mail-in votes were reported on Wednesday, the race flipped in favor of Steele, a moderate. The candidates are competing for an open seat on the school board.
In the other Olathe races, two conservative candidates who ran on similar issues to Gilmore maintained their leads over incumbents.
Kansas law allows mail ballots postmarked on Election Day to be counted through Friday. Final results will be certified after the canvass next week.
Also, a school board race in Blue Valley remained too close to call on Thursday. Jim McMullen, a conservative campaigning against mask mandates and who is critical of equity initiatives, was ahead on election night and still in the lead on Wednesday with 50.1%, over moderate challenger Lindsay Weiss, with 49.8%, a difference of 80 votes. His lead dropped to 65 votes Thursday.
Some municipal races also are undecided.
In Overland Park, City Council candidate Sam Passer’s lead over opponent Sheila Rodriguez widened on Thursday.
The newcomers are competing for an open seat in the 5th Ward, to represent the east-central part of the city, south of Interstate 435 and east of Antioch Road. Passer had a 27-vote lead on Wednesday, but that grew to 41 Thursday.
Passer on Thursday had 50.2% of the vote over Rodriguez, with 49.5%. Passer was more favorable of tax incentives given to developers — a major talking point leading up to the Overland Park election — while Rodriguez has said she would push back against an “overabundance of new commercial development over the last few years.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 5:49 PM.
