Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe wins reelection over Democratic challenger
Republican Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe narrowly won a fifth term Tuesday night, fending off a challenge from a defense attorney who previously worked as a prosecutor in his office for more than 20 years.
Howe secured 51% of the vote over Democratic candidate Vanessa Riebli’s 49%, according to unofficial results from the Johnson County Election Office. The tight race came as most Johnson County officeholders won new terms, despite one upset on the commission and the election of a Democrat to run the sheriff’s office for the first time in a century.
Howe ran his campaign this year on a slogan of justice rather than politics. The longtime district attorney began his career as a prosecutor in 1988. He worked through the ranks of the office until he was among eight attorneys fired during a wave of administrative change under his predecessor Phill Kline, who took over the office in 2007.
Howe ran on the Republican ticket the following year, ousting the man who fired him, and has remained the county’s top prosecutor since.
In August, Howe handily defeated a primary challenger, the first the district attorney has seen since taking office 16 years ago. Issues raised during that contest included the surge of fentanyl deaths in the Kansas City area, including in Johnson County, and the complex criminal cases that follow when trying to prosecute people for distributing those drugs.
For his part, Howe has touted his office’s record on fatal fentanyl overdoses, saying his prosecutors have tried cases despite inherent challenges. Such cases are difficult to make as law enforcement officials are often tasked with proving a person died from a precise drug transaction.
Seeking to flip the office into the hands of Democrats, Riebli is a partner at Johnson County law firm Bath & Edmonds. She entered the race as the affluent county, once a stronghold for Republicans, has become home to an increasing number of Democrats.
Of its nearly 473,000 registered voters, the county as of September had roughly 153,000 Democrats and 193,000 Republicans, according to election office statistics. About 120,000 are unaffiliated with either major political party.
Riebli ran on her record as a lawyer with two decades of experience in the district attorney’s office, where she prosecuted high-profile murder cases. She also took jabs at Howe over his leadership in the office, saying several prosecutors and staff left in recent years because of a workplace culture problem and a lack of upward mobility.
Riebli also criticized Howe over restructuring the office during the COVID-19 pandemic in a way that assigned prosecutors caseloads under a specific judge rather than working in specialized units.
In the leadup to the election, critics attempted to use Riebli’s relatively brief tenure as a defense attorney against her.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 10:20 PM.
