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MARTIN COUNTY - With filing for city and school board races ending Tuesday, the past two days provided a decent chunk of available candidates in Fairmont and elsewhere.
Current Fairmont Mayor Lee Baarts did not file to run for re-election. Instead, five people filed to be his replacement: Logan Kelly, Krystaline Krumrey, Nathanael Landsteiner, Jerome Niss and Todd Smith. Smith is the only one to have ran for city office before, when he received 40.9 percent of the vote against Wayne Hasek for the Ward 4 seat in 2024.
Aaron Meier, who had filed to run, withdrew before the end of the filing period.
In Ward 3, incumbent Randy Lubenow filed to run for re-election. He won the seat in a four-way race in 2024, after having narrowly lost to Deb Foster in 2022. Edward Paschke, who finished fourth in that 2024 race, is running again, as well as newcomer Hollee Klesh.
Ward 1 has Jay Maynard entered to run for re-election. He was first elected in 2022, beating Jon Davis. This year, Tabitha Johnson and Myron “Bruce” Eastlund have also entered to run against him.
Out of everyone filed in Fairmont, everyone but Lubenow and Maynard filed within the last two days.
Other council races had a large amount of entrants. The most was Trimont with five people running for two spots, with Justin Lubben filing for re-election alongside Stephany Feely, Jon Holtz, Alyssa Niezgocki and Josh Paulson. Holtz won an election for Trimont City Council in 2022, but the vacancy of his position was approved at the Aug. 29, 2024 city council meeting.
Granada also had a strong showing with four, including incumbents Matt Brown and Kevin Schleininger running for re-election. Kenny Felion, who ran for school board in 2014, and John Schofield, who ran for city council in 2014, are the two challengers who filed.
Trimont had two new people file for Mayor, as Bruce Borntrager and Casey Carlson entered while current mayor Kevin Kuehl did not. Granada had one enter, as Matt Schuster filed, while incumbent Darren Maday did not.
Ceylon will have a battle of the mayors, as current mayor Judith Perkins filed, but so did former longtime mayor John Gibeau. Only one candidate filed for the two open council seats, Armin Kronback.
For Northrop, incumbents Mayor Thomas Wakey and Councilors Bart Johnson and Rick Weber filed to run. Scott Stith also filed to challenge Wakey for the mayoralship.
Unlike 2024, candidates did file for Truman's mayoral position. Ronald Kelley, whose council seat is up for election, filed, along with Sarah Chambers. However, no one filed for the two open city council seats.
Current Mayor Warren Olson filed for the Sherburn mayoral position, while incumbent Sarah Kramer and newcomer Michael Kautzman filed for city council.
In Welcome, Mayor Dan Schmidtke and City Councilor Lynda Stauter filed to run for re-election. Stauter was the only one to file, with there being two open seats.
Finally, Dunnell had no one file for their mayor or two city councilor spots. Candidates will now need to file as write-ins.
Of those that filed for city seats, 19 out of 37, a little over half, filed within the last two days.
For area school boards, Fairmont had Michael Edman and Jen Harris run for re-election. Incumbent Mari Myren did not run for re-election and, barring a write-in campaign, she will be replaced by Betsy Tino, the third and final person to enter.
Granada-Huntley-East Chain had three people enter for three spots. Ken Madsen is running for re-election, while Dylan Celander and Jessica Nowicki will come on board as new members, barring any write-in campaigns or dropouts.
In Truman, two incumbents, James Farnum and Michael Pfeil, entered to run for re-election. Maria Haler did not, but Logan Werner filed to fill that third spot.
Martin County West will have to find write-in candidates, as no one filed for any of the school's three open school board spots.
The general election will take place on Tuesday, Nov.3.