Clayton County primary results
By Shelia Tomkins
Clayton County voters joined Iowans across the state on Tuesday, June 7, when they cast their ballots in the Republican and Democratic primary elections to select candidates for the November general election.
Voter turn-out was 12% of all eligible voters. There were 883 Democrats casting ballots, while the Republican turn-out was 495. Following are unofficial results from the office of the Clayton County Auditor.
Board of Supervisors
Clayton County GOP voters chose Ray Peterson as their candidate for a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors, defeating Chad Freeman 303-143.
Democrats gave the nod to Joleen Jansen, who tallied 398 votes. Challengers were Steve Doeppke with 267 votes, Michael Finnegan 166 and Lester Simons 29.
County Auditor
Deborah Scott, running unopposed on the Republican ticket, will face Democrat Jennifer Garms in the fall election. Garms had 520 votes, topping Democratic challenger Elizabeth Jaster who had 325 votes.
County Sheriff
Republican incumbent Mike Tschirgi with 466 votes ran unopposed on the GOP ticket. There were no declared Democrat candidates.
State Representative District 56
Clayton County Republicans chose Kristi Hager over Lowell Engle, 281-107. Hager topped Engle in district voting 1223-497.
County Democrats gave 555 votes to incumbent Patti Ruff, who is running unopposed for reelection.
State contests
Clayton County Democrats followed district trends in giving a majority of votes to Monica Vernon as the Democratic nominee for Iowa's U.S. House 1st district contest. She will face Republican incumbent Rod Blum this fall. County Democrats also fell in line with state voters in choosing Patty Judge to run against incumbent U.S. Senator Charles Grassley.