By Beacon Staff
It was a good night to be an incumbent in Burlington. Jon Billups, Matthew Rinker, and Lynda Graham-Murray were re-elected Tuesday to the Burlington City Council.
According to the unofficial tally, Billups garnered the most votes with 1,480 or 27.56 percent of the ballots cast out of a total of 5,370 votes.
Lynda Graham-Murray came in second with 1,070 votes while Matt Rinker came in third with 1,055 votes.
“I am thrilled to be reelected. I want to congratulate all the candidates on a great campaign,” Billups told The Beacon, noting turnout was up compared to the primary election.
Of her win, Graham-Murray said: “I am ecstatic that the citizens of Burlington felt the trio of us (the incumbents) were doing a good job and felt like they wanted to give us another four years.”
Rinker also expressed his gratitude to voters: “I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve the City of Burlington, and I’m looking forward to what the next four years will bring,”
Antonio Bailey took home 707 votes, Chris Roepke received 555 votes, and Terry Schnack got 459 votes.
Meanwhile, in the contest to win a seat on the Burlington School Board, Scott Mason, Darven Kendell (the only incumbent), and Christi Burghoffer were elected Tuesday night, according to the unofficial tally.
Mason came in first with 1,404 votes or 24.86 percent out of a total of 5,647 votes. Kendell was second with 1,149 votes, and Burghoffer netted 766 votes.
Tammy Anderson garnered 671 votes, Jennifer Gibb received 481 votes, Jennifer Lachenberg received 406 votes, and Reyna Cadena received 336 votes.
Other Des Moines County elections results
The city of Burlington local option sales tax was renewed by 1,733 “yes” votes versus 219 “no” votes.
The West Burlington public measure in favor of adopting a Revenue Purpose Statement specifying the use of revenues the West Burlington Independent School District will receive from the State of Iowa “Secure an Advanced Vision for Education Fund” passed with 157 “yes” votes to 35 “no” votes.
The rest of the votes were as follows:
West Burlington Mayor
Ron Teater: 182
West Burlington City Council (three open seats)
Kathy Newberry: 183
Melanie Young: 173
John Johnson: 166
West Burlington School Board (two open seats)
Bruce Thuleen: 160
Amanda Hancock: 137
Mediapolis City Council (three open seats)
Chuck Massner: 165
Troy Garrison: 157
Miranda Pfeiff: 106
Monte Hawley: 71
Denise Dietrick: 57
Mediapolis School Board (three open seats)
Mark Schmidgall: 323
Richard Whitaker: 237
John Witte: 216
Peter Pfeiff: 173
Danville Mayor
Jerry Stause: 136
Danville School Board (two open seats)
Jason Samples: 225
Jon Paul Van Buskirk: 182
Sandy Dockendorff: 140
Taylor Eisenmann: 118
Middletown Mayor
Eric Gerst: 46
Middletown City Council (two open seats)
Stephanie Gerst: 45
Jordan Fidler: 33
Southeastern Community College Board of Trustees
District 2 - Lanny Hillyard: 1,083
District 3 - Jeff Heland: 1,060