All Tonganoxie City Council and USD 464 school board incumbents successfully won re-election in the general election Nov. 2.

In the school board races, current board president Jim Bothwell easily won his reelection bid for Position 4 with just more than 50% of the votes (642).

Challenger Melissa Crowley finished second with about 36% (462), while challenger Linda Vernon had roughly 13% (165). There also were five write-in votes.

Chris Gratton won re-election in the Position 6 race, nabbing 737 votes or 58%. Challenger Naola Vaughn garnered 517 votes or about 40%. Write-in candidates received 10 votes. Gratton first won election in 2017 when he ran unopposed.

Karen Bottary also ran for re-election, but this time did so unopposed. She first won election in 2017, winning that race with 785 votes. Phillip Welsh, who was appointed to serve Kay Smith’s unexpired term the previous year, was unable to retain his seat against Bottary after garnering 225 votes in 2017.

Bothwell first won the school board seat in 2017 when he defeated Stacy Willis by 68 votes, 576-506. After that election, Bothwell replaced Dan Hopkins, who opted not to run for re-election.

In the City Council race, three seats were decided. Incumbents Chris Donnelly, Rocky Himpel and Loralee Stevens all won another term. Donnelly was the top vote-getter with 445, while Himpel had 421 and Stevens 414. Donnelly is in his second stint on the City Council, while Himpel and Stevens continue with a second term. Stevens and Himpel were the second and third vote-getters, respectively behind Jamie Lawson in 2017. Donnelly was seeking another term then, but finished fourth and missed reelection by one spot with 213 votes.

Former council member Curtis Oroke’s bid to return to the council again fell short. Oroke was unable to be among the Top 3, as he garnered 212 votes last week. Write-in votes were at 16 for that race.

The longtime Tonganoxie resident won a council seat in 2015. He served one term, but was not re-elected in November 2019 when Jake Dale and Lisa Patterson won the two open seats. Dave Bennett stepped down later that month and eight residents filed to be appointed to the rest of his term. Oroke was among those eight while still serving out the last couple months of his term, but was not appointed.

He also ran unsuccessfully as an Independent for the new Leavenworth County Commission Fifth District when Mike Stieben won the four-person race. Stieben then won the August 2020 Republican primary with nearly 77% of the vote against Oroke (1,553-469), who that time opted to run as a Republican.

Tonganoxie voter turnout for 2021 was about 17% for city residents.

Tonganoxie North has 2,484 registered voters and Tonganoxie South 1,301. The north precinct had nearly 16% voter turnout with 392 ballots casts (26 advance, 363 election and 3 late mail and 1 blank cast).

The south precinct had 20% voter turnout with 266 ballots (11 advance, 252 election and 3 late mail).

New terms for the city council and school board incumbents will begin in January.