Incumbents Murray, Ragan re-elected Tuesday

           Two incumbents scored resounding victories during Tuesday’s general election in the only contested races on the Franklin County ballot. County Treasurer Chad Murray soared past his challenger for another term, while incumbent Iowa District 27 Sen. Amanda Ragan did the same in her race.

            Murray defeated unaffiliated candidate Cindy Dirksen with 60.7 percent of the vote. The win earned the Republican his third term in the treasurer’s office, which came as a huge relief.

            “I had no idea what to expect, to be honest,” he said. “I’m obviously very happy with the result. I think I’m going to sleep a little better at night now that this is over.”

            Murray’s face-off with Dirksen was a rematch of the June Republican primary in which he defeated her by a narrow 582-545 margin. Dirksen filed to run unaffiliated against Murray and spent extensive time campaigning throughout the county this fall.

            “I would do it the exact same way,” Dirksen said. “It was the time of my life, and I met a lot of people I hadn’t met before. Almost everything about it was positive except the result, which I wish was different.”

            Murray said he planned to shift his full attention back to his job now that the election is over. His campaign emphasized the improvements he made to the treasurer’s office during his tenure, and he planned to continue that progress in the future.

            “We’re always looking to improve. I like the way things are going with everything right now, but we always want to make things better for our customers,” he said.

            The race for Iowa Senate District 27 resulted in a similar margin of victory for Ragan. The Democrat defeated her Republican challenger Shawn Dietz with 56.3 percent of the vote. The win earned Ragan her fourth-straight term in the Senate.

            Ragan only needed to carry one of District 27’s three counties Tuesday. She won Cerro Gordo County with 64 percent of the vote while Dietz carried less-populated Franklin and Butler counties by more than 60 percent each.

            The final tally had Ragan with 12,879 votes and Dietz with 9,997.

            “I’m kind of overwhelmed by it all,” Ragan said. “I’ve always believed that most north Iowans generally have the same beliefs, and I’ve received lots of great support this year and in the past. I’m very excited to represent all the people in this district again.”

            Ragan plans to focus on growing good-paying jobs, building Iowa’s education system and strengthening health care in her fourth term. She also said emphasizing ethanol production was important as the state looks to the future.

            “I think emphasizing renewable engery is important moving forward because we’ve seen that it’s very good for Iowa farmers and for the economy as a whole,” she said.

            Republicans were hoping to gain control of the Senate, but it remained unchanged with 26 Democrats and 24 Republicans. Ragan said she and her fellow Democrats hoped to work across the aisle with GOP senators to accomplish worthwhile legislation during the 2015 General Assembly.

            “That’s one of the things people talked most about when I was going door-to-door” Ragan said. “In the past, that’s how we’ve gotten things done with property tax and health care, and Iowans want bipartisanship. They don’t need conflict.”

            Dietz was disappointed by the result of the election but didn’t regret running. He said “there’s a story to be told out of this campaign” and was upset by the lack of support he received from the Iowa Republican Party.

            “The glaring difference in this campaign is that her party decided to spend a lot more money on it and my party didn’t spend anything,” he said. “This was the GOP’s best shot at knocking off an incumbent Democrat, and the party failed to pour any money into it and help out.”

            Dietz said he planned to discuss the lack of funding with state party officials in the wake of his defeat. He was proud of his campaign and was encouraged by the support he received for his liberty-driven, anti-abortion platform.

            “I feel like we had a successful campaign and delivered the message we were trying to deliver. Obviously, the goal was to win. But I think we delivered our message loud and clear to voters,” he said.

            A handful of unopposed candidates were also listed on the Franklin County ballot. Incumbent Recorder Toni Wilkinson, District II Supervisor candidate Gary McVicker, county attorney candidate Brent Symens and incubment District I Supervisor Mike Nolte all finished in the win column. Uncontested Iowa House District 54 Rep. Linda Upmeyer won re-election as well.

            A complete list of unofficial results can be found on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website. Votes will be canvassed next week.

            This article was updated at 12:04 p.m. on Wednesday to included comments from Sen. Amanda Ragan.