Incumbents hold seats for Mayor, City Council; Waller returns to council in Ward 2
Published 7:59 am Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Major Steve King impresses upon the Senate Capital Investment Committee the importance of the work being done at The Hormel Institute. in November of last year. King won a second term as Mayor Monday night. Herald file photo.
Mayoral candidate Brad Johnson takes a phone call as he awaits the election results at the Austin Eagles Club Tuesday night. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Rebecca Waller and Miguel Garate took part in the American Association of University Women’s forum Tuesday night at the Community Action Building in September. Waller won her race over Garate in Ward 1 Tuesday night. Herald file photo
Paul Fischer, running for re-election in Ward 3, takes part in the American Association of University Women’s forum Tuesday night at the Community Action Building. Fischer has won a third term. Herald file photo
MIke Postma answers forum questions during the American Association of University Women’s forum in September. Running unopposed, he secure another term on the City Council. Herald file photo
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Incumbents running for office in city races will hold their seats for another term, while at the same time a former City Council member will make her return.
Mayor Steve King won a second term by defeating newcomer Bradley Johnson with 6,894 (51.89%) votes. Johnson tallied 6,331 votes in his first ever run for the mayor’s seat.
“The end result, I’m happy to serve another four years,” King said. “I certainly have a great affinity to Austin and serving the residents. I plan to continue to move forward with projects and do whatever I can do to make Austin worth working and living in.”
Among those projects, King listed wrapping up the 1.5 million Wastewater Treatment Plant, looking forward to seeing what the end of the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s bridge project looks like as well as continued work on housing and supporting business.
This also includes possible business opportunities as a result of the FAARM project coming to Mower County.
“I’m hoping there are other business opportunities that can piggyback on that,” King said. “Bring more jobs to Austin.”
Meanwhile, Johnson tipped his hat to the voters, recognizing the decision they made.
“The voters decided, would be the fairest way to put it,” he said. “They had their options and they chose to continue with the status quo.”
While he doesn’t regret the way he ran the race, Johnson added that he wasn’t sure what the future might bring in terms of possibly running again either.
“I’m not ruling out anything,” he said. “It’s still early in the game to figure anything out. Just keep plugging away.”
“It was fun,” he added. “I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
Meanwhile, Rebecca Waller returns to the council in Ward 1 for a second time after she defeated Miguel Garate with over 57% or 2,308 votes. Garate, who at one time served as an Honorary City Council member, came in with 1,707 votes (42.36%).
Waller first served on the board from 2019 to 2022, but was defeated by current councilmember Laura Helle in a quest for a second consecutive term.
Calls to both candidates have yet to be returned.
In Ward 3, Paul Fischer, running for a third term, won back his seat with 2,340 votes (67.14%) over Brian Prentis who collected 1,110 votes (31.85%).
“Thank you to all those who voted for me and trust what I can do for the community,” Fischer said. “I feel great about the community and I’m looking forward to the next four years.”
Fischer said he’s carrying with him an overall spirit of continuing to represent the citizens in Ward 3 as well the employees of the City of Austin, the latter of which has been at the forefront of council work for the last few months.
“We’ve had a few employee gatherings and we’ve had more and more employees turn out,” Fischer said. “I’m feeling that this engagement group and the things we’ve done are helping a lot. We’re going to continue with the engagement group and the employees are feeling the council and the mayor do actually care and want a good working environment.”
Prentis has not returned a call from the Herald.
Michael Postma, who was running unopposed in Ward 2 for a second term, collected 99.06% of the tally with 4,130 votes, 1,000 votes more than the first time he ran.
“It’s good to see such a turnout this year,” Postma said. “I’m looking forward to working with Mayo Kin and welcoming Councilwoman Waller back. There are a lot of challenges, but a lot of opportunities as well.”
Housing remains a priority for Postma, and he wants to build on top of the successes already in place, however, he would also like to switch focus a bit.
“I really want to get more housing and in particular single family housing,” he said. “It’s really vital for our city to continue to grow.”
He also hopes to entice another hotel to town to help answer a need for more lodging in Austin.
“We’re bringing so many things to town we’re running out of hotel rooms,” he said. I think there is some demand there.”
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