Kathol uses write-in method to gain Council seat

HARTINGTON — Write-in candidates earned leadership roles in at least four Cedar County communities in Tuesday's election.

Colin Kathol earned a four-year term on the Hartington City Council as a write-in candidate, garnering 428 votes to win the spot.

Kathol was surprised to find himself on the winning side of a successful write-in campaign to serve on Hartington’s city council.

“With my name not being on the ballot, it’s always a guessing game how many people would be remembering to write my name in,” he said after getting the results Tuesday night.

He said he distributed literature from door to door throughout town and also did some print advertising for the council spot.

“Apparently, that paid off,” he said.

Kathol said he doesn’t come into the role with an agenda.

“I’m ready to see what I can do on there. I’m the type of person that listens to the people and tries to make things better for Hartington and just do the best job I can for the people,” he said.

Incumbent Cody Christensen will be returning to the council for another term, receiving 522 votes. Kathol was the second-place vote-getter with 428 votes. Clark Johnson came in third with 228 votes with only the top two vote-getters getting a seat at the council.

In Randolph, a write-in candidate defeated the incumbent for a four-year term as Mayor.

Dwayne "BoBo" Schutt defeated incumbent Mayor George Bradley by an unofficial vote count of 226 to 138 in the Nov. 8 general election. There were 11 other write-in votes.

"Being a write-in, you never know how it can go," Schutt said. "I went out and did a lot of campaigning and talked to a lot of people.

"I care about the town of Randolph," he said. "I've lived here all my life. I was hoping I would win."

Bradley noted while he was not disappointed he lost to Schutt, he thought the 2022 mayor's race would have been closer.

"I wish Dwayne Schutt a lot of luck and congratulate him on his victory," Bradley said. "I wish him the best."

The two men faced off before in the mayoral race – back in November 2018 when Bradley defeated Schutt, who was the city's mayor at the time.

Schutt served as the city's mayor for eight years before Bradley took over the position for the past four years.

"I'm happy to be the mayor of Randolph again," Schutt said. "I hope I can do a very good job. I care a lot about the town. If I didn't, I wouldn't have run again."

Bradley, who is retired from teaching and owning Bradley Cabinets, noted he is not planning to run for a public office again in the future.

"Absolutely not," Bradley said. "I'm 75 years old. This is it."

Bradley added he looks forward to the completion of the community's ongoing Middle Logan Creek flood risk management project, even though he will not be Randolph's mayor when that happens.

"This floodplain project will hopefully be good for Randolph, and I think it will," Bradley said.

The origin of the floodplain project dates back to when Schutt was previously Randolph's mayor.

Schutt, a Randolph native who is the owner of the BoBo's Express trucking company, noted city spending is an important issue to him.

"I want to try and be sure the city is strong," Schutt said. "I hope that we can keep the community going and make it more prosperous."