Olathe voters tapped John Bacon to serve his first full term as mayor, and selected a handful of newcomers in its city council elections.
All election results are unofficial until the vote canvass at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14.
John Bacon stays on as mayor
Bacon, who was first elected to the Olathe City Council in 1995, was the mayor pro tempore — or vice mayor — at the time of former Mayor Mike Copeland’s passing in 2020. That meant Bacon would become the mayor for the remainder of Copeland’s last term, roughly three years.
Now, he looks poised to take on a full term as mayor.
“I just want to thank everyone for their vote of confidence, and I will make them proud,” Bacon said on Tuesday.
He currently leads LeEtta Felter, who was elected to represent Ward 3 on the Olathe City Council in 2021, by more than 3,400 votes. Felter still has two years left in her city council term.
Bacon also said he’s looking forward to serving Olathe for another four years.
“Olathe has been very successful,” he said. “I just want to continue that trend. We’ve got a great team, a lot of great employees, and we just want to continue being a great city.”
Copeland was Olathe’s mayor for nearly two decades, and was the city’s longest-serving mayor. During the 2019 municipal elections, Copeland ran unopposed.
Ward 1
Robyn Essex earned 53% of the votes, leading Chad Carroll by 335 votes as of about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.
Essex was appointed to the Ward 1 city council seat at the beginning of 2022. She was picked to serve out the rest of Larry Campbell’s term after he resigned at the end of 2021.
Essex, a Republican, represents District 78 in the Kansas House of Representatives.
Ward 2
Dean Vakas took home 57% of the votes, with a nearly 1,000-vote lead on Ryan Campbell in the race to replace Councilmember Adam Mickelson.
Vakas, until 2022, served as the chair of the Olathe Planning Commission. He also ran for Olathe City Council in 2021, but lost to current at-large representative and mayor pro tempore Kevin Gilmore.
Campbell ran for the Olathe school board in 2021, but lost in the primary election.
Mickelson was first elected to the Olathe City Council in 2019 but declined to seek a second term.
At-large
Matthew Schoonover, with about 57% of the votes and a lead greater than 3,000 votes, is likely to become Olathe’s next at-large city council representative.
Schoonover and his opponent Wayne Janner, the current Olathe Planning Commission chair, ran to replace Councilmember Wes McCoy, who was first elected in 2013.
McCoy did seek reelection this year but came in last during the primary election in August, which means he didn’t make the cut for the general election.
Janner previously ran for Olathe City Council in 2021 but lost to Felter in the bid for the Ward 3 council seat.
Olathe school board races
There were also four races on the ballot for Olathe school board seats this year, with voters delivering fairly resounding victories for more middle-of-the-road candidates who largely support the Olathe school district’s current approach to education.
Students from parts of Olathe, Lenexa and Overland Park attend the Olathe school district.
Here’s where things stand with the USD 233 school board races:
- Position 1: Stacey Yurkovich, who was appointed to the seat earlier this year, received 60% of the vote, and nearly twice as many votes as Mark Wingren. She also leads Dan Adera-Odhiambo by nearly 14,000 votes.
- Position 2: Brad Boyd, current school board president and a Democrat in the Kansas Legislature, leads challenger Jesse Gillam by more than 4,000 votes, or 57% of the votes.
- Position 4: Claire Reagan, a former teacher, leads Holly Palacio by more than 5,000 votes, or nearly 60% of the votes, in the race to succeed Shannon Wickliffe, a former school board president.
- At-large: Will Babbit leads Jennifer Gilmore in the bid with 56% of the votes to replace former school board president Joe Beveridge. Beveridge did not seek reelection. Gilmore ran in 2021 for a different school board seat and narrowly lost to Julie Steele. Recently, Gilmore won $1 in nominal damages after she sued the school board and Beveridge for a First Amendment violation.
More 2023 election news: Three Overland Park incumbents out as local elections shake up city council
