Former Johnson County assistant district attorney Vanessa Riebli expanded her narrow lead in votes this week in the Democratic primary contest for district attorney and appears poised to take on her former boss in November’s general election.
As provisional and mail-in votes have been added to Tuesday’s total, Riebli’s lead over defense attorney Zach Thomas in the primary contest grew from 231 votes on election night to 344 at the end of the final round of counting Friday.
Riebli has now earned 50.5% of he vote, compared to 49.5% for Thomas. In total, Riebli totaled 17,132 votes to Thomas’ 16,788.
The Johnson County Election Office published its final election week update Friday afternoon and will now turn towards officially certifying the results.
The county canvassing board, made up of members of the county commission, will convene Friday, Aug. 16, to begin the process of canvassing the final vote. The board is expected to officially certify the results on Monday, Aug. 19.
Riebli “honored” to be moving on to November
Riebli claimed victory Tuesday night in a post to her campaign’s Facebook page, saying she intended to build on support garnered during the primary campaign into November.
“I worked in the District Attorney’s office for over two decades; I know exactly where the weaknesses are, and I have the relationships, vision, and experience to reform and strengthen our system,” Riebli wrote in the post.
Riebli has spent most of her legal career as a prosecutor, including a stint as the supervisor for the DA Office’s Economic Crime Unit. She worked under multiple Johnson County District Attorneys before leaving the office in 2021.
Most recently, she’s worked as a defense attorney at the firm Bath & Edmonds.
Thomas “will accept the results”
In his own post to Facebook this week, Thomas said he would wait until the official canvass to formally concede but acknowledged “the margin at this point seems too great for the outcome to change.”
But he said he “will accept the results regardless of the outcome.”
“To all the hundreds of volunteers and donors who contributed to our campaign, I thank you. I cannot express how grateful and humbled I am by your support for me and our campaign,” Thomas said in his Facebook post.
Thomas challenged Howe in 2020 and lost by about three percentage points.
Howe vying for fifth term
On Tuesday, Howe thanked his supporters and vowed to fight on for his fifth term.
“I’m very happy to continue to get widespread support from the Republican Party and I appreciate that and continue to work hard for them,” Howe said in an interview with the Post.
Howe told the Post his priorities include protecting children and senior citizens and providing more services to people with substance abuse or mental health issues.
Results in another close race
The only other race from Tuesday that was too close to call was for second place in the three-person nonpartisan contest for the Johnson County commission District 6 seat, covering the western half of the county.
In that race, incumbent Shirley Allenbrand was the top vote-getter by a wide margin, earning 50% of the final unofficial after Friday’s update.
In second place, small business owner Mike Storm expanded his Tuesday night lead slightly with updated counts over Olathe planning commissioner Tony Bergida.
Storm has now totaled 3,160 votes, or 26%, to Bergida’s 2,904 votes, or 24%.
Allenbrand and Storm now appear poised to move on to vie for the seat in the November general election.
The District 6 seat is one of three seats on the county commission that will be on November’s ballot.
