There are four seats on the Nov. 3 ballot for the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners, including races for chair and three commission districts.

The seven-member county commission is Johnson County’s top governing body, enacting local legislation, setting the county’s annual budget, levying taxes, and overseeing major public services like transit and health.

The board is composed of an at-large chair, who presides over meetings and generally serves as the public face of the county at official functions, and six members elected to geographic districts.

The board works alongside an appointed county manager, who is tasked with implementing the commission’s agenda and policies and managing the county government’s day-to-day operations.

Commission seats are officially nonpartisan, meaning all registered voters can cast ballots. Every Johnson County voter will vote for chair, while only voters living within the commission districts on the ballot will cast votes in those races.

The profiles below were compiled using information from the candidates’ websites, their social media accounts, the candidates’ responses to a five-item Johnson County Post questionnaire and Vote JoCo questionnaires from several local chambers of commerce.

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County chair

Karen Crnkovich

• Political experience: Crnkovich, of Olathe, has not held elected office before. She ran in the 2024 Republican primary for the nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids in Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District. She has served in civic leadership roles, including as past president of the Junior League of Kansas City, according to her campaign bio, and on the board of directors of HopeBUILDERS.
• Personal life: Crnkovich is president and owner of DMC Service Inc., a commercial HVAC and plumbing service contractor she has run for 15 years. She is a member of the Olathe, Overland Park, Greater Kansas City and Kansas chambers of commerce. In 2019, she founded Strong Homes, Strong Families, a nonprofit that helps struggling homeowners with urgent repairs. She moved to Johnson County in 2004.
• Platform: Crnkovich’s top priorities are lowering the property tax burden, increasing transparency in county government and delivering core services efficiently. She says the county should lower its mill levy enough to fully offset rising appraisals, starting by “right-sizing” its roughly $530 million in reserves while protecting its AAA bond rating, then scrutinizing staffing, consultants, construction costs and contracts. She has pledged not to seek reelection in 2030 if she can’t deliver meaningful property tax relief. She agrees with the election commissioner’s decision to consolidate early voting sites, saying uniform hours make voting easier. On data centers, she now calls for a temporary pause on large approvals in unincorporated areas while standards are developed. She supports firm retention and sharing limits on license plate reader data and says public transit services should be “smaller, smarter” and built around demand, while protecting service for older adults and people with disabilities.

Mike Kelly (incumbent)

• Political experience: Kelly, of Prairie Village, was first elected county commission chair in 2022 and is now seeking a second term. Before that, he was mayor of Roeland Park from 2017 to 2022. In 2019, he co-founded Climate Action KC, a regional conservation group, and he created the “Big 5 Caucus” of Kansas’ five largest counties to shape state policy. He has served on the boards of the Greater KC and Olathe chambers of commerce.
• Personal life: Kelly grew up in Johnson County, attending Curé of Ars Catholic School and Rockhurst High School, according to his campaign bio. He holds journalism and political science degrees from Kansas State University and a law degree from the University of Kansas, and works as an attorney at Husch Blackwell handling real estate, design and construction litigation. He lives in Prairie Village with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children.
• Platform: Kelly’s stated priorities are public safety, including Med-Act; aging infrastructure; and quality of life through parks and libraries. He points to a 9.3% mill levy reduction since 2018 and says a hiring pause and other measures this year produced $31.4 million in savings. He argues Johnson County homeowners pay more largely because state lawmakers keep exempting business property, and says the county keeps only about 20 cents of each property tax dollar. He opposes the closure of eight early voting sites, noting the commission had already funded all 18. He supports the sheriff’s 90-day local retention limit on license plate reader data and opposes a 287(g) immigration enforcement agreement. He opposes a data center moratorium, but wants countywide standards requiring closed-loop cooling, public water-use reporting and community benefits agreements. He defends the county’s new Strategic Transit Plan and World Cup routes, which he says used federal grants.

District 1

Becky Fast (incumbent)

• Political experience: Fast was first elected to the District 1 seat representing northeastern Johnson County in 2018 and is now seeking a third term. She previously served two terms on the Roeland Park City Council, including as council president, and was director of constituent services for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore. She has served on the Mid-America Regional Council board of directors.
• Personal life: Fast began her career as an elementary school teacher and earned master’s degrees in social work and public administration from the University of Kansas. She worked as a public policy analyst at KU’s School of Social Welfare, taught at KU and Washburn University, became a licensed clinical counselor and later led a statewide professional social work association. She is a member of Asbury United Methodist Church in Prairie Village.
• Platform: Fast’s top priorities are mental health care and senior services, affordable housing and a fiscally responsible budget, according to her questionnaire. She says she has voted to lower the county mill levy in six of the past eight years and that a third-party efficiency review she proposed identified $34 million in service changes, including $15 million in cuts. She argues lasting tax relief must come from the state, which she says has shifted the tax burden onto homeowners through exemptions. She points to an eviction mediation program she championed, which her campaign says has helped more than 1,000 families avoid eviction. She opposed the early voting site closures, signed a letter urging their reinstatement and wants state law changed so the county can choose its own election commissioner. She says she’d hesitate to fund more license plate readers without clear safeguards, says the county can’t impose a moratorium on data centers within cities and supports the county’s 2025 transit plan, focusing service on high-demand corridors.

Ben Hobert 

• Political experience: Hobert has never run for public office. He says he has attended more than 200 county commission meetings since 2021, offering public comment at each. He was part of Friends of Westwood Parkland, a citizens group that opposed commercial development of Westwood’s Joe D. Dennis Park, and previously held leadership roles at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Kansas City, Missouri, including council president and finance chair.
• Personal life: Hobert retired in 2021 after 39 years at the law firm now known as Stinson LLP, where he specialized in federal and state income tax law and chaired the tax department. He holds accounting and law degrees from the University of Iowa and a master’s in taxation from UMKC, and is a certified public accountant. A 30-year Johnson County resident, he lives in Westwood Hills with his wife, Ann. Their two children graduated from Shawnee Mission East, according to his campaign website.
• Platform: Hobert says Johnson County “has a spending problem.” He would scrutinize tax abatements and tax increment financing districts more critically, argues the county holds excess reserves and would eliminate the county’s new 11-person strategic communications department. He says the county should renovate, rather than replace, Corinth Library in Prairie Village. His campaign website criticizes a rainwater reclamation system at the new Health Services Building, which he says will cost $5.5 million over its life, and a $20 million early termination agreement involving an elderly care facility. He criticizes the board’s past decision not to broadcast public comment and wants more accountability in property appraisals, citing his own successful valuation appeal. On early voting, he says he will reserve judgment until he sees the election office’s data. He says transit should be limited to core routes, with vouchers or private options for residents who can’t drive.

District 4

Teresa Erb (running unopposed)

• Political experience: Erb has not held elected office, according to her campaign questionnaires. She served on the city of Overland Park’s Environmental Advisory Council from 2009 to 2020 and has volunteered delivering meals through the Red Cross Mobile Meals program. She is running unopposed for the District 4 seat being vacated by Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick, who has endorsed Erb’s candidacy.
• Personal life: Erb, of Overland Park, grew up in western Kansas and has lived in Johnson County for 30 years, according to her campaign bio. A West Point graduate, she served eight years as an Army officer. She has held senior roles at companies including Sprint and Google Fiber and is vice president of outside plant construction program management and design at Conexon LLC. She and her husband, Craig, own Jude’s Rum Cake and Table Ocho, two Lenexa businesses.
• Platform: Erb’s top priorities are responsible budgeting, funding essential services such as public safety and infrastructure, and responsible growth and planning, according to her questionnaires and website. She says the commission should consider reducing the mill levy when property values rise significantly but wants to first evaluate the county’s recently expanded property tax relief program and won’t commit to keeping bills flat every year. She disagrees with the early voting site closures and calls for regular public presentations by the election commissioner before major changes. She supports strict limits on license plate reader data, including deletion within 30 days absent an investigation and no sharing for civil immigration enforcement. She isn’t convinced a data center moratorium is necessary, preferring case-by-case review and shared regional standards. She supports transit investment focused on high-demand corridors and on-demand service and wants the county to modernize regulations and use targeted incentives for workforce housing.

District 5

Michael Ashcraft (incumbent)

• Political experience: Ashcraft, of Olathe, was first elected to the county commission in 2010 and has served four terms representing District 5. Before joining the commission, he worked in municipal and state government roles, including as an organizational effectiveness consultant for the city of Olathe, where he led community strategic planning efforts. He is a member of the Leadership Olathe Alumni Association.
• Personal life: Ashcraft has worked as a consultant for public and private sector organizations for more than 30 years and founded his own firm, Ashcraft & Associates, in 2008. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Alabama and studied public administration at the University of Kansas. He says he is involved in Olathe and Lenexa service and youth development organizations.
• Platform: Ashcraft calls himself a “consistent conservative voice” and says the “unrestrained cost of government is not sustainable.” He weighs spending requests against what he calls the “IDD Golden Rule” — whether a proposal is more valuable than reducing the waiting list for services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He criticized the board for not outright vetoing a De Soto TIF he says will cost county taxpayers about $500,000, and for approving solar and water reclamation systems at the Health Services Building that staff estimated would take decades to break even. He defended the election commissioner’s early voting changes as a reasoned plan, while saying earlier communication would have helped. He would hesitate to use license plate readers “without the strictest oversight possible if at all,” says the county has few tools to control data centers in cities and says large buses “don’t make sense in most cases,” favoring paratransit and rideshare options.

Greg Mitchell 

• Political experience: Mitchell, of Olathe, has served as an elected trustee on the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees since 2024. He previously served on the WaterOne board from 2020 to 2021. According to his Vote JoCo responses, he says he has attended chamber and small business events but has not been a chamber member.
• Personal life: Mitchell is semi-retired after holding director-level supply chain positions at hospital systems in the Kansas City and Oakland, California, areas, and earlier worked in analytics and computer programming. He grew up west of Denver, and has lived in the Kansas City area since 1996 and in Johnson County since 2001. He holds a business degree from Colorado State University, a master’s in health services administration from the University of Kansas Medical Center and an MBA. On his campaign website, he describes himself as a husband, stepfather and grandfather.
• Platform: Mitchell’s top priorities are resilient infrastructure, affordability for young families and older adults, and economic and workforce development, according to his campaign questionnaires. He says the county needs to lower the tax rate for homeowners by finding redundancies across departments, consolidating purchasing and sharing services with other governments, and by diversifying revenue through fees, including selling county services to smaller counties. He disagrees with the early voting site closures, saying he hasn’t heard a strong rationale, though he supports adding the new Spring Hill and De Soto sites. He supports license plate readers with strong governance policies and audits and wants the county, cities and utilities like WaterOne to set standards capping data centers’ power and water use. He supports planning now for future transit demand, possibly with smaller buses in the short term, and backs the county’s current affordable housing efforts.