From left to right: John Matta, Greg McKinley and Pat Weixelman

Riley County primary-election results

Two races were contested on the Riley County Commission Tuesday, both on the Republican side.

Moving on in District 3 on the Republican side is John Matta who defeated incumbent Ron Wells receiving 57 percent of the vote. The final tally was Matta with 1,345 to Wells’ 996 votes. Matta says he believes his past experience as a Manhattan City Commissioner will serve him well if he gets elected in November.

“Because we really need better relationships between those two groups because they really need to work together and not against each other,” he said.

Matta says that is especially true as the city and county work on competing tax initiatives over the next couple years.

“We need to get together and figure out what we both can support and try to rally the people behind that so we’re not running two competing initiatives where we could still have two taxes up there, but structured in a way where everybody knows everybody’s going to be taken care of and no one is left out in the cold,” he said.

Matta will face Democrat Kathryn Focke, who was unopposed, in the November election.

The District 2 race favors Greg McKinley over opponents Phil Mattox and incumbent Marvin Rodriguez. McKinley finished the night with 830 votes. Mattox finished second with 729 votes and Rodriguez was third with 627. Riley County has about 2,000 mail ballots yet to be counted through Friday.

The winner will oppose Democrat Fanny Fang, who was unopposed.

Pottawatomie County primary-election results

Just one race was contested on the Pottawatomie County Commission in the primary.
Republican Pat Weixelman defeated Nancy McCarter, with about 53.5 percent of the vote in the District 2 race.
Weixelman says he appreciates the support and looks forward to representing the county in the upcoming general election.
“I’m looking forward to the next four years,” Weixelman said. “You always says your job isn’t quite done and that’s why you ran again, but I don’t think your job will ever be done. There’s always something coming up that need’s to be addressed, new challenges and things like this. I’m kind of excited about what the next four years are going to bring.”
According to Weixelman, one of his top priorities going forward will be the county’s budget.
“Make sure the budget is good enough to provide the services like I was talking about and just try to maintain the growth that we have to where we’re not in debt and proceed with caution,” Weixelman said.
McCarter, who is retiring as county clerk, jumped into the race as a promise to herself. Weixelman was seeking a fourth term.
Greg Riat, who was unopposed in the District 3 Republican race, automatically advances to the November general election as well.

The post Matta, McKinley likely to advance in Riley Co. Commission race; Weixelman wins 4th term on Pott Co. Commission appeared first on News Radio KMAN.

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