Primary voting will advance candidates in several contests

    Voters with a favorite candidate in one of the Primary Election races better show up to vote Tuesday because some will be eliminated in run-offs.
    Five local races on the Republican ticket will see the number of candidates pared down Tuesday, and for three Chase County officials, they’ll come out of the Primary as the lone candidate headed into November, unless there is a successful write-in campaign prior to the General Election.
    The offices of Chase County Assessor, Attorney and Treasurer have only Republican candidates seeking office. Parties can advance just one candidate to the General Election, said County Clerk/Election Commissioner Debra Clark.
    Since no Democrats are running, only one Republican from each of those three contested races will advance to the Nov. 8 General Election.
    Sid Bartels and Tori Otzel are running for assessor; Joel Burke and Arlan Wine for attorney; and Rebecca Bernard, Amy Prior and Penny Strand for treasurer.
    There is also a run-off for the Upper Republican NRD board at-large seat, and one of the seven candidates for Wauneta-Palisade board of education will be eliminated Tuesday.
    The three NRD at-large seat candidates are Brad Dixon, Steven Grams and Brock Stromberger.
    Six of these seven WP board of education candidates will move on to November: Vanessa Fanning, Shane Gerhartz, Laurie Maris, Mick Majors, Brock Malcolm, Allison Sandman and Marty Wheeler.  
    Chase County voters will not see ballots in a number of other local races because the current candidates automatically advance, Clark said.
    Those include county clerk, county sheriff, two county commissioner seats, NRD subdistricts 4 and 6, Chase County School board of education  and Imperial city council, mayor and Airport Authority.
State races
    There are a number of hotly contested races on the state level this Primary season.
    Local mailboxes have received political mailings nearly every day the past couple of weeks for Nebraska Governor.
    Republicans Charles Herbster, Brett Lindstrom, Jim Pillen and Theresa Thibodeau are at the top of the polling. Five other Republicans are on the ticket.
    Only one will advance to November to face either Carol Blood or Roy Harris, who are vying for the Democratic nomination, and Scott Zimmerman, the lone Libertarian candidate.
    Voters in state legislative District 44 will cast ballots Tuesday for either Ed Dunn of Grant and Teresa Ibach of Sumner, who are seeking to replace retiring Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango. Both will advance to November
    Another state race drawing interest is State Board of Education District 7, which includes Chase County. Incumbent Robin Stevens of Gothenburg is being challenged by Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte and Pat Moore of Litchfield. Two will advance.
    Republicans will have several choices for Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Attorney General, State Auditor and Public Service Commissioner, with just one advancing.
    Third District Congressman Adrian Smith has a Republican challenger in Mike Calhoun of Bellevue. Either David Else, Overton, or Daniel Wik, Norfolk, will advance on the Democratic ticket. Mark Elworth Jr. of Omaha is a Legal Marijuana NOW candidate.
    Chase County voters will also cast a ballot Tuesday for one of three seeking the Dist. 7 UNL Board of Regents seat.