City elections yield few contests

The Daily Inter Lake

Filing for city elections closed Thursday, leaving few contested races throughout the valley.

All three mayoral candidates are running without opposition - incumbents Pam Kennedy in Kalispell and Andy Feury in Whitefish, plus Jolie Fish in Columbia Falls. Fish is currently a Columbia Falls City Council member.

Two of four wards in Kalispell have contested races.

In Ward 1, incumbent Bob Hafferman faces Steve Davidson, and in Ward 3, incumbent Jim Atkinson will face current Ward 4 council member Jayson Peters, who is moving to Ward 3.

Unopposed are incumbent Hank Olson in Ward 2 and Tim Kluesner in Ward 4.

Kluesner, a Kalispell native, is a sales and marketing representative for Merlin Information Services.

Kalispell Municipal Judge Heidi Ulbricht is unopposed in her bid for re-election.

In Whitefish, Nick Palmer, Shirley Jacobson, Nancy Woodruff and Norman Nelson will vie for three council seats.

Palmer is a real estate and securities investor and currently serves as president of the Whitefish City-County Planning Board.

Jacobson, a retired Whitefish native, served on the City Council from 1998 through 2001 and lost a bid for re-election. She also served on the Whitefish City-County Planning Board.

Woodruff is a technical writer for Agilent Technologies and has owned a home in Whitefish since 1993. A former journalist, she lived and worked in California from 1997 to 2004 and returned to Whitefish a year ago.

Norman Nelson was born and raised in Whitefish and is now semi-retired. He works part time doing screen printing and does occasional real-estate work. Nelson is on the Whitefish Board of Adjustment and served on the local government review commission.

Incumbent Whitefish City Judge Bradley Johnson faces a challenge from Valarie Eve, a Flathead Justice Court clerk.

Columbia Falls came up short in filings for two two-year seats currently held by Harvey Reikofski and Doug Karper. Karper is the lone candidate for a two-year term.

Candidates for the three four-year terms are Reikofski, Michael Shepard and incumbent Charles McCubbins.