Whitefish chooses Jenson for mayor

by LYNNETTE HINTZEThe Daily Inter Lake
| November 7, 2007 1:00 AM

Kalispell incumbentswin by wide margin

Whitefish voters have elected Mike Jenson as the city's new mayor.

And in a hotly contested Whitefish City Council race, incumbent John Muhlfeld will keep his seat. Ryan Friel won a council seat and Turner Askew appears to be the winner of the third council opening.

Because Askew won by only four votes over Martin McGrew, election officials will recount ballots again today.

In Kalispell's city election on Tuesday, both incumbents won handily, with Duane Larson trumping Clinton Cathcart in Ward 4 and Randy Kenyon comfortably defeating challenger Rick Hull.

Columbia Falls had no contested races and returned incumbents Don Barnhart, Doug Karper and Julie Plevel to their City Council seats.

WHITEFISH had a 60 percent voter turnout for its first-ever mail-ballot city election.

In the three-way race for mayor, Jenson - a ceramic artist and Whitefish native who served as Whitefish mayor from 1998 to 2000 - received 887 votes, bumping out incumbent Cris Coughlin, who garnered 651 votes. Coughlin was a City Council member and deputy mayor before she was appointed mayor earlier this year to replace Andy Feury. City Council member Nick Palmer won just 78 votes in the mayoral contest, but will return to the council to finish his term.

In the council race, Muhlfeld was the top vote-getter, with 1,001 votes. Muhlfeld is a hydrologist who was appointed to fill a council vacancy in 2006.

Next in line was Ryan Friel with 874 votes. Friel is a fishing guide and an editor of a local literary journal who touted his youth and enthusiasm as attributes he'd bring to the job.

Former City Council member Turner Askew, a commercial and industrial real-estate broker, emerged as the winner of the third council opening, but only by a 4-vote margin. Unofficial election results tallied at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday put him with 608 votes, slipping by Martin McGrew with 604 votes.

Other Whitefish candidates included John Murdock with 469 votes; Kent Taylor with 468 and Mark McGlenn with 212.

VOTER TURNOUT in Kalispell was a dismal 9 percent, with 988 of 10,641 registered voters going to the polls.

Larson, a longtime council member, won 199 votes compared to Cathcart's 95 votes in Ward 4.

In Ward 3, Kenyon won 172 votes over 73 votes for Hull.

Incumbent Wayne Saverud was re-elected in Ward 2 with 284 votes and in Ward 1, incumbent Kari Gabriel was uncontested and won 150 votes.

Columbia Falls voters gave Barnhart 126 votes, Karper 113 votes and Plevel 116 votes. Kathie Lapcevic, who withdrew from the race too late to get her name off the ballot, got 53 votes.