With four days left to file, only one city race contested

With four days left to file, candidates are sparse for upcoming municipal elections in Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls.

Among the three cities there are barely enough candidates for the number of open seats.

After filing on the opening day on April 29, Mark Johnson could win his run for the mayoral seat on the Kalispell City Council simply because no one else has stepped up to run for the position.

Candidate filing closes at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 27.

The same holds true for incumbent Mayor Donald Barnhart in Columbia Falls. He’s running for re-election to the Columbia Falls City Council with no opponent in sight.

“It’s been this way up here for several election cycles. We’ve had to appoint council people in the past just because there was no interest in serving the community,” Barnhart said about the dearth of candidates. “I don’t understand that. I would love to see more people get involved. I would love to see someone run against me, just so people have a choice.”

Four of seven seats on the Columbia Falls City Council are up for election in November.

So far there are only four candidates, including incumbents Barnhart, Shawn Bates and Mike Shepard. Jennifer Lovering has filed to run for one of the seats.

Incumbent Dave Petersen has not filed to run for re-election.

Barnhart said he suspects Petersen may be waiting to see if anyone else steps up to the plate. “I don’t know we can say this is all the people we’ll get because they have another week to file,” Barnhart said.

Five of nine seats on the Kalispell City Council are up for election.

Incumbent Tim Kluesner is running for re-election to a Ward 4 seat unopposed. Incumbent Jim Atkinson is running for re-election to a Ward 3 seat unopposed. Chad Graham is running for a Ward 2 seat unopposed after another candidate withdrew. Ward 2 incumbent Jeff Zauner has not filed to run for re-election.

The only contested race in Kalispell is for a Ward 1 seat. Joseph Apple and Sandy Mundahl Carlson are running for the seat and incumbent Bob Hafferman chose not to run for re-election after a dozen years in office.

In her first run for office, Carlson said she got “a little frightened” when she saw the other candidate for Ward 2 withdraw.

“It scared me. I thought, ‘What am I getting into?’ But then I thought about it for a while and I’ve been pretty involved. I moved here in 1986 and it’s been a good community,” Carlson said. “I thought it’s time I try. If I don’t win, at least I tried, and there are other things to be involved in.”

Three of seven seats on the Whitefish City Council are up for election. So far there are only three candidates for the seats: Life Noell, Jennifer Frandsen and former Mayor Andy Feury.

City council incumbents Chris Hyatt, Phil Mitchell and Bill Kahle have said they do not plan to run for re-election. Mitchell said he has talked to a couple of people about running for the council and a few last-minute candidates may or may not appear.

“It’s time for some other people to step up or not step up,” Mitchell said, adding that he’s disappointed with the candidate turnout so far. “We have a democratic government and I’m very sad we haven’t had more people file.”

Municipal judge positions in Kalispell and Whitefish each have one candidate — the incumbent. Judge Bradley Johnson is running for re-election in Whitefish and Judge Lori Adams is running for election in Kalispell after she was appointed in December.

Candidate forms are available in the Flathead County Election Department at 800 S. Main St. or online at www.flathead.mt.gov/election.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.