Council race narrowed to four

HARTINGTON — The race for two open Laurel City Council seats was whittled down to four people Tuesday night.
Chad Johnson and Justin Ericksen were the two biggest vote-getters in Laurel.

Johnson garnered 214 votes, while Ericksen collected 209. Jeff Erwin finished third with 128 votes while incumbent Logan Garber was fourth with 100 votes. All four will now advance to the General Election.   Johnny Lempke finished fifth in the voting with 57 votes. He was eliminated from the race, but the other four candidates will advance to the November General Election. 

The only other contested local election in Cedar County was for the District 2 County Commission seat held by Craig Bartels.

Bartels easily defeated John Thelen of Randolph in the Republican primary.

Bartels garnered 870 votes, while Thelen collected 158 votes.