October 10, 2018

Commissioner race down to its final few weeks

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part series looking at the candidates for office in McKenzie County in the Nov. 6 General Election. This week features the four candidates for two seats on the McKenzie County Board of County Commissioners. Last week, we featured the two candidates for the McKenzie County Sheriff position, while the two candidates for McKenzie County Recorder will be featured in our Oct. 17 issue.

By Betsy Ryan
Farmer Staff Writer

With just over three weeks until election day, candidates for the two Board of County Commission seats sat down with the McKenzie County Farmer to discuss how the controversial sheriff removal proceedings and the current climate of the county have influenced their candidacy. Incumbents Kathy Skarda and Vawnita Best are being challenged by Howdy Lawlar and John Rolfsrud.
Nov. 6 marks the first general election since the Board of County Commissions petitioned Gov. Doug Burgum to remove Sheriff Gary Schwartzenberger from office. As residents of McKenzie County have felt the affect from those proceedings and taken note of other county happenings throughout the last four years, the power now turns back to the voters to decide who they want sitting in those two county commission seats for the next four years.
Candidate John Rolfsrud put the decision most succinctly when he said, “If voters are happy with how things have gone in the county for the last four years, they should vote for the commissioners running for re-election. If they’re not happy with the last four years, Howdy and I are viable candidates.”

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