Commission and mayoral candidates drop out of races

Posted 7/19/16

In separate, unrelated announcements, Republican commission candidate John Marsh and Powell mayoral candidate Amber Yager-Wall each cited personal reasons for exiting their races.

Their decisions leave five Republicans running for two available …

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Commission and mayoral candidates drop out of races

Posted

Two political candidates — one who’d been seeking a seat on the Park County Commission and another who was making a bid for mayor of Powell — have dropped out of the running.

In separate, unrelated announcements, Republican commission candidate John Marsh and Powell mayoral candidate Amber Yager-Wall each cited personal reasons for exiting their races.

Their decisions leave five Republicans running for two available positions on the County Commission and three candidates seeking to be Powell’s mayor. The remaining candidates will face off in the Aug. 16 primary election.

Marsh, 59, is a building contractor who recently moved from Powell to Meeteetse.

In a statement issued to media outlets on Friday, Marsh noted his longtime residency across Park County, his decades of business experience, his and his wife’s raising of three boys who became presidential honor students, and his past memberships in the Cody and Powell chambers of commerce.

“I feel that these achievements put me in a unique position to best serve the citizens of Park County,” Marsh wrote. “In spite of all of this, I have decided to suspend my campaign for personal reasons.”

He thanked his family, friends and supporters and also the Park County Commission “for doing a tough and thankless job.”

Marsh’s statement went on to criticize unnamed county employees for various misconduct he says he witnessed during his four years as a Park County employee. He said the commission should exercise more oversight of its staff and supervisors. His full statement appears on Page 4.

Meanwhile, Yager-Wall notified the county elections office on July 7 that she was withdrawing from the Powell mayoral race. The 26-year-old said she was doing so “because of sensitive personal matters.”

Primary election ballots have already been printed — in fact, absentee voting started July 1 — so both Marsh’s and Yager-Wall’s names will remain on the ballot.

Park County elections staff are putting up signs at the polls notifying voters that Yager-Wall has withdrawn from the race; they’ll add Marsh’s name to the signs if and when he formally notifies the office that he’s dropped out, said elections deputy Teecee Barrett.

The five Republicans now running for the commission are: Jake Fulkerson of Cody, Richard George of Cody, current commissioner Lee Livingston of Wapiti, Bob Ruckman of Powell and Boone Tidwell of Cody. Barring an independent, third-party or write-in campaign, the two top GOP vote-getters in the primary election will be unopposed in the general election and shoo-ins for the offices.

The three remaining Powell mayoral candidates are: James Andrews, current mayor Don Hillman and Dawson Wolff. The top two vote-getters in the primary will advance to the general election for what will effectively be a run-off.

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