Aside from the Mayoral race with the city elections, there was also the vote in for first and third ward, as well as the at-large candidates.

Neither Diane Ottosson, the elected candidate for first ward, nor Doug Yates, elected incumbent for third ward, were present at the courthouse last night.

The At-Large candidate race was a four way battle with two incumbents squaring off against two fresh faces in the world of city council.

Scottie Moore and Tom Walling were both seeking re-election with the city council. While young Charlie Comfort and Wyatt Russell wanted come in as a fresh face for Oskaloosa.

“But the neat thing about this year, compared to four years ago is it’s not a one topic year. And we were able to talk about a lot of different topics in depth and get that message out and get those waves made. Charlie and I kind of brought a different perspective.”

Russell choose to have a hands off campaign and really focus on friends and family. “We’re family, we’re neighbors. It was more so responding to Facebook and responding to text messages from my friends. I had a lot of people pulling for me they were talking to their friends and family and that’s what I really wanted to get back down to was the roots of the community.”

Comfort, on the other hand, did some campaigning and was active on facebook as well as posting signage throughout the city. In 2011, Comfort ran for school board and was elected, he spoke about the differences between that campaign and the run for city council.

“Not a whole lot different I mean more people voted obviously, for the city election than the school  board election. I’m a little disappointed i got less votes for city council than I did for school board.”

As for the future, Comfort did not declare he would run again for city council. “I’m not going to commit myself to another campaign tonight.. I know my girlfriend is ready to have me back it’s been a long six weeks,” said Comfort. “Never say never, it’s always possible in the future.”

Russell felt the voter turnout was decent this year, “It was lower but I expected it to be lower because it wasn’t a controversial year. We didn’t have the big topics like we did four years ago. But it also made for a more fun campaign.”

Looking at statistics, 1,942 ballots were tallied for the At-Large candidates. Moore received 659 votes followed by Walling’s total of 561 votes. Rounding out the four candidates, Comfort tallied 422 ballots with his name and Russell claimed 294. *

Russell continued to speak of the incumbent candidates and how he had personal ties to them, reverting back to the idea of being family in this community. “You know Scottie and Tom are great people. Tom was my boss at one point in time at Cunningham and Scottie was my high school teacher. I know both of them and that’s the family tie right there, the roots.”

“I appreciate the support the voters gave me tonight, we move on from here. The sun still rises tomorrow and I congratulate Tom and Scottie on their victory tonight,” commented Comfort.

Russell says in two years, his ward seat, which is currently occupied by Jimenez will be up for re-election, he will be keeping his eyes on that.

“Thanks for everyone for coming out and voting. It was a great year and hopefully we will come back in two years and see if we can do something different,” stated Russell.

Note: Walling was not present at the courthouse at the time of the auditor’s announcement. Moore left shortly after results were announced. An update to this story will occur within the next few days. Stay tuned…

*All results from the municipal elections will remain unofficial until the Board of Supervisors confirms the votes.