Ottawa County board members ousted over handling of COVID-19 pandemic
Big changes are coming to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners come January. A majority of the Republican membership on the board were unseated in Tuesday’s primary election.
The commissioners were booted from office by challengers supported by Ottawa Impact, a political advocacy group that was mobilized in opposition to local mask mandates in schools.
Eight of nine Ottawa Impact-backed candidates were victorious in their primary election races, and at least six of those candidates will be seated on the board, as only two of those winners face Democratic candidates in the general election.
One sitting Republican commissioner, Kyle Terpstra, was supported by Ottawa Impact.
The only Republican commissioner on the board to survive the primary was Roger Bergman, who represents Grand Haven as District 10 commissioner.
For board chair Matthew Fenske, who lost his primary race Tuesday, the resounding rejection of the current board was a bit of a shock.
Fenske, who considers himself a moderate Republican, worries about the turn to the far right in the local Republican party, which censured him last month for reaching across the aisle to appeal to Democratic voters in the primary.
Ottawa Impact’s position statement, available on its website, outlines a conservative platform opposed to COVID-19 mitigation measures in schools such as distancing, masks and quarantine; “health freedom” and parental rights in education; and opposition to “divisive teachings aligned with Critical Race Theory through government schools, employee training, and government policy,” among a number of other policy positions.
Fenske said some county employees are likely to be anxious about what their jobs will look like when the new board with strong ideological views on culture-war issues is seated.
“It’s not a good scenario in that a lot of institutional knowledge has left the county,” Fenske said. “Some of us have been at this for multiple years, building relationships with city managers, township supervisors, clerks, business leaders. That's going to kind of go by the wayside.”
More: Amid in-fighting, censures: What is the future for Ottawa County conservatism?
More: Campaign finance reports: Ottawa Impact primarily self-funded through members, family, friends
The Ottawa Impact group, whose leadership did not respond to The Sentinel’s requests for comment Wednesday, posted a statement reflecting on the win on social media:
“Ottawa Impact was built by the efforts of moms and dads, grandparents, hard working Americans, and business owners, who simply desired to have individual freedoms, parental rights and American values protected in our county.
“Our current county commissioners refused to listen and act in defense of these issues — core values to our people and to the Republican Party platform. When elected officials refuse to listen to the people and protect constitutional freedoms, they must be replaced.”
Full election results for the Republican primary:
District 1: Gretchen Cosby 3,092 votes (52.2 percent), incumbent Frank Garcia 2,831 votes (47.8 percent)
District 2: Lucy Ebel 1,560 votes (56 percent), incumbent Joe Baumann 1,228 votes (44 percent)
District 3: Daniela Garcia 2,573 votes
District 4: Jacob Bonnema 3,415 votes (57.3 percent), incumbent Al Dannenberg 2,542 votes, (42.7 percent)
District 5: Joe Moss 5,203 votes (74 percent), incumbent Randy Meppelink 1,827 votes (26 percent)
District 6: Kyle Terpstra 5,178 votes
District 7: Rebekah Curran 3,240 votes (60 percent), Gregory Steigenga 2,158 votes (40 percent)
District 8: Sylvia Rhodea 2,586 votes (71 percent), incumbent Greg DeJong 1,058 votes (29 percent)
District 9: Roger Belknap 3,026 votes (52.7 percent), incumbent Phil Kuyers 2,720 votes (47.3 percent)
District 10: Incumbent Roger Bergman 2,768 votes (52.1 percent), Jenni Shepherd-Kelley 2,150 votes (40.4 percent), Thomas Elhart 399 votes (7.5 percent)
District 11: Allison Miedema 4,210 votes (69.2 percent), incumbent Matthew Fenske 1,878 votes (30.8 percent)
Doug Zylstra, who represents District 3 (Holland) as the lone Democrat on the county board, has a Republican challenger in November who is not supported by Ottawa Impact. Daniela Garcia is a former state representative for the Holland area and was the only candidate running in the District 3 GOP primary, where Ottawa Impact did not field a candidate.
A handful of Democratic candidates will be on the ballot in November in addition to Zylstra: Danielle Smith in District 1, Joe Spaulding in District 2 and Douglas VanBennekom in District 10.
— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Ottawa County board members ousted over handling of COVID-19 pandemic
