Happy Super Bowl week to all who celebrate.
Let’s talk countywide Platte County politics for a bit.
The filing period for county positions opens on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 8 a.m. and runs until Tuesday, March 26 at 5 p.m. Candidates can file at the Platte County Board of Elections, located at 2600 NW Prairie View Road, Platte City.
As you know, 2024 is a pretty good-sized election year in Platte County. Countywide positions up for grabs this year will be:
•District one county commissioner (currently held by Dagmar Wood).
•District two county commissioner (currently held by Joe Vanover).
•Assessor (currently held by David Cox).
•Public administrator (currently held by Shanna Burns).
•Sheriff (currently held by Mark Owen).
•Treasurer (currently held by Rob Willard).
You’ve already heard–and read–some announcements on county offices. By now you know Sheriff Mark Owen is retiring at the end of his current term and is not seeking reelection. By now you know his undersheriff, Major Erik Holland, will be filing as a candidate for sheriff. Word is circulating there will be at least one additional candidate for sheriff.
You’ve also read in these fine newspaper pages that Dagmar Wood, the current district one commissioner, won’t be running for commissioner in 2024 but instead has decided to switch things up and run for assessor.
You’ve also read the current assessor, David Cox, has decided to retire at the end of his current term. So we will be denied what might have been a fireworks-filled campaign for assessor between Wood and Cox, who openly do not care for each other.
Will Wood get a smooth path to assessor? Or will there be someone else stepping up to join her on the ballot? Typically there are not a whole lot of folks anxious to serve as the county assessor, so don’t be surprised if Wood is the only candidate for that position. (UPDATE: Wood will have competition. After the print edition had gone to press, Marcus Farr, who currently works in the assessor’s office, announced he will be running for assessor)
Wood knows the district one county commission seat (very generally speaking district one is southern Platte County) is not as sturdy a Republican stronghold as it used to be. Some folks will even tell you they now consider district one to be purple. Not red. Not blue. But a pretty even combination of red and blue–meaning Republicans and Democrats–and that may have been the lead factor in Wood deciding to pursue assessor instead. You’ll recall in 2020, she was re-elected in the Republican primary but it was a much smaller than expected margin of victory over a candidate who really did not campaign for the spot. No doubt that small margin of victory has stuck in the back of Wood’s mind since 2020.
For public administrator, Shanna Burns put out notice via a news release on Friday that she will be seeking re-election for that post. She has been public administrator since being elected in 2020 and previously served as a deputy public administrator. Prior to working in the administrator’s office, she was a 911 dispatcher with the Platte County Sheriff’s Department from 2013 to 2018.
Is Willard planning to seek re-election as treasurer? Willard confirmed by text the other day that yes, he is.
Is Vanover running for re-election as second district commissioner? I reached out for a comment. Vanover says yes, he will be seeking re-election. “I love serving as county commissioner. I get to work with some great people and a few challenging ones,” Vanover told me.
We closed up this edition of The Landmark much earlier than we normally do. Not for a Landmark reason, but for reasons requested by our printer who was facing unusual work force circumstances due to a physical injury.
We like to oblige. Look at us over here at The Landmark, all synergizing and collaborating and whatnot.
Anyway, if you’re wondering why I’m not commenting on anything that may or may not have happened at a Monday night or Tuesday night city council meeting in Platte City it’s because this edition was put to bed well before that.
Seems like the new City Hall could use a reset button.
At least try unplugging it for 30 seconds then plug it back in.
Remember that January of 2019 AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead featuring the Chiefs vs. the Tom Brady-led Patriots? That was the Dee Ford offside game.
Having trouble remembering? Here’s how the Kansas City Star described the moment:
“An offsides (I hate to correct the Star, but the proper word is “offside” not “offsides”) penalty against Ford late in the fourth quarter proved pivotal in the New England Patriots’ 37-31 overtime victory over the Chiefs on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Cornerback Charvarius Ward came up with a tipped interception on a third-and-10 from the Chiefs’ 34 with about 90 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Chiefs leading 28-24. After playing from behind nearly the entire game, the Chiefs had their huge moment. Except a flag was thrown to the field on the opposite side of the play. Ford had lined up in the neutral zone as the play unfolded.”
Yup. It in effect cost the Chiefs the game. It was, for a fan based that had been brutalized for decades and decades, a rough way to lose one. As a Chiefs fan, I’ll admit it, after that game my very real fear was the team would never be that close to a Super Bowl again in my lifetime. Boy, was I wrong. This coming Sunday, for the fourth time in five years, the Chiefs are back in the big game. They’ll face San Francisco.
Enjoy. Savor it, Chiefs fans.
(Super Bowls aren’t supposed to come this easily. Thank you, Patrick Mahomes. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)