Gilbert Regular City Election 2007

latest update at 4:03 pm, November 13, 2007

Jon Popp will be Gilbert's new mayor. He is an engineer with Popp Engineering, Inc. in Ames and has been a council member since June of 2002. He won the two-year mayoral position with 101 votes compared to 64 votes for Tim Morrow, who works in industrial supply sales. Morrow also has been a Gilbert council member with his tenure ending in December 1999. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1999 and 2001.

Current Gilbert Mayor Yvonne Wannemuehler, who is a research scientist at Iowa State University in veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine, completes her second term at the end of this year and did not run again.

There will be two new council members. Shaon Anderson, who is an engineer for Siemens in Ankeny, received 123 votes, and Jamie Miller, who is a police officer in Ames, received 121 votes. Incumbent Chad Cook, who is a social studies teacher and football coach at the Gilbert Middle School and completing his first term on the council, was re-elected with 116 votes. Incumbent Bob Jaquis, who provides computer support at the National Soil Tilth Lab in Ames, received 78 votes, losing his bid to return to the council. Jaquis served as the Gilbert mayor for two, two-year terms, beginning in 2000, then undertook a four-year term as a council member that expires at the end of this year.

There was one write-in vote for mayor. It was for Rob Maurer. There were eight write-in votes for council members. Chris Benda (1), blank (1), Ben Durbin (1), Mike Haverdink (1), Mickey Mouse (1), Wade Nelson (2), and Pam VandenBerg (1).

Anderson, Miller, and Cook join Lynn Henn and Teri Gallahan on the five-member council. Henn, who works at Iowa State University as seed production manager for the Committee for Agricultural Development is in his third, four-year term. Gallahan, who is employed as a document center operator for the Iowa State University printing services, is in her first, four-year term. However, in 2006, she served nearly a year as a stand-in council member for Cook when he was called to active military duty in Afghanistan.

Gilbert—with a population that hovers around 1,000—has 740 registered voters with 167 of them casting ballots in the election for a 23 percent turnout. The city holds an election every two years, and the 2007 turnout is second behind that of 2001 when 186 of 675 registered Gilbert voters (28 percent) participated in the election. The town's number of registered voters has grown from 445 in 1993 when 25 people cast ballots.

archive of Gilbert election data