Lopez now leads O’Donnell by 125 votes in roller-coaster Sedgwick County election

Sedgwick County Democratic challenger Sarah Lopez now leads incumbent County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell by 125 votes, setting up what could be a huge swing on a commission dominated by Republicans.

It’s Lopez’s first lead since Tuesday night when early results were reported. Lopez has been cutting into O’Donnell’s lead each day as mail-in ballots continue to be counted by the election office. She has received 64% of votes counted since Tuesday to O’Donnell’s 35%.

A Lopez victory would thwart a plan by O’Donnell to resign his seat and keep it in GOP hands following a smear video and cover-up scandal that upended the final weeks of his campaign.

O’Donnell announced three days before the election that he planned to resign the seat if he won, urging Republican voters to vote for him so the seat could stay in GOP hands. His plan seemed to work on Election Day, with a flood of in-person votes appearing to propel him to victory.

“It’s still an odd thing, just knowing everything that had come out about my opponent before, to see how much impact a letter has at the end of someone’s name,” Lopez said.

After falling behind by 576 votes on the last batch of ballots reported on election night, Lopez said she refused to give up hope because she knew more ballots had yet to be counted and that could swing the odds back in her favor.

The emotional roller-coaster of an election with record turnout and record mail-in ballots across the country has played out through Lopez’s son Joey, who on Tuesday night was sobbing and on Friday jumped out of his seat to dance during a family dinner at IHOP, where Lopez and her family went to dinner Friday awaiting the results.

Lopez was all smiles after the Friday returns, but she said she doesn’t want to get too overconfident until every vote is counted. The Sedgwick County canvass is Friday, Nov. 13, when results are certified by the election commission and become official.

“I’m optimistic, but we aren’t done yet,” she said. “We still have a long way to go and one-hundred-and-something isn’t that big of a gap, so who knows what will happen with provisional ballots.”

Between Tuesday night and Thursday, Lopez received 64.8% of the votes counted after election day — primarily mail-in ballots received on the day of the election — to O’Donnell’s 34%, shrinking O’Donnell’s 576 vote lead to 32.

On Friday, the trend continued. Lopez had 16,237 votes to O’Donnell’s 16,112. The count is expected to change as provisional ballots are counted, but Friday was the last day the election office would accept mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day.

The District 2 races has been a high-stakes political battle as Democrats try to win back a seat that was held by Democrat Tim Norton for 16 years before O’Donnell defeated him in the 2016 election.

Up for grabs is the future direction of the Sedgwick County Commission, a government body that also acts as the county’s board of health and has been empowered to drive the local response to the coronavirus pandemic. Lopez would be the second Democrat and the second woman on a commission that was previously dominated by white Republican men.

Lopez would be an ally for Commissioner Lacey Cruse, who has often butted heads with O’Donnell over a variety of issues facing the county. Cruse has proposed multiple COVID-19 measures that have died for lack of a second, and Lopez’s support would force a vote by commissioners and put them on the record either supporting or opposing public health measures.

O’Donnell has consistently voted against public health restrictions on businesses or individuals. Lopez has said she wants the commission to take a more active role in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

A Lopez victory would completely shake up the political picture.

If Lopez wins, she’ll simply take the seat when O’Donnell’s term expires. If O’Donnell hangs on, then about two dozen Republican precinct committee men and women would choose his replacement.

Anticipating the large election-night lead would hold, at least five Republican candidates announced intentions to run if there’s a mini-election for O’Donnell’s office.

That list includes Wichita City Council member Jeff Blubaugh; state Rep. Nick Hoheisel; Kathleen Garrison, who finished second to O’Donnell in the August Republican primary for the seat; Cindy Miles, who ran third in the primary; and Jared Cerullo, a former TV reporter.

Provisional ballots are yet to be counted, and by law the election office counts all votes postmarked by Tuesday and received by Friday.

Blubaugh was asked to serve on the canvassing board that will certify the election Nov. 13. But he said on Thursday night he’ll recuse himself because of his interest in the commission seat if it becomes available.

“First and foremost my priority remains to ensure the will of the voters is followed and no decisions are made until all voters are counted and both political parties are in acceptance of the results,” he said.

O’Donnell has been under fire for his role in a 2019 smear video that falsely accused Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple of sexually harassing college-age Capitol interns while he was a state representative.

O’Donnell was part of a team tied to the attack ad that was launched from behind the shield of an anonymous New Mexico shell company.

The video was an outside effort to boost the campaign of then-Mayor Jeff Longwell.

O’Donnell’s campaign was roiled by a secretly made audio recording, released 11 days before the election, that captured O’Donnell plotting with state Rep. Michael Capps and Wichita City Council member James Clendenin to cover up their role in the false attack ad and instead frame Sedgwick County Republican Party Chairman Dalton Glasscock.

O’Donnell was requested to resign by his four fellow commissioners — three of them Republicans — as well as the Sedgwick County Republican Party and U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, R-Wichita.

On Saturday he heeded those calls, but urged voters to mark their ballots for him anyway in an effort to salvage the seat on the commission for the Republican Party.

O’Donnell was not immediately available for comment.

Contributing: Travis Heying and Dion Lefler of The Wichita Eagle

This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 6:18 PM.