Dan Pflumm and Michelle Distler advance out of primary for Shawnee mayor

Tuesday’s primary election thinned the herd of four familiar Shawnee faces seeking to become mayor down to two, with Dan Pflumm and Michelle Distler moving ahead to the April 7 general election.

Pflumm, whose family lineage tracks back to the early days of Shawnee’s history, was the top vote-getter with 1,259 cards cast in his name, or 30 percent of the vote. Distler, a 4th Ward councilmember since 2006, gathered 1,161, or 27 percent of the vote.

Jeff Vaught, a downtown Shawnee commercial real-estate agent and current councilmember, and John Segale, a former Johnson County commissioner, finished third and fourth, respectively (Vaught still has two years left in his term on the council). 

Either Distler or Pflumm will replace outgoing Shawnee Mayor Jeff Meyers, who has served since 2004 but decided not to seek another term. Shawnee city government at times has been a fractious affair with well-publicized accounts of petty infighting between elected officials that at times makes Shawnee seem like a real-life Peyton Place.

Some of the difficulties involve Shawnee’s domineering city manager, Carol Gonzales. In 2012, councilmember David Morris resigned because he felt that he got put in Gonzales’ doghouse for trying to resolve a constituent’s complaint with city services.

Both Distler and Pflumm have signaled dissatisfaction with openness and transparency of Shawnee’s government.

Pflumm, president of an engineering company in Shawnee, has run on a platform of reduced municipal spending. Distler, a nonprofit administrator, has championed basic city services and government transparency in her campaign.

In other Johnson County electoral results on Tuesday, Erin Thompson and Linda Mau advanced to the April 7 election for Roeland Park City Council, Ward 3 (David Gauwitz got only 8 votes and is out of the race). Michael Poppa and Joanna Rush were the top two vote-getters for Roeland Park City Council, Ward 3.