Two of Riley County’s longest serving elected officials are seeking another term this fall.
Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo became the latest local candidate to file for re-election this week and will seek an unprecedented eighth term, having held office since 1997.
“There’s definitely an end in site,” Vargo joked Thursday morning in an interview with KMAN.
Even with 27 years on the job, Vargo says there are still things he enjoys about the day-to-day of being Riley County’s top administrator.
“That’s what I really enjoy is the budgetary, the tax roll financial aspects of the position and Riley County is in very good position financially. We’ve got a very extremely high bond rating, among the highest of any public entity in the United States,” he said. “We take great pride in that.”
As the county’s top elections official, Vargo also continues to be an advocate for election integrity.
“Elections you know are under extreme scrutiny from everyone in the nation. We take that very seriously,” he said. “After going through all of those lengthy hours during the election cycle and getting it done right, we’re looked at throughout the state and regarded as doing a very good job in elections.”
Vargo has not been opposed in any of the past five elections dating back to 2004, according to elections data on the Clerk’s website.
Another elected official who has faced little to no opposition is Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson, who earlier this month also filed for re-election, seeking a sixth term.
“There’s still some things I want to see the county attorney’s office do going forward, get some technology in place. I just have some goals I’d like to reach before I step down,” he said.
Wilkerson says he’s unsure if this will be the final time he seeks re-election, noting he’ll never say never, but recognizes the end of his career is approaching. He says he still gets a lot of satisfaction in helping crime victims and their families seek justice.
“Obviously we deal with a lot of tragedy. We’d just as soon it didn’t happen to begin with but if it’s going to happen, you want to try to make sure that victims or survivors of victims or family members feel like that our office has done everything that we can to obtain justice for them,” he said.
Neither Vargo nor Wilkerson have been opposed in any recent elections. All other Riley County incumbents are seeking re-election, including county commissioners Kathryn Focke and Greg McKinley, Treasurer Shilo Heger and Register of Deeds Amy Manges. None of them currently face opposition.
The deadline for candidates to file is June 3.
