Rita Kalmbach defeated the former Simcoemayor Rick Kolwasky and another rival candidate by the name of Dennis Travale (who would eventually win the 2006 election) by ensuring the tobacco farmers a future in Norfolk County and the tobacco belt that surrounds it. This election helped to start the transition period from a stagnant agrarian region to a thriving agritourism region. However, the economic boom that Norfolk County experienced in the 2000s was shattered by the Great Recession that came into existence shortly before 2009.