Wednesday, February 16, 2011

2:54 PM

April general election matchups set

See the new fields for top spring election races at the WisPolitics Spring Election Page.

-- By Staff

Labels: 2011 spring primary

10:05 AM

See complete election results

See the results from key races in the spring primary here.

Labels: 2011 spring primary

12:03 AM

Soglin edges Cieslewicz

There was never a question over whether Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and former Mayor Paul Soglin would make it through the primary.

Still, Soglin made some waves by edging the incumbent.

With all precincts reporting Soglin had 18,693 votes to 17,500 for Cieslewicz.

-- By Staff

Labels: 2011 spring primary

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

11:51 PM

Parisi, Bruskewitz advance in Dane County exec race

The state’s fiscal problems are likely to play a role in the race for Dane County executive, the candidates say.

State Rep. Joe Parisi and County Board Supv. Eileen Bruskewitz advanced out of Tuesday’s primary.

Parisi, D-Madison, said the guv’s proposals affecting union employees will allow Dane County to show there is a better way.

“We’re going to show that you can face your challenges by working with your employees, working with your workers cooperatively in order to find solution to the challenge that we see as the opposite to the Walker way, which is waging war on employees,” Parisi said.

Bruskewitz said she recently received a report on what Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals would mean for Dane County and is still studying the impact.

Still, she said the county has engaged in some of the same fiscal practices as the state, creating similar problems. That includes raising taxes 10 percent of the past two years and raiding funds.

“My sense of this is that the reason that I pulled through is because people are concerned about their economic conditions,” Bruskewitz said. “They’re looking for someone that has some experience with a budget and who want accountability in government.”’

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

11:05 PM

Stone, Abele describe April election as a choice

Jeff Stone and Chris Abele are framing the April election for Milwaukee County exec as a choice. But they have differing views on what that choice is about.

With 99 percent of the vote in, Stone had 40,967 votes, or 44 percent in the five-way primary. Abele had 23,141 votes, or 25 percent.

Stone, a GOP state rep, said he had some work to do after finishing with less than 50 percent of the vote. Still, he said he did well both in the city of Milwaukee and out in the county and he will continue talking about his message of fiscal responsibility and accountability as well as his experience delivering on that front.

“It’s going to be a lot about people being able to deliver on what you talk about,” Stone said.

Abele campaign spokesman Brandon Lorenz also described the election as a choice.

"Voters face a clear choice in April between the status quo and real change that will move our county forward,” he said. “Chris Abele will partner with anyone, Democrat or Republican, who can help create more private sector jobs and get the budget under control.”

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

10:47 PM

Stone, Abele advance

GOP state Rep. Jeff Stone will face philanthropist Chris Abele in the April election for Milwaukee County exec.

With 99 percent of vote in, Stone had 40,967 votes, or 44 percent, while Abele had 23,141 votes, or 25 percent.

Former state Sen. Jim Sullivan was next at 20,280 votes, or 22 percent.

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

10:29 PM

Colon leading in primary to retain Milwaukee County judgship

Former state Rep. Pedro Colon appears to be in position to narrowly advance out of the primary for his seat on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

With 97 percent of the vote in, Colon had 27,345 votes, or 35 percent.

Christopher Lipscomb, a Glendale municipal judge, had a narrow lead over Roy Korte to face Colon come April with 25,201 votes, or 33 percent, compared to 24,298 votes, or 32 percent.

UPDATE: With 99 percent in, Colon has 36 percent of the vote and Lipscomb has 33 percent. They will face off in the April election.

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

10:25 PM

Prosser, Kloppenburg prepared for attacks

Justice David Prosser and Assistant AG JoAnne Kloppenburg have two very different interpretations of today’s primary vote for the state Supreme Court.

With 95 percent of the vote in, Prosser had 211,213 votes, or 55 percent, while Kloppenburg had 96,874 votes, or 25 percent. Marla Stephens had 10 percent of the vote, while Joel Winnig had 9 percent.

Prosser said he was concerned heading into the primary because the county exec races in heavily Dem Dane and Milwaukee counties were expected to drive up turnout in those areas. Considering he still easily eclipsed the 50 percent mark in a four-way primary, Prosser said he was confident of victory come April once turnout is more even across the state.

“I’m very anxious to run a campaign that emphasizes my experience and my record in office,” Prosser said. “I want to talk about some of the problems facing the judiciary, the role that I can play and other members of the court can play in addressing those issues. I know that my opponent is going to make me the issue. I think that today’s vote suggests that will be an ill-advised strategy. But I’m prepared to answer any charge that is made.”

Kloppenburg said Prosser’s totals were propped up by a TV ad run by the conservative Club for Growth and that the justice’s numbers suggested he remains vulnerable to a challenge.

Kloppenburg said she expects outside groups to attack her with any distortion of her record they can find, but she will stress her 20 years as a prosecutor. She also said she will campaign on a need for new blood on the court to help fix the dysfunction now plaguing its operation.

“People are fed up with negative, nasty politicking in judicial races and they’re fed up with outside special interests telling us how to elect our judges,” Kloppenburg said.

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

10:10 PM

Parisi opening his lead

With 44 Madison wards still out, state Rep. Joe Parisi is pulling ahead of the pack in the Dane County exec race.

Parisi is at 26 percent with 17,751 votes, while Eileen Bruskewitz is at 22 percent with 15,023 votes.

County Board Chair Scott McDonell is about 1,000 votes behind Bruskewitz with just less than 21 percent of the vote.

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

10:09 PM

Dickert wins Racine mayoral primary

Incumbent John Dickert scored a big win in the primary for Racine mayor Tuesday, taking 74 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting.

He'll face city Ald. Eric Marcus, who won 20 percent of the vote. A third candidate, Alfonso Locke, finished with 6 percent.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary

9:57 PM

Milwaukee County results pouring in

Rep. Jeff Stone appears set to advance to the general election for Milwaukee County executive.

With 83 percent of precincts reporting, the Greenfield Republican had 43 percent of the vote.

Chris Abele had an edge for the other spot on the ballot, leading former Dem state Sen. Jim Sullivan with 25 percent of the vote to 22 percent. County Supervisor Lee Holloway has 8 percent.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary

9:47 PM

Kloppenburg to face Prosser

The AP is now projecting Assistant AG JoAnne Kloppenburg will also advance out of the Supreme Court primary, setting up an April showdown with Justice David Prosser.

With two-thirds of the vote in, Prosser had 51 percent of the vote, while Kloppenburg had 28 percent.

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

9:42 PM

Spring election fields set in northeast Wisconsin

The fields are set in the races for Outagamie County executive, Brown County executive and mayor of Green Bay.

In Outagamie County, former GOP State Treasurer Jack Voight and former Dem state Rep. Tom Nelson will face off in the general election. With all 91 precincts in, Nelson had 34 percent of the vote while Voight had 33 percent. Michael Marsden had 11 percent, followed by Anne Strauch, Michael Thomas and Charles Kramer with less than 10 percent each.

Meanwhile, Brown County Supervisor and Green Bay Ald. Andy Nicholson and small businessman Troy Streckenbach will face off in the Brown County exec race. Nicholson won the primary with 28 percent of the vote, followed by Streckenbach's 27 percent. Two other Brown County supervisors -- Patrick Moynihan and Tim Carpenter -- lagged behind.

And Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt is one step closer to re-election, but he finished second in the primary to Brown County Supervisor Patrick Evans. Evans had 29 percent of the vote to Schmitt's 27 percent. Five other mayoral candidates will not advance.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary

9:10 PM

AP projects Prosser to advance

The AP is projecting Justice David Prosser will advance in the Supreme Court primary.

With one-fourth of the vote in, Prosser had more than 60 percent of the vote.

-- By Staff

Labels: 2011 spring primary

9:09 PM

Stone, Abele lead Milwaukee County field early

With more than a third of precincts reporting, GOP state Rep. Jeff Stone of Greenfield leads the field for Milwaukee County executive with 39 percent of the vote.

He's followed by Milwaukee philanthropist Chris Abele, who has 27 percent, and former Dem state Sen. Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa with 21 percent.

Milwaukee Co. Board Chairman Lee Holloway currently has 11 percent of the vote, with paralegal Ieshuh Griffin gaining 2 percent.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary

8:44 PM

Prosser out to early lead

Incumbent Supreme Court Justice David Prosser has an early edge in the primary race to keep his seat as statewide results start to roll in.

With 9 percent of the vote reported, Prosser has more than 60 percent of the vote. Assistant AG JoAnne Kloppenburg has 22 percent of the vote, followed by state public defender's appellate division head Marla Stephens with 9 percent and Madison attorney Joel Winnig with 8 percent.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary

8:24 PM

Early returns give Bruskewitz edge

Conservative Eileen Bruskewitz has a lead in early returns for the Dane County exec race.

In returns that are exclusively from out in the county, Bruskewitz had 33 percent of the vote. Joe Wineke was next at 23 percent, followed by Joe Parisi at 15 percent, Scott McDonell at 14 percent, Zach Brandon at 11 percent and Spencer Zimmerman at 1 percent.

Those returns include no wards from the city of Madison or Middleton, Monona, Stoughton, Sun Prairie and Verona.

UPDATE: With Madison wards starting to trickle in, Bruskewitz is at 28 percent, while Parisi is at almost 22 percent, followed by Wineke at 20, McDonell at 18, Brandon at 11 and Zimmerman at less than 1 percent.

The suburban communities except for Monona are now in, but less than 20 of the 147 Madison wards are in.

UPDATE 2: With more Madison wards coming in, Parisi has nosed ahead of Bruskewitz with 24.81 percent of the vote to 24.77. Wineke and McDonell are next at about 19 percent each.

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

8:00 PM

Polls closed

Polls in the 2011 spring primary have now closed.

Labels: 2011 spring primary

5:04 PM

Turnout slow, light, steady

Today’s primary turnout has been slow, light and steady, GAB Director Kevin Kennedy says.

Kennedy said the only problem he’d heard of today was one district in southwestern Wisconsin that had a misprint on the ballot telling voters to pick four candidates rather than two as it should have.

Otherwise, he said the state seemed to be on pace for 10 percent turnout as the Government Accountability Board had predicted.

In Madison, turnout had hit 6 percent by 11 a.m.

Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Sue Edman said turnout there had been projected to be around 30,000. She wasn’t sure it would get that high, but said some wards on the south and southwest sides were reporting decent activity.

“We’re not getting a lot of trouble calls, so that’s good,” she said.

-- By JR Ross

Labels: 2011 spring primary

11:20 AM

Primary night parties set

A number of spring election candidates will hold primary night parties this evening near or following the close of polls at 8 p.m.

Supreme Court Justice David Prosser's campaign will be at the Continental in Fitchburg, while Marla Stephens will celebrate at Maxie's Southern Comfort Restaurant in Milwaukee.

Among the candidates for Milwaukee County executive, Chris Abele will be at the Highbury Pub in the city's Bay View neighborhood, while former state Sen. Jim Sullivan and state Rep. Jeff Stone will be at establishments in Wauwatosa.

Dane Co. exec candidates Zach Brandon, Scott McDonell and Joe Parisi will all be celebrating in Madison at, respectively, Bonfyre American Grille, the Essen Haus, and Talula.

See more on tonight's events here.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary

6:51 AM

Campaign ads galore

WisPolitics has been compiling spots from the spring candidates in AdWatch.

Check them out here.

Labels: 2011 spring primary

Monday, February 14, 2011

7:45 PM

GAB projects 10 percent turnout

The Government Accountability Board is projecting just 10 percent voter turnout for tomorrow's primary.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Find your polling location here.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary

5:04 PM

Voters to narrow field in spring primary election

The 2011 spring primary features a Supreme Court race and big battles for county executive and mayoral offices around the state.

In the Supreme Court campaign, Justice David Prosser is seeking another term. The former district attorney and Assembly speaker was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Tommy G. Thompson in 1998 and elected to unopposed in 2001 to a 10-year term.

He's joined in the primary field by JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant attorney general in the state Department of Justice; Marla Stephens, the director of the state public defender's appellate division; and Madison attorney Joel Winnig.

Crowded races for open seats as Milwaukee Co. executive and Dane Co. executive are also receiving attention. Scott Walker resigned his Milwaukee Co. executive post after being elected governor, and Kathleen Falk in Dane Co. decided to quit mid-term.

Meanwhile, voters in Brown, Outagamie and Racine counties are also seeing contested county executive campaigns, with the Outagamie race featuring former GOP State Treasurer Jack Voight and former Dem Assembly Majority Leader Tom Nelson.

And incumbent mayors Dave Cieslewicz in Madison and Jim Schmitt in Green Bay also face crowded primary fields in their respective races.

See a rundown of top races in the WisPolitics spring election page.

-- By Andy Szal

Labels: 2011 spring primary