By Shereen Siewert
UPDATED: Local election results are in from the Feb. 16 primary election, with clear winners in two of three races and a recount verbally requested for a third.
In the race for Mosinee School Board, incumbent Amy M. Baumann, along with challengers Dennis Kaczor and Brianna M. Baars were on the ballot with the top two candidates moving ahead. Baumann currently serves as the clerk of the Mosinee School Board.
In that race, Baumann and Baars will appear on the April ballot, vying for a single at-large seat. Baumann received 281 votes, or 38.6 percent, followed by Baars, with 265 votes, or 36.4 percent. Dennis Kaczor received 182 votes and will not advance.
In the town of Franzen, the race was uncertain as of Wednesday morning as the top two candidates will move forward to April – but the vote tally included a tie for second place. Current chair Arnold Mlodik received 42, or 42.87 percent of the votes. But challengers Nick Davis and Darwin Emmell had identical vote totals at 28 apiece.
Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood confirmed the tie and said the municipal board of canvass – which includes the town clerk and all her election officials – draw lots and then winner of that draw will advance to the general election along with the first place vote getter.
“In the race for the Town of Franzen chair, there was a tie for second place,” Trueblood said. “As prescribed in State Statute 501.4, the town Board of Canvass drew lots to determine the winner who will advance to the general election, along with the first place vote getter. The winner of that draw was Nick Davis. So the two candidates who will appear on the ballot in April are Arnold Mlodik and Nick Davis.”
A recount has been verbally requested, but the appropriate paperwork has not yet been filed, Trueblood said.
In the town of Texas, Marian Matsche, Linda Thiessen, Tom Domka and Luann Prahl put their hats in the ring to represent residents there. Matsche, the incumbent, came out on top with 66 votes, or 35.87 percent. Linda Thiessen will also appear on the ballot in April, receiving 59 votes, or 32.07 percent.
Prahl had 45 votes and Domka had 14, which means neither will advance.
Voter turnout was exceptionally low for the February primary in Marathon County, with just over 8 percent of registered voters heading to the polls.
A primary was not needed in other races being decided this spring, which includes three local judgeships. In the race for Marathon County Court of Appeals Dist. 3, Rick Cveykus and Gregory B. Gill, Jr., will face off. Marathon County Circuit Judge Suzanne C. O’Neill, who was appointed in 2020 to fill a vacancy created by Circuit Judge Jill Falstad’s retirement, is not facing an opponent. But two local attorneys are vying for the judgeship in the newly created Marathon County Circuit Branch 6: Daniel T. Cveykus, and Scott Corbett, who is currently Marathon County Corporation Counsel.
A candidate endorsed by the state teachers union and one with broad support from conservatives who says she is a Democrat advanced in Tuesday’s primary and will square off in April in the race to become Wisconsin’s top education official, the Associated Press reports.
Jill Underly, the Pecatonica Area School District superintendent who won the teachers’ endorsement, and Deborah Kerr, the former superintendent in Brown Deer who was the only candidate with widespread conservative support, were the top two-vote getters in a field of seven candidates, based on unofficial results.
Kerr was the top candidate in Marathon County with roughly 36 percent of the vote, followed by Underly with about 25 percent. No other candidate in the crowded field came close.
