For many races in Wisconsin, April 1st was our general election. Although the presidential and congressional elections await us in November, many offices are now decided.
For the most part, especially in offices for City Council, Municipal Judge, and our School Board, incumbents prevailed. Two of three City Council seats were unopposed; the third seat was effectively unopposed as one of the candidates was unable to hold the office due to other obligations, but remained on the ballot.
All of the three school board seats up for election were uncontested.
Our serving municipal judge was elected in his own right on Tuesday night.
For the two seats on the downsized Walworth county board, one incumbent won, and one was defeated. Bankruptcy lawyer Frederick Mark Bromley defeated incumbent board member Ann Lohrmann. He won the seat by just over 120 votes.
In the other Walworth County Board race with a district in the city, incumbent Jerry Grant defeated challenger Jim Stewart by just under 50 votes.
One clear sign though, worth noting: serving Justice Louis Butler carried the City of Whitewater against challenger for the seat Michael Gabelman. Justice Butler was defeated in his bid for retention, but he prevailed in Whitewater. Butler carried few of Wisconsin’s seventy-two counties, and Walworth County was not among those supporting him.
Yet he carried Whitewater, by a good margin. This must be of concern to the self-styled conservatives of the city — Whitewater’s majority chose against the right’s avowedly conservative candidate. Following the defeat in the City of Whitewater of the (successful statewide) 2006 referenda on a marriage amendment and the death penalty, it’s clear that there’s a building majority for a different course from our past, and from other places in Wisconsin.
Although I am not always in agreement with the progressives, it’s easy to see that they are increasingly successful in town, on significant issues that affect our state. In time, they may come to shape a new direction in our city. They have not achieved that result, but the momentum is theirs.