Wisconsin’s spring general election’s now over, and in the paragraphs below I’ll consider the local results for state, district, and city-wide races. These results are unofficial; online detail may be found for the counties of Walworth, Jefferson, and Rock (where Rock County’s detail applies only to the WUSD race).
| Contest/Question | Candidates/Preference | City Vote | % |
| WI Supreme Court | Dallet | 950 | 68.3% |
| Screnock | 441 | 36.7% | |
| Eliminate State Treasurer? | Yes | 428 | 32.4% |
| No | 892 | 67.6% | |
| WUSD Board | Davis | 1295 | 40.4% |
| Ganser | 1053 | 32.9% | |
| Linos | 854 | 26.7% | |
| Whitewater Council At-Large | Allen | 663 | 53 |
| Diebolt-Brown | 587 | 47 |
A few remarks:
➤ Dallet v. Screnock. Holy Cow, did Rebecca Dallet have a great night, statewide where it matters (56-44), but in our small town, too. Indeed, locally she outperformed her state percentage. She ran as an unabashed liberal, and won easily. In Whitewater: the same right-of-center jargon just won’t work. Yes, she went to San Francisco during her campaign – and over 68% of Whitewater went for her.
➤ State Treasurer. Wisconsin voted against eliminating the post (61-39), and so did the City of Whitewater, by a lopsided margin of 2-1.
➤ WUSD. In our schools, all three candidates were destined to win (as there were 3 candidates for three posts). In the entire district and in Whitewater, Kelly Davis polled well (more than a one-third even distribution among the three candidates), and Tom Ganser came close to that one-third number. Davis and Ganzer won three-year terms; Linos won a two-year term to fill out the remaining time for Gretchen Torres’s place.
Dan McCrea chose not to run again, and that decision determined (in part) the number of seats available for others. McCrea served for fifteen years on the Whitewater School Board. Over these years, there were policy matters on which we agreed, and others on which we disagreed (but about which disagreement he was – undoubtedly and sensibly – unfazed). Yet, most important of all: there are very few people who’ve served so long and so successfully as McCrea has. Most, sadly, finish poorly. He’s finished well.
➤ Common Council At-Large. Allen and Diebolt-Brown had a very close race: 53-47 is narrow, especially against a longtime council or board member. Whitewater’s old way is simply fading away.
I wasn’t affiliated with either campaign, but readers know, of course, that I’ve argued the case against tax incremental financing, and other projects the Whitewater Community Development Authority has pushed. The case against is strong. It’s not strong because I’ve written as much, it’s strong because people can easily look around and decide on their own. Even if Allen doesn’t see this as a matter of economics, he should grasp it now as a matter of politics: these are weak claims on which to run.
All in all, though, claims don’t run, candidates do: Diebolt-Brown ran a notably competitive, solid challenge against a longtime incumbent, in a place where that doesn’t happen often.
➤ The Biggest Issue That’s Been Almost Wholly Overlooked. On March 27th, a week before the election, the Whitewater CDA executive director, Dave Carlson, issued a press release about enterprise zones (it’s up online, and with a screen grab here.) It passed without much notice, it seems.This is a long subject for another time, but honest to goodness it’s a needless hostage to fortune. It makes one wonder: does no one parse these releases, before they’re released, with a critical eye?
We’ve much ahead of us between now and November.