Here’s a quick analysis of local political results. Precinct detail is available online for Walworth and Jefferson Counties, and statewide totals (including limited local information for Whitewater) is available online at the Journal Sentinel.

Singer-Crone At-Large Contest. The only citywide council race finished 724-452 (12 write-in votes). That’s 61%-38%-1%, in a city that mostly picks district-by-district (unlike the Whitewater Schools).

Uncontested Council Races. Olsen (1st District), Winship (3rd District), and Bregant (5th District) all won, as expected.

Uncontested School Board Contests. Nass and Brunner both won without opposition (Nass 1251, Brian Brunner 1084, assorted write-in 32) in the city and neighboring towns.

Evers-Pridemore Dept. of Public Superintendent. Evers prevailed statewide (61-39%) and in Whitewater (73-27% of two-candidate vote). There’s the sign: Evers found a better percentage in the city than the state.

Roggensack-Fallone Supreme Court Race in Whitewater.

Alternative headline:

Fallone lost big statewide (43-57%), but carried Whitewater (54-46% of two-candidate vote). And yet, although Fallone prevailed in Whitewater, one finds that the proportion of heterosexual and homosexual residents of the city is…the same as a few days ago.

I’m not surprised, but it must come as a shock to at least a few people in town. Only six weeks ago one read elsewhere, after all, that Prof. Fallone’s distinguished career meant simply that “Fallone is endorsed by former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold and two LGBT groups.”

An awkward, silly effort to paint Fallone as extreme – when the endorsement of these groups through a conventional electoral process demonstrates the very opposite — redounds only to the detriment of those who so foolishly described his campaign.

Note to the university’s administration: you’ve rightly made an effort toward promoting tolerance on campus. Consider being your own messenger, where you can offer a consistent message, rather than relying on others who’ll undermine your messaging.

Move to Amend referendum. I thought this referendum would carry the city, but not so convincingly. Bad idea (to my way of thinking), but big electoral success yesterday, 1013-198, 84-16%.

Gateway expansion referendum. Rejected everywhere, including Whitewater: no surprise, that.

Whitewater’s electorate. Now slightly blue even in a low-turnout, spring election that should hospitable for conservatives. If Whitewater’s conservatives can’t win in that environment…

(For an earlier assessments of Whitewater’s electoral politics, see Politics in Whitewater, Wisconsin: Recent Races, The (Red) State, the (Blue) City, and earlier, Why Whitewater Isn’t a Progressive City; Why Whitewater’s ‘Conservatives’ Hold the City Tenuously.)

City conservatives, particularly, might ponder new ways of Getting the Word Out. . They don’t have to do so; it only matters if they want to win.

We’ll see.

One often looks at two candidates and thinks: if only they could both lose. Other times, as now, one looks at two candidates, and thinks: it’s a shame they can’t both win. The latter situation is preferable, and it’s the one in which Whitewater finds itself with an at-large council race between Patrick Singer and Andrew Crone.

It’s to the advantage of the city that we have smart and dedicated candidates, both now incumbents on Common Council.

Months go, when Andrew Crone was first appointed to the seat he now holds, I wished him well. He’s been a good choice (as Cort Hartmann, an applicant he narrowly bested, would have been.) By professional background (and I think by temperament, too), he hopes to effect mediation between the city’s competing interests. We could use more of that, surely. There’s been an unfortunate tendency to favor enforced resolution (arbitration) over a consensus approach (mediation) from our city’s old guard.

Mr. Crone’s past accomplishments on city commissions, and his broad, forward-looking view, are both attractive. On the evening of his appointment in December, he mentioned looking ahead even fifty years from now. The long view is the right one; better to set aside a near-sighted gaze for a more-encompassing view.

Established incumbent and council president Patrick Singer seeks the at-large seat, too, after having served multiple terms as representative of the Fifth Council District. He’s smart and knowledgeable and hardworking.

Over the years, I’ve agreed with some of his positions, disagreed with others. (But then, although I believe in the inevitability of a New Whitewater, I don’t believe it will be – as I am – particularly libertarian. ‘New’ isn’t a partisan term; nor, truly, should it be. One can’t reasonably expect agreement on every position.)

Looking out over Mr. Singer’s work on council – across two municipal administrations and numerous legislative colleagues past and present – what will one find? Management of a sometimes querulous council, dealing with a former administration, establishing an orderly process toward a new one, navigating differing views of left and right, all during a deep recession: these have not been easy times for this small and beautiful city.

For it all, Patrick Singer has been an accomplished legislator. Where others have faded and flagged, he’s yet motivated. (Steadily, too; where peers or administrators have lost their cool, he’s stayed calm.)

Whitewater is fortunate to have good candidates; that, by itself, is a measure of progress. Both these gentlemen have offered much for Whitewater; I’m sure they will long after April 2nd. I believe, though, that Patrick Singer has served notably well on Council. I hope Whitewater sees it that way on election day, too.