Your spring election ballot may look like a 2015 ballot instead of a 2016 ballot in at least two races.
A number of candidates from last year’s municipal and school board elections will be running again this year. The deadline for filing for candidacy for the April 5 election was Tuesday at 5 p.m.
One candidate will be running in a different race from one year ago. Jeremy Johnson, who ran for the Platteville School Board last year, will be running instead for the Platteville Common Council at-large seat being vacated by retiring Ald. Mike Denn.
Darrel Browning, who finished second in the 2013 at-large race and third in the 2014 at-large race, and Katherine Burk also will be running.
Denn and Stockhausen are retiring after one term each on the council. Stockhausen defeated Common Council president Mike Dalecki, and Denn defeated at-large Ald. Steve Becker, in the 2013 election. Stockhausen ran for both seats, finishing third in the at-large primary.
The winner of each seat will serve a three-year term.
The city ballot will also include the Platteville Move to Amend referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn U.S. Supreme Court decisions removing restrictions on political campaign spending.
All three Platteville School Board incumbents — Brian Miesen, Nancy Bongers and Abulkhair Masoom — filed for reelection. They will be opposed on the ballot by three challengers from one year ago, Johnson, Curt Timlin and Brian Brown, though Johnson said Tuesday morning he was not running for school board. The top three vote-getters will serve three-year terms.
The April 5 ballot will include all 17 Grant County Board seats, all 16 Lafayette County Board seats and all 21 Iowa County Board seats.
All but one Grant County supervisor — Sup. Vern Lewison of Fennimore, who represents District 7 — filed for reelection. As of Tuesday morning three supervisors have opponents. District 10 Sup. Mark Stead of Platteville will be opposed by Joyce Bos, District 8 Sup. Pat Schroeder of Lancaster will be opposed by Ronald Coppernoll, and District 3 Sup. Robert Scallon of Boscobel is opposed by Boscobel Mayor Steve Wetter.
All but three Lafayette County supervisors had taken out nominating forms for reelection, but not all had returned papers as of Tuesday morning. The three not running for reelection are Sups. Connie Hull of Darlington in District 6, Paul Garthwaite of Blanchardville in District 8, and David Halloran of Benton in District 16. Kristine Marion has filed for Garthwaite’s District 8 seat.
All but three Iowa County supervisors had taken out nominating forms for reelection, but not all had returned papers as of Tuesday morning. The three not running for reelection are Sups. Tom DeLain of Dodgeville in District 8, James Griffiths of Dodgeville in District 11, and Greg Clerkin of Barneveld in District 12. As of Tuesday morning no one had filed for those seats.
There will be at least one contested seat, District 2, where incumbent John Denby of Arena will be opposed by Jim Wenzler.
The spring general election will also include the Wisconsin presidential primary election, the significance of which will depend on what happens in other states’ Democratic and Republican primary elections before April 5.
The spring election also will include a race for the state Supreme Court seat held by Justice Patrick Crooks before his death Sept. 21. Gov. Scott Walker appointed Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Bradley, who had already announced she was running after Crooks announced he was not running for reelection, to fill Crooks’ term on the Supreme Court. Also running are state Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, who lost to Supreme Court Justice David Prosser last April, and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge M. Joseph Donald, who also is making his first run for the Supreme Court.
The state District IV Court of Appeals seat held by Judge Brian Blanchard is also up for election in April.
The primary election will be Feb. 16. The elections will be the first under the state’s new law requiring voters provide a form of identification at the polls.
