CRAWFORD COUNTY - It was a fine spring day, and there was lots of interest in the spring election as the vote totals showed.
State Superintendent
of Schools
At about 10 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, the race between Jill Underly and Deborah Kerr for State Superintendent of Schools was called for Jill Underly with 57 percent of the statewide vote (439,071 votes) to Kerr’s 43 percent (332,156 votes).
Locally, Underly won Crawford County with 1,467 votes to Kerr’s 804. In Crawford County, Underly won at all polling locations except Lynxville, where Kerr won 14 to 12. In Vernon County, Underly won with 2,666 votes to Kerr’s 1,671. In Vernon, Underly won at all polling locations except for Forest Township, Hillsboro Wards 1-3, Sterling and Whitestown Townships, and Chaseburg Ward 1, and the Town and Village of Genoa unreported.
In counties in Southwest Wisconsin, Underly was leading in LaCrosse County with 66 percent, Vernon with 61 percent, Crawford with 61 percent, Grant with 63 percent, Iowa with 73 percent, Lafayette with 60 percent, and Monroe with 52 percent.
Gays Mills
The biggest interest in the Gays Mills election was in the write-in contest between two candidates vying for a village trustee seat.
As expected, the two incumbent trustees who filed papers and had their names on the ballot won re-election handily. Larry McCarn, a former village president, got 76 votes and Kevin Murray received 64 votes.
However, it was the seat held by Gays Mills Village Trustee Kim Pettit, who decided to not run that created the write-in contest. Two candidates filed paperwork to run as ‘registered write-ins’ and the results of the election were close.
Josh Kasinkas received 35 votes to defeat Lee Hagen who received 32 votes for the third vacant trustee seat.
Running unopposed, incumbent Gays Mills Village President Harry Heisz was re-elected with 89 votes.
Paul Nicholson won his uncontested race for village president with 65 votes. Four candidates were vying for three positions on the village board. Steve George (64 votes), Howard ‘Homer’ Arndt (57 votes), and Vicki Campbell (53 votes) have won. Jerry Miller received 46 votes.
In the Town of Utica, both board supervisor positions had a contested election.
In the Supervisor 1 election to replace the long-serving Stanley Stevenson, dairy farmer Donnie Boland defeated recently retired Lock & Dam employee John Quellhorst by 98 to 55 votes.
In the Supervisor 2 election, incumbent Phil Mueller, the sales manager at Start Valley Flowers, defeated farm employee Chad Eick by a margin of 111 to 47.
Organic dairy farmer Jim Wedeberg, running unopposed to replace long-serving Leonard Olson, was elected with 146 votes.
Kent Salmon running unopposed was re-elected Utica Town Treasurer with 151 votes.
Marietta Township
The Town of Marietta had contested elections for town chairman, and for the two town supervisor positions up for election. Incumbent Teddy Beinborn won the contest with 95 votes, defeating challenger Ken Cornish (40 votes). In the Supervisor #1 race, incumbent Reggie Lomas with 99 votes defeated challenger Doug Spany (38 votes). In the Supervisor #2 race, challenger Sheila Zinkle with 71 votes defeated incumbent Eric Sime (59 votes).
North Crawford
In the North Crawford School Board race, six candidates vied for four positions on the board. The top three vote-getters, Terry O’Donnell (406 votes), Judy Powell (390 votes), and Jim Dworschack (370 votes) will serve three-year terms. The fourth highest vote-getter, Jesse Swenson (329 votes) will serve the remaining two years of Jill Stefonek’s term. Challengers Harrison Heilman received 230 votes, and Gereon Wellhouse received 209 votes.
