No surprises locally in Primary Election

By Correne Martin

There were no big surprises in Wisconsin’s Primary Election Tuesday, Aug. 9, and Crawford County tended to follow along with state trends in voting.

On the Democratic side, Congressman Ron Kind slid through to the November ballot with 851 votes from Crawford County electors, though his challenger Myron Buchholz garnered a respectable 169 votes.

In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Ron Johnson and former Senator Russ Feingold moved ahead toward a familiar battle in November’s General Election. Unopposed Republican Johnson received 497 votes in Crawford County. The Democrats cast 915 votes for Feingold, while his challenger Scott Harbach recorded 62.

In the State Senate race, incumbent Democrat Jennifer Shilling landed 956 county votes, and her challenger Jared William Landry received 78. She will now gear up for a rematch against Republican Dan Kapanke, who lost his seat in a 2011 recall election to Shilling. In Tuesday’s Primary, Kapanke netted 487 county votes, and his opponent John Sarnowski tallied 45 votes.

The 96th Assembly race, which will also heat up heading into November, saw incumbent Lee Nerison receiving 478 votes in Crawford County. His fall opponent Alicia Leinberger earned 847 votes from county voters in the primary.

Lastly, County Clerk Janet Geisler, who ran unopposed Tuesday, received 470 votes from her constituents.

In Tuesday’s election, there were a total of 1,614 votes cast, including 19 absentees. Voter turnout average for the city of Prairie du Chien was 15 percent. The entire county was slightly higher, with 17.5 percent turnout.

The Crawford County Board of Canvass will be meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 9 a.m. at the Crawford County Administration Building, Room 204, for the purpose of canvassing votes from the Partisan Primary election on Aug. 9.

The election results are not official until the canvassing is complete.