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Manning captures seat with majority
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In a clean sweep despite low voter turnout, Wyndham Manning secured his seat as the Dane County District 5 Supervisor Tuesday.
Manning, a University of Wisconsin senior, beat out freshman Conor O’Hagan for the two-year term representing a primarily student district comprised of about 14,500 people, according to outgoing District 5 supervisor Ashok Kumar.
According to poll results from the Dane County clerk, O’Hagan received 146 votes, Manning captured 304, and there were 10 write-ins. Voter turnout was less than half of other downtown districts.
Manning described his state as “pure ecstasy” at his victory party at an art gallery Tuesday night attracting about 30 people, more people than the Manning-O’Hagan debate last week.
He thanked O’Hagan for making him work harder and participating in a clean race.
“I want to write an entire book about this experience,” Manning said. “I encourage everybody to do it, and I encourage nobody to do it because it was just about the most random experience ever.”
Up and out campaigning by 5 a.m., Manning said he and his campaign team spent hours chalking and passing out handbills in a last push before voters headed to the polls.
Manning clinched the Lakeshore dorms polling area, where O’Hagan lives, by 10 votes.
“I had actually some of my biggest support from O’Hagan’s district,” Manning said. “People may not necessarily believe with my politics sometimes, but they want somebody who has a vision.”
Previous District 5 Supervisor Ashok Kumar was also present at Manning’s party.
“I’m immensely proud to see the district remaining in the hands of a radical progressive, Wyndham Manning, who ran with the support of the green party, Progressive Dane and the Teaching Assistants’ Association,” Kumar said.
O’Hagan congratulated Manning on his win from his Bradley Hall dorm room, saying his loss will give him a chance to get back into activities he is invested in, like Youth in Government and a new elementary school drug and alcohol awareness program.
He said running again in the future is definitely a possibility.
“I will definitely spend these next two years watching what happens and getting more experience. I feel I will know the issues better,” O’Hagan said. “I will be more experienced. I will have more of the passion to do it in the future.”
According to O’Hagan, voter turnout was “heartbreaking and pathetic” and is looking into changing UW’s policy prohibiting candidates from campaigning in dorms.
Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, said he and the Dane County District 5 share many important challenges as they both represent a primarily student district.
“Getting students engaged is really difficult, and that one should be one of the No. 1 objectives student supervisors should engage in,” Judge said.
Judge said transportation and how students interact with the environment are two issues the city and county should work together on over the next two years.
With a total of 460 votes overall, the 2008 District 5 supervisor election captured less than the 2006 election, which brought in 668 overall votes.
Ann Waidelich, chief inspector for the Memorial Library polling place, said the 13-hour day went very slowly, adding it is “really sad” the candidates could not mobilize more voters.
“It’s hard for the kids because they live here temporarily, so it’s difficult for them to connect to the city,” Waidelich said. “Dane County Board of Supervisors seems even more remote than the City Council.”
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In correct statement. There were 37 people at the O’Hagan-Manning debate.
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“I’m immensely proud to see the district remaining in the hands of a radical progressive, Wyndham Manning, who ran with the support of the green party, Progressive Dane and the Teaching Assistants’ Association,” Kumar said.
That says everything about the wonderful TAA. I want my money back from that radical cabal.
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Congrats to Manning but really, Ashok, you’re pushing it on this one. Way to hurt Manning right out of the gate.
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Go TAA! Eli Judge was a freakishly good politician running against a freakishly awful one in Lauren Woods, and he’s still super-liberal. Anyone who thinks the moderate college dems are ascendant on campus is a tool named Danny Spirn.
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Nice pictures LOL; Wyndham in a suit and O’Hagan in a minimum-security jail cell
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I love how the BH sent someone to Conor’s dorm. And the reflection in the window kinda looks like Smathers…creepy.
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PD IS THE WINNER!!! HAHAHAHAHA…loser college dems!
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“I want to write an entire book about this experience,” Manning said.
hahah..loser.
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It’s a union. You don’t have to keep your fellowship. I hear Bob Jones doesn’t force its grad students to pay minimal dues to a “radical cabal.”
Congrats Wyndham, and good luck in the next two years. Expect to see both campus newspapers try to derail, marginalize, or sabotage anything you do.
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This article is almost funny in the way it describes voting districts and areas, as well as the congratulatory call “from his dorm room.” You won a district comprised mostly of dorm dwelling college students. Congratulations but come on, a book? Don’t be dramatic.
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Ashok Kumar 1, College Democrats 0
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The Kumar legacy of activism will continue! Sorry Eli Judge-loving, college dem, losers. You lost.
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Heard that Kumar was behind Manning’s race the whole time. Well done Wyndham!
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I’m pretty sure most College Democrats… voted for Manning….
But when the College Democrats vs PD thing actually went down, well, it was Austin King and Ashok Kumar, pushed out of town on a speeding train.