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Candidates move on to spring election
Bryon Eagon, Mark Woulf win District 8; incumbent Brenda Konkel, Bridget Maniaci move on in District 2
LUKAS KEAPPROTH/Herald photo
Low voter turnout brought an average of six voters an hour to Memorial Union’s polling place Tuesday during the aldermanic primary elections.
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After a competitive race, the Dane County primaries allowed four hopefuls to continue in the aldermanic race for District 8 and District 2.
University of Wisconsin junior Bryon Eagon led the District 8 aldermanic race with 263 votes. Mark Woulf, UW junior, also moved on in the primary, gaining 117 votes, only seven votes ahead of contender UW graduate Katrina Flores.
“It’s hard to play expectation games when [voter] turnout is horribly low,” Eagon said. “I’m very pleased I’m able to continue.”
Ald. Brenda Konkel, District 2, won the primary by a landslide with 347 votes. Her competitor in the spring general election will be UW alumna Bridget Maniaci, who won 230 votes.
Compared to the District 8 mayoral primary in 2007, which brought in an underwhelming 227 voters, the aldermanic District 8 primary attracted 531 voters to polling locations.
Woulf said the turnout was the result of students responding to issues that concerned them. Although he won by a close margin, Woulf attributes his success to the manner in which his campaign was conducted and the number of supporters who went to the polls.
Previous contenders for District 8 alder were UW graduate Katrina Flores and UW junior Jacob Schmidt.
Flores was expected to have a longer run in the aldermanic race due to the support of Progressive Dane, a strong “get-out-the-vote” organization which rallies voters.
Flores said she knew the race was going to be close, and though she didn’t win the primary, she will look to eventually endorse a candidate.
Schmidt, however, is not surprised he gained only 7.2 percent of the vote.
“It wasn’t like I was being very active,” Schmidt said. “Being out of commission for the amount of time that I was with my sickness, I wasn’t surprised with the result.”
Although Konkel said she was disappointed by the relatively low voter turnout, she was not entirely shocked by the voting results.
She added that during the primaries, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the other candidates were clearly “after” her.
“We can finally focus on the issues instead of style,” Konkel said. “Most of the candidates are running because they’re not Brenda Konkel. Hopefully now we can focus on what is the difference between Brenda Konkel and the candidates.”
Compared to the District 2 mayoral primary in 2007, which attracted approximately 970 voters, the primary for District 2 alder brought about 860 voters, a similar number.
Konkel’s spring contender, Maniaci, said she plans to continue taking her campaign forward, bringing together the many interests of the community and all District 2 neighborhoods.
Dennis De Nure, Sherman Hackbarth and Adam Walsh were other contenders for the District 2 race.
Walsh said based on his experience working with both Konkel and Maniaci, he approved of Konkel’s future visions for the district and will most likely endorse her candidacy.
De Nure and Hackbarth were unavailable for comment as of press time.
The locations with the largest voter turnout on campus were Memorial Union, Gordon Commons, Porchlight Inc. and Memorial Library.
In comparison to the 1,025 voters at the Memorial Library location during the 2008 presidential election, the Dane County primary election only brought in 127 voters there, according to Ann Waidelich, chief inspector for Ward 46, the Memorial Library polling location.
Waidelich added she was surprised the candidates were not able to “drum up” more student attention, especially since many of the candidates are students.
The four winning candidates will now compete in the upcoming spring election on April 7.
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This is a real disappointment for Katrina and Progressive Dane. The big question now is who will she endorse now? If it’s Eagon, that is huge. It would be some kind of a grand remarriage of the College Democrats and PD who used to actually get along. Eagon, however, is sitting pretty heading into the general election and he shouldn’t/wouldn’t be inclined to make any sort of major concessions to win her endorsement and that of PD. Flores and PD would also get to save face by having “their” official or unoffical candidate win. If Flores endorses Eagan, Woulf will not be able to win this election.
If Flores endorses Woulf, however, she has more power to influence him because of how much more she brings to the table relative to his campaign. Remember, all the advantages of being a PD candidate are still there. Woulf does not yet have very clearly defined positions simply because his positions aren’t that detailed. There is a lot of room for Woulf to tack to the left here and grab up Flores’s endorsement. This is assuming that Woulf would compromise some of his principles for political gain. The risk in endorsing Woulf’s campaign for Flores is that Eagon is far more likely to win and for PD to lose twice would just be embarrassing. That would truly be the final nail in the coffin of PD in the 8th district.
The BH spells their “endorsed” candidate’s name inccorrectly in the sub headline. What a joke! BH is a joke.
WOULF WOULF WOULF WOULF WOULF!
WOULF WOULF WOULF WOULF WOULF!
Woulf won because of cookies. Cookie Monster.
Woulf and eagon won in D2 and bridget and brenda got 8 huh?
Woulf won out by seven votes, I think this is very telling of the importance of voting. Seven people made the difference. That is not a wide margin.
Terrible article
Woulf won because he worked hard while Katrina sat on her lazy butt. He has proven himself time and again, consistently surprising everyone around him. He truly is an excellent candidate and given the time before the primary, he will develop into an amazing candidate.
F*ck FLORES! GO WOULF!!
eagon being elected would really help the university community, so please everyone go out and vote in the spring. i’m using my absentee abroad, b/c i feel this election is that important.