News
Eagon wins; Maniaci beats Konkel
Woulf loses to former chair of Students for Obama; UW alumna defeats longtime Progressive Dane alder
BOBBY BREITENBACH/Herald photos
Bryon Eagon celebrates his victory at the Union.
BOBBY BREITENBACH/Herald photos
Bridget Maniaci claims victory in District 2 at Supreme Pizza.
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Bryon Eagon and Bridget Maniaci will be filling two chairs on the City Council this coming term after defeating their opponents and taking the positions of District 8 and District 2 alder.
Dominating the vote for the District 8 race, Eagon, a University of Wisconsin junior, banked a little more than 73 percent of the vote against his opponent Mark Woulf, also a UW junior, who followed behind capturing slightly more than 25 percent.
“I want to keep doing my homework like I’ve done in this campaign,” Eagon said. “Over the next few weeks I want to keep meeting with students and city leaders to really have great understanding of the issues and how we can accomplish some these things going forward.”
Eagon said because District 8 is mainly filled with students, their needs will be his top priority on the council.
Eagon also wants to focus on tenants’ rights, improving transportation and the environment.
Though Eagon’s challenger, Woulf, lost the race by an almost 50 percent margin, he graciously said Eagon ran a great campaign.
“I called him and congratulated him on what I thought was a great run campaign, and he has so much support,” Woulf said. “I think he’ll do an excellent job as alder for District 8.”
Woulf added the focal point of his campaign did not greatly differ from Eagon’s. Both contenders were eager to improve public safety.
However, Woulf did say he wished the vote was slightly closer.
In a relatively close race, District 2 Alder-elect Bridget Maniaci scored slightly more than 53 percent of the vote, grabbing the seat from Brenda Konkel, who has been in that position since April 2001.
Konkel finished the race with an even 48 percent of the vote.
“I knew it was going to be close, and I knew I would be affected negatively at last minute,” Konkel said.
However, Konkel did not jump to wish Maniaci luck on the council, saying, “it’s hard to know” if Maniaci will do well on the council.
“I would think a lot of candidates are one kind of person, and as alderperson they find a new role,” Konkel said.
Like Katrina Flores, a District 8 candidate who lost in the primary, Konkel’s campaign was backed by Progressive Dane, well-known in Madison for its strong “get out the vote” campaign that rallies voters.
The third-party organization has fared well in City Council elections in previous years, but Konkel did not make it seem as if she was worried about the group’s relevancy.
“There are ups and downs,” Konkel said. “It’s not the number of how many people there are — it the matters what work they do.”
Although she was not backed by Progressive Dane, Maniaci was backed by three Madison mayors and said she couldn’t express how excited she was to have a seat on the City Council.
“I’m very, very excited,” Maniaci said. “This has been a very long day of campaigning, and I just spoke to [Eagon], and we are both really excited for all the great possibilities that will come to the City Council.”
Maniaci added her youth and her focus on policy will bring an exciting change to the City Council.
“There are many residents in the city of Madison that are young, and I am very happy to be representing them and bringing their voice to the council in ways above this point,” Maniaci said.
Also scoring a seat on the City Council as District 5 alder was Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, UW Health director of community partnerships and interpreter services.
Bidar-Sielaff won the election with more than double the votes of her opponent Hamilton Arendsen, a local lawyer.
She said a crucial issue for District 5 is repairing the old University Avenue corridor. She also wants to improve pedestrian safety in the district, which will help students commute back and forth to campus.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4 and Ald. Marsha Rummel, District 6, are returning to their positions as city alders. Both ran unopposed.
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awwwwwwwwwwww yeah
how can one candidate get “more than 53 percent” and another get “an even 48” — bad math by herald staff?
Hm. Brenda wasn’t a gracious loser. What a surprise. Good riddance.
Finally, now STOP COMING TO MY ROOM!
Bryon Eagon was never chair of Student for Obama. That’s Ami Elshareif. Don’t give credit to him for things he never did.
voted for konkel… not 2 dissapointed tho… she had some interesting ideas for the east wash corridor tho…
Good luck to Maniaci, I hope she shows that balding woman Konkel whats up.
Nice cutlines on the photos, BH. Not really, as they SUCK. Now that I look at it, the photos themselves are terrible, too. Eagon looks like he has hemorrhoids, and we can see about half of that girl’s face. Niiiiiiiiiice work.