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.
