With two candidates losing the recent aldermanic race and only three seats left on the Madison City Council, the once powerful influence of Progressive Dane in the county is beginning to dwindle.

Progressive Dane, a progressive political party founded in Dane County that believes political policies should be determined at a grassroots level, faced an upset when Ald. Brenda Konkel, District 2, and District 8 aldermanic candidate Katrina Flores lost their bids for City Council.

Flores could not pick up enough votes against University of Wisconsin juniors Bryon Eagon or Mark Woulf in the primary, while Konkel lost her seat to UW alumna Bridget Maniaci by a mere 67 votes.

Progressive Dane Election Committee Chair Lukas Diaz said the organization chooses to endorse candidates who work closely with the neighborhood. He said Flores and Konkel are two allies of Progressive Dane, and he does not understand where Konkel or Flores’ campaign went astray.

“We’re still diagnosing that,” Diaz said. “My initial impression was there were some organizational issues within the campaigns. I don’t want to discuss strategy at the moment. I guess the short version is neither campaign was particularly well-run, and I helped out with database work on Brenda Konkel’s campaign.”

Diaz was quick to say Progressive Dane has no regrets about endorsing either candidate, who he said were both campaigning to reform social justice issues and make housing more affordable.

Progressive Dane is not a highly funded political party like the Democratic or Republican parties, according to Co-chair of the Steering Committee Norm Littlejohn. Although it sometimes helps with a candidate’s campaign, it is unable to put a lot of money toward it.

Littlejohn added Progressive Dane is not a “big, buxom operation.”

“Our support [mobilizes] people with a campaign rather than spending money,” Littlejohn said. “There are some parts of town where [Progressive Dane’s influence] can be very strong and other parts were we haven’t made headway at all.”

Littlejohn said Konkel’s campaign might have lost some strength due to the negative press she gained toward the end of the election.

Littlejohn said the city’s main daily paper, the Wisconsin State Journal, made a target of Konkel because she did not always agree with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, adding it is part of an alder’s job to do his/her homework and fight the mayor if it is in the best interest of the constituents.

“That made [Konkel] a target … and [Maniaci] kind of hung back and didn’t say a lot on the issues and depended on the legacy of [Konkel],” Littlejohn said. “There’s a fairly large core of people who did everything they could for [Konkel], but you always feel there’s more you could have done.”

Dace Zeps, member of the Progressive Dane administrative staff, said although the getting out the vote portion of Konkel’s campaign was run to the party’s best ability, Konkel should have handled the negative press in a more direct manner.

Michael Johnson, co-founder of Students for Progressive Dane and Flores’ campaign manager,

said though both Flores and Konkel lost the aldermanic race, the political party will still have an active voice throughout the community.

“With elections, you have good years, you have bad years,” Johnson said. “A lot of Progressive Dane members are [part of] non-profit organizations and advocacy groups. I still believe we have a strong voice in the community.”

Flores said her loss could partially be attributed to her work with grassroots projects, diverting her and her campaign’s attention from the city council race.

“I think a lot of progressive candidates are working on a million things themselves while other folks probably don’t have to work and are maybe not working while campaigning,” Flores said.

But with only three allies on the city council, Johnson said the council may encounter organizational problems. He said Konkel was a good leader, and City Council will suffer from her departure.

“My main concern is the progressives and more liberals on City Council … will be very unorganized, and Brenda Konkel gave leadership to city issues, issues no one will be willing to stand up to the mayor on these issues,” Johnson said.

Konkel did not return several calls as of press time.