One of the most contested seats on Madison’s City Council will belong to Ald. Bridget Maniaci for two more years after a hard-won campaign to continue representing the city’s near east side.
Maniaci won the race for District 2 alder over her challenger Sam Stevenson by four percentage points, taking 2001 votes to Stevenson’s 1850.
After a difficult two-year term defined by the long process to redevelop the Edgewater Hotel, Maniaci faced an especially difficult challenge from Stevenson, who ran a campaign critical of Maniaci’s development proposals and other initiatives she took on the City Council.
Maniaci said she believed her victory was a sign District 2 residents were willing to embrace neighborhood-based politics and policymaking rather than having an ideologue occupying the seat.
“I really wanted to be able to finish what I started,” Maniaci said. “I’m hopeful that this will bring a level of respect and vindication to the belief that I hold that local government should be about the people that you’re here to serve.”
Maniaci added the victory primarily made her feel relief. She said many of her emotions after winning were different than her 2009 victory over veteran former Ald. Brenda Konkel because of her wider base of support this year.
At the Baldwin Street Grill on East Washington Avenue, Stevenson greeted supporters including Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway, District 12 and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison.
Stevenson said he expected the race to be close because of a high turnout but added much of voters’ attention likely focused on the more general races for Madison mayor and Supreme Court justice.
“I think at the end of the day, a lot of people went into vote for races higher on the ticket and weren’t as well-informed or as engaged with this race,” said Stevenson, a former Badger Herald columnist. “I knew it was very likely to be close but given where endorsements were heading, how hard we were working…I thought that we had the momentum.”
Stevenson added he believed Maniaci’s incumbent status and minor changes to the makeup of the district over the last two years also gave her an advantage in the race.
The dynamics of the race changed with the arrival of protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill beginning in February. Maniaci, who said District 2 served as the “parking lot” of the protests, also said the event drew attention away from local races.
“With everything going on, the local races were really lost in the mix,” a visibly emotional Maniaci said in her speech to supporters. “And I kept trying to tell people that this was important, and that this was a real race and volunteers and money and resources were going elsewhere.”
District 2 encompasses many neighborhoods populated primarily by students, including the Capitol Square area, the north side of East Washington Avenue and housing surrounding James Madison Park. Maniaci will be sworn-in for the second time at a special City Council meeting April 19.
