Edming, Tomczyk advance in primary

Mike Bub has strong showing in county vote

While statewide contests dominated the ballots and headlines around the state, locally all eyes were on the Republican primaries for the 87th Assembly District and the 29th Senate District.

In the 87th district race incumbent James “Jimmy Boy” Edming faced challenger Mike Bub in a rematch for their 2014 contest for the seat. Bub had run on a campaign that it is was time for a change after Edming’s five terms in the seat.

While Bub’s message carried Taylor County voters 1,781to 1,667. This cushion was not enough to overcome strong support for Edming in Sawyer and Rusk and counties. Marathon County was more evening split with Edming getting 737 to Bub’s 605 votes.

District-wide Edming had 6,118 votes to Bub’s 3,563, votes a margin of 63.2% to 36.8%. All vote totals remain preliminary until they are certified by the board of canvassers.

Edming will face Democrat candidate Elizabeth Riley in the general election in November. Riley was unopposed in the primary. In the three-way race for the 29th State Senate district seat Cory Tomczyk sailed to victory with an almost 1,000 vote margin over his next closest rival Brent Jacobson. Jon Kaiser trailed behind the leaders garnering just 18.3% of the vote.

Tomczyk has 10,419 votes district-wide with 43.2% of votes cast to Jacobson’s 9,302 votes, 38.5% of votes cast. Kaiser has 4,417 with 18.3% of votes cast.

In Taylor County Tomczyk was the leader with 1,708 votes to Jacobson’s 919 and Kaiser’s 636. Tomczyk was also the leader in Rusk, Sawyer and Wood Counties. These leads were more than enough to overcome the tight race in Marathon County which saw Jacobson up by about 100 votes over Tomczyk.

Tomczyk will face off again Democrat Bob Look in the November election. Look did not face a challenger in the primary.

According to county clerk Andria Farrand, area elections went smoothly. Anticipating a higher than normal turnout, she said they had plenty of ballots on hand. A total of 4,308 county residents voted in Tuesday’s election. By comparison, just 2,341 voted in the August 2018 partisan primary.

The turnout for the election was similar to the 4,941 area voters who headed out for the spring election last April but was still far below the 10,710 voters who cast ballots in the November 2020 general election.

County races

Two county races were on the ballot. Incumbent sheriff Larry Woebbeking was unopposed receiving 3,135 votes. He is also unopposed in the general election.

Jill Scheithauer was unopposed on the Republican ballot for Clerk of Courts and received 3,025 votes. She is unopposed in the general election.

Statewide offices

Taylor County voters mirrored those of other areas of the state when it came to primaries for the statewide contests.

Among Taylor County votes, Republican governor candidate Tim Michels had 1,970, Rebecca Kleefisch had 1,076, Timothy Ramthun had 211, Kevin Nicholson had 136 and Adam Fischer had 42 votes.

Michels had 47% of the statewide vote compared to Kleefisch’s 42% of the vote to advance to the general election where he will face incumbent Gov. Tony Evers.

In the crowded Republican ballot for lieutenant governor Patrick Testin has the best showing in Taylor County with 1,036 votes followed by Jonathan Wichmann with 429, Roger Roth with 387, Will Martin with 277, David Varnam with 211, David King with 179 and Kyle Yudes with 170. Statewide, Roth had 30.1% of the vote compared to Testin’s 18.3% to advance to the general election.

In the Democrat primary Sara Rodriguez had 502 local votes to Peng Her’s 111. Statewide Rodriguez had 76.5% of the vote to Her’s 23.5% For attorney general Eric Toney with 37.5% of the statewide vote will face off against incumbent Josh Kaul in the general election. Among county voters, Adam Jarchow was the favored candidate with 1,467 votes to Toney’s 891 and Karen Mueller’s 729.

For Secretary of State, longtime incumbent Doug La Follette survived a primary challenge from fellow democrat Alexia Sabor winning 63.6% to 36.4%. Among county votes La Follette had 466 votes to Sabor’s 203. La Follette will face Republican Amy Loudenbeck who had 46.3% of the statewide vote to edge out opponents Jay Schroeder with 39.9% and Justin Schmidtka with 13.8%.

Among county voters, Schroeder had 1,310 votes to Loudenbeck’s 1,253 and Schmidtka’s 445.

In the state treasurer race, on the Republican ticket, John Leiber will advance with 65.8% of the vote to Orlando Owens’ 34.2%. Locally Leiber had 2,018 votes to Owens 895 votes. On the Democrat ticket, Aaron Richardson will advance with 38.4% of the vote to Gillian Battino’s 36.3% and Angelito Tenorio’s 25.3%. Among local voters, Richardson had 349 votes, Battino had 163 votes and Angelito Tenorio had 125 votes.

Congressional races

In the U.S. Senate race Mandela Barnes had 77.8% of the statewide vote to secure the Democratic nomination. Although Barnes’ major opponents had dropped out of the race prior to election day, their names were still on the ballots. Locally, there were 468 votes for Barnes, 104 votes for Alex Lasry, 78 votes for Sarah Godlewski, 21 votes for Tom Nelson, 8 votes for Darrell Williams, 7 votes for Kou Lee, and 4 votes each for Peter Peckarsky and Steven Olikara.

Barnes will face incumbent Ron Johnson. Johnson survived a challenge in the Republican primary from David Schroeder winning 83.7% to 16.3%. Among local voters Johnson had 2,796 votes to Schroeder’s 634 votes.

For the 7th congressional district, incumbent Tom Tiffany survived a challenge in the Republican primary from David Kunelius. District wide Tiffany had 86.6% of the vote to Kunelius’ 13.4%. Among local voters, Tiffany had 2,914 votes to 488 for Kunelius. He will face Democrat Richard Ausman who did not face a primary.