Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Hurley — Iron County voters elected a District Attorney Tuesday who doesn’t have a license to practice law in the state. In fact, he doesn’t live in Wisconsin.
After the dust settled around midnight in a real shocker, Matt Tingstad, 40, of Bessemer, had defeated Tony Stella Jr., 57, of Kimball, 1,709 to 1,696.
Town of Mercer votes didn’t come in until around 11 p.m. and they were initially incorrect, as both Stella and Tingstad had 100 votes too many.
A total of 1,008 votes were cast in Mercer and the original numbers emailed to the county clerk’s office totaled 1,139 votes.
The election for DA could change because there are still around 22 absentee ballots that could be returned to the clerk’s office by Friday, according to county clerk Mike Saari, although he doubted all would be returned.
It was the only contested county race on the ballot.
If the vote holds up, it will be a bitter pill for Stella because he lost the 2012 election by four votes in a recount.
Current DA Marty Lipske, who did not seek re-election, defeated Stella by four votes in 2012, by 1,630 to 1,626.
It appeared Stella had won the 2012 election by three votes after the Mercer results came in, and that was the headline the next day in the Daily Globe. A recount turned up the four-vote margin of victory for Lipske, however, who ran as an independent. Stella ran as a Democrat in that election and again on Tuesday.
Tingstad ran as a Republican and Donald Trump’s strong showing in the county likely helped him out.
Tingstad won in Mercer, 653 to 487, after Stella had grabbed a slight lead after the Hurley results came in.
Stella served as Iron County DA from 1986 to 1989, and again from 1995 to 1997.
Tingstad, the son of former Gogebic County prosecutor and District Court Judge Anders Tingstad, said he will pursue a license to practice law in Wisconsin. He cited his extensive trial experience in criminal and family law matters.
Elaine Erickson, of Ironwood, was defeated in the Iron DA primary election.
The Trump-Michael Pence ticket copped Iron County 2,090 to 1,273, as Hillary Clinton tied Trump in Gurney 41-41, but lost all of the other towns and cities.
Iron County voters backed Republican Ron Johnson for U.S. Senator, 1,949 to 1,336.
Republican Congressman Sean Duffy topped Mary Hoeft 2,002 to 1,320, while 74th District Rep. Beth Meyers ran unopposed and collected 2,215 votes.
Saari had 2,771 votes for clerk, Clara Maki received 2,739 for treasurer and Dan Soine totaled 2,727 for register of deeds.
