Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
VOTING MACHINES are set up at Hurley City Hall Monday in preperation for Tuesday's election. Voters will cast their ballots in a number of state and local races, as well as a statewide referendum. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
By RICHARD JENKINS
Iron County voters head to the polls today to take part in Wisconsin's spring election.
Voters will cast their ballots in a variety of state and local races, as well as a statewide referendum.
Hurley voters will decide the contest for mayor between incumbent Joe Pinardi and Paul Mullard as well as who will serve on city council. In that race, seven candidates - Robert Lanctoe, Joanne Bruneau, Stephanie Innes Smith, Steve Lombardo, Jay Aijala, Jamey Francis and Terrence Seibel - are running for six council seats with the lowest vote-getter failing to make the cut.
Hurley voters will also decide the District 1 board of supervisors race between Mullard and Aijala. They will also vote for Joe Simonich, who is running unopposed for another term on the Hurley School Board.
In Mercer, incumbents Michael Lambert and Charles Schroepfer are being challenged by James Davis for two seats on the town board. Karl Anderson is challenging Kelly Kohegyi for a seat on the Mercer School Board and James Schmidt is challenging Jim Kichak to represent Mercer's District 14 on the county board. Tanner Hiller has filed papers to run as a write-in candidate in the District 14 race.
In the city of Montreal, Erik Guenard is challenging Mayor Todd Haeger; while Wayne Berglund and Joseph Leoni are running re-election campaigns for Ward 1 and Ward 2 on the city council, respectively.
Residents in the town of Springstead will be casting ballots for an at-large seat on the Chequamegon School District Board, where Ed Kane is facing off against Michelle Schmidt.
While Hurley, Mercer, Sherman and Montreal are the only Iron County communities with contested races on the ballot.
All other county board candidates are running unopposed. Joe Pinardi is running for re-election in District 2 to represent Hurley; Francis is running to fill Jack Prospero's seat representing Hurley's District 3 after Prospero died in January; Larry Youngs is running for another term in Hurley's District 4; William Thomas is running again representing Gile's District 5; Ken Saari is running for another term representing Montreal's District 6; Brandon Snyder is running to replace John Smith in Kimball's District 7, after Smith chose not to seek another term; Karl Krall is running for re-election in Saxon/Gurney's District 8; Patrick Hanson is running again in Anderson/Knight/Pence's District 9; Scott Erickson is running for another term representing Oma/Carey's District 10; John Sendra is running for another term in Mercer's District 11; Opal Roberts is running for Mercer's District 12; Tom Thompson is running to represent Mercer's District 13 for another term and Brad Matson is seeking re-election in Sherman's District 15.
At the state level, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Dallet and Sauk County Circuit Court Judge Michael Screnock will face off for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. They were the top two vote-getters in February's primary.
Voters will also be asked to decide a statewide referendum regarding the potential elimination of the state treasurer position.
"The Constitution spells out only one duty for the Treasurer: to serve as one of three members on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which is charged with the sale of school and university lands and with the investment of funds arising from such sales," Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel wrote in an explanation of the measure on the state election's site. "The referendum question proposes to eliminate the constitutional office of Treasurer. To fill the Treasurer's position on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, the Lieutenant Governor would serve as the third member of that Board. A "yes" vote on this question would eliminate the constitutional office of the Treasurer. It would replace the Treasurer with the Lieutenant Governor as a member of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. A "no" vote would retain the constitutional office of the Treasurer under Article VI. The Treasurer would also continue to serve as a member of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands."
Polls are open statewide from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
