Curmudgeon's Corner

Primary Races Decided...

Posted by Al Campbell on Sept. 10, 2008

County Board, Germantown, Political, Wisconsin

Congressional 5th District...

Congressman Sensenbrenner (R) easily defeated challenger Burkee (R) by a vote of 47,157 (78%) to 13,083 (22%).  This race appeared to be quite competitive if all the pundits were to be believed.  Burkee started with a very conservative message that seemed to fade into a somewhat conservative message.  That very probably is what turned the tide.  That and the support of the Journal Sentinel and Shepherd Express for Burkee spelled the end to this challenge.

To be fair, Sensenbrenner was very engaged this time around given the perceived threat.  But, Burkee just couldn't mount a serious challenge in the final analysis.

Assembly District 24...

This was a wide open race with four Republicans and two Democrats in the fray.  Brady (D) waged a very quiet campaign with knocks on doors giving her exposure rather than advertisements.  Lauer (D) spent a good deal more money but apparently was done in by name recognition and maybe lack of a resonating message to inspire Democrat voters.

Three of the four Republicans seemed to be 'everywhere' with signage and mailers.  One of those, Melchert, easily buried the other two with his spending.  The fourth Republican barely showed his face.

It is interesting to look at the money spent in this primary race (based upon state filings with Dan Knodl's being incomplete and filed only through June 30th while the balance reflect filings as of September 8th) .  While one might expect the actual race to carry a big price tag, this seat is usually solid Republican.  Unless there is some kind of bombshell, this race is virtually a foregone conclusion.

• Charlene Brady (D) spent $274.04, and won her race with 564 votes that cost her $0.49 each.
• Torrey Lauer (D) spent $5,602.59, and lost his race with 386 votes that cost him $14.51 each.

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• Dan Knodl (R) spent $17,072.32, won his race with 2,706 votes that cost him $6.31 each.
• Jason LaSage (R) spent $5,921.18, came in second with 2,312 votes that cost him $2.56 each.
• Randy Melchert (R) spent $33,754.76, came in third with 1,995 votes that cost him $16.92 each.
• Michael Moscicke (R) spent $46.00, came in fourth with 215 votes that cost him $0.21 each.

What does all this mean?  That is difficult to fathom but here are some points:

• Name recognition seems to carry significant weight with both current Washington County Supervisors carrying their respective races.
• Money didn't make the biggest difference in the Republican race.  LaSage seemed to make more door-to-door visits than Melchert and spent 17.5% of what Melchert spent and garnered more votes.
• A total of $62,670.89 was spent in the Assembly race for which 8,178 people turned out.  That seems to be a relatively low "return on investment".
• Future contestants may well be dissuaded from running simply because they can't spend 'enough' money.
• One candidate contributed $30,000 to his own campaign; that seems quite grandiose to me.
• Finally, if the ultimate winner holds the Assembly seat for eight or ten terms, he or she will probably think the initial investment was quite reasonable.

Would term limits be something we should consider in state politics?  As was pointed out in a week-end newspaper article, term limits have certainly not held the state of Colorado back from growth, low taxes and good educational results.