Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Monona Chooses

In yet another extraordinarily close election, Monona voters returned incumbent alders Jeff Wiswell, Sr. and Dennis Kugle to office, but chose political newcomer Scott Munson over long-standing alder Kathryn Thomas.

The spread between leading vote-getter Wiswell and fifth-place finisher Matt Aro was just 155 votes.

The tally:

Wiswell 1100
Kugle 1028
Munson 1022
Thomas 986
Aro 945


Long-time political observers were mildly surprised by the city council change. Conventional wisdom had the city council incumbents all winning, but CW figured Aro was more likely to break through than Munson. Observers speculated that Munson's lifelong ties to Monona provided the slight edge he needed to pull off the upset.

According to Monona in the Making, History of the City of Pride, 1938-1975 , Kathy Thomas was first elected to the city council in 1979 and served until she ran for mayor and lost to Tom Metcalfe in 1993. The voters returned her to the council in 1994 and she won reelection seven more times. That streak ended tonight. Kathy has served on the city council for a total of 30 years. Her last city council meeting will be April 19, 2010.

I supported Scott (and Matt), but nonetheless Kathy's defeat leaves me feeling a bit melancholy. Sudden endings and decisive outcomes are inherent in elections. No matter how close the vote tally, if you finish out of the money, you are out of office - and you are 100% out. The message is a bit stark. Everyone is expendable, nothing is guaranteed, and long service does not entitle any one to hold an elected office.  

If you see her around town, tell Kathy Thomas "thanks". She earned it.


***

Don't misunderstand, I'm really excited about working with Scott Munson. He's got the smarts, he's new to the political scene, and he's got a fresh perspective - all things that we really need in our city government. He's got a lot of work to do to get up to speed, but he will do what it takes. 

But tonight, for me anyway, reflection is in order.

......And maybe this is just a sign that I am well on the way to being an official old fart.

***

School Board incumbents Susan Manning and Peter Sobol won reelection as did County Board Supervisor Robin Schmidt.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for the thoughtful post, Doug.

    Kathy Thomas stopped by the post-election get-together at The Pizza Oven last night to offer her congratulations. It was a very gracious gesture. I thanked her for her years of service to our community and told her that I have some big shoes to fill.

    I'm looking forward to serving Monona as her newest alderman. A big thanks to everyone that supported our campaign. Doug's right... I have a lot of work to do to get up to speed, but it's work that I'm certain to enjoy.

    I would also like to thank Matt Aro for his outstanding campaign. He's got a lot of great ideas for Monona and I'm looking forward to voting for him next year.

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  2. I am very excited to see Thomas gone. It will hopfully be a refreshing change having some new young blood. We the residents want change in the city and hope it will happen with at least one young fresh face in the council now.

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  3. You can't just add up the votes to get the turnout. Was the voter turnout higher then expected, or lower? The State Journal said the expected turnout (in the area) would be 10%, but in the past, Monona seems to have 2000 voters each spring which I suspect is closer to 25%.

    My thought is it was higher then 25% because of the Maywood issue. You might not know 'why' more people came, but I thought you might know 'if' more people came. It would also make sense people came out because of Maywood since Wiswell got the most votes, and he showed up and spoke a lot at board meetings on the issue.

    If you can answer the turnout question, I'll hold off calling you an old fart. I'll reserve the right to call you other names instead. ;)

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  4. Turnout was 36.5 percent of registered voters, according to the city. A total of 2,078 votes in Monona.

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  5. "I am very excited to see Thomas gone. It will hopfully be a refreshing change having some new young blood. We the residents want change in the city and hope it will happen with at least one young fresh face in the council now."

    You know that is just a harsh/crap statement. Kathy served our city for a long time and she did it. It is my guess that you did not-change starts with you. If you want something changed do it your self.

    Do not get me wrong, I did not vote for Kathy (I have in the past), but service that took her away from family and friends deserves respect and reflection by all of us.

    She is human and I bet she spent a fair amount of time studying, talking and worrying about city issues. Further, it probably took its' toll on her.

    I say thank you Kathy Thomas-you served-I wish you well.

    HP

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  6. Turnout was 2078 ballots, or 36.5% of the eligible voters. - Adam

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  7. Anon, I believe that Monona has ~8,000 residents, and ~25% of those are under 18, so it would be 2,000 voters out of 6,000 adults. Not sure if any of those are residents but not able to vote (?), so we'd be at least 33% participation, or well above average.

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  8. I think Aro would have done a nice job as well. Let's consider him should he decide to run again.

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  9. "You know that is just a harsh/crap statement. Kathy served our city for a long time and she did it. It is my guess that you did not-change starts with you. If you want something changed do it your self.

    Do not get me wrong, I did not vote for Kathy (I have in the past), but service that took her away from family and friends deserves respect and reflection by all of us.

    She is human and I bet she spent a fair amount of time studying, talking and worrying about city issues. Further, it probably took its' toll on her.

    I say thank you Kathy Thomas-you served-I wish you well.

    HP"

    HP, thanks for posting a reply to that comment. Well said. I'm all for the fresh new blood, but let's celebrate that victory without kicking someone when they are down.

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  10. I think one can both congratulate Scott for his election to the council, and thank Kathy as well for her long and dedicated service to the city and its residents.

    Incumbency can be a two-edged sword -- voters generally like voting for people they know, and it's certainly hard NOT to have known about Kathy's 30 years of service to Monona. But voters can sometimes not-so-gently suggest that elected officials have overstayed their welcome, and perhaps they thought Kathy's three decades was enough, and it was time for a new voice (and a different generation). I also think, without trying to be too critical, that Kathy's dilly-dallying with her nomination papers may have hurt her. She initially filed papers saying she wasn't running, then retracted those and filed papers to run. That can turn off voters, especially when compared to Scott's early and enthusiastic decision to run in the face of an incumbent-filled field. Voters often reward that behavior, as opposed to indecision.

    Anyone out there think Aro's fairly well-known stance on restoring K-8 education entirely in Monona may have cost him votes? Sure, arguing to keep Maywood open probably wins votes in Monona, but there is a strong core of voters in the city who support a combined district, supported a middle school in Cottage Grove, and worry the push for a separate K-8 system in Monona is a small but significant step toward splitting the district apart. In what turned out to be a very close election among five candidates, Aro lost out on a seat by less than 80 votes. He seemed to go further than the other candidates on the Maywood/school district issue (further than Kugle, for sure), and may have lost support among some folks who otherwise wanted to put another new voice on the council.

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  11. For sure the K-8 thing hurt Aro. I did not vote for him because I consider him a split supporter. But why are people saying K-8 in Monona? If that happens, then it will be k-12 in Monona- which has less than 1/2 the kids of the district. Ridiculous. Say what it is. We currently have K-5 in Monona, and 9-12 in MONona so 3 years in CG. They come to us for 4 years- High School. We still have an advantage-- but still we whine. Good lord.

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  12. I must admit...I thought we had many qualified candidates. I sat there in the booth thinking "I can only pick 3...bummer". I think we are lucky to have so many people I can "trust" with my city.

    Thanks to Kathy for her years of service. Serving on City Council or School board is completely thankless. Darned if you do...darned if you don't.

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