Mayor Paul Soglin PHOTO: WRN
Veteran mayors of four Wisconsin cities retained their seats in Tuesday’s balloting. Only one of the outcomes was close.
In Madison, Mayor Paul Soglin easily held off a challenge from Alder Scott Resnick, winning another four years at the helm of Wisconsin’s second-largest city. With all wards reporting, Soglin had 71.9 percent of the vote and Resnick 27.1 percent. Voter turnout was just 29.6 percent of registered voters.
The 69-year-old Soglin is in his 18th year as mayor, including previous terms in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Resnick was running his first citywide campaign.
Green Bay mayor Jim Schmitt won re-election against City Council President Tom De Wane. Schmitt received 53 percent of the vote and De Wane had 47 percent. His victory has Schmidt in line to become Green Bay’s longest tenured mayor.
In Racine, Mayor John Dickert eked out a narrow, 847 vote win over local pastor the Reverend Melvin Hargrove. Unofficial results found Dickert, who’s been in office for six years, with 5,392 votes to Hargrove’s 4,545 votes.
In Superior, Mayor Bruce Hagen won re-election to his fifth term. Hagen won Tuesday with 63.2 percent of the votes, while challenger Douglas County Board Supervisor Jim Paine received 36.3 percent.