Karen Hurd, Rob Summerfield advance from primary races
Karen Hurd in 69th district and Rob Summerfield in the 68th district will advance out of their Republican primaries to face Democrats Roger Halls (69th) and Richard Pulcher (68th) in the November general election.
Both Republican candidates currently serve in the legislature, but were drawn into substantially changed districts following the recent redistricting.
Hurd faced Abbotsford business owner Lori Voss in the 69th district race. The 69th District includes the city and town of Medford, Stetsonville and the towns of Browning, Goodrich, Deer Creek and Little Black. The district extends to include the Athens area of Marathon County, all of Clark County and portions of Chippewa County.
Hurd had 3,892 votes district-wide to Voss with 2,909 votes. Locally, the race was much closer with Hurd getting 757 votes to Voss getting 641 among Taylor County voters. All vote tallies remain unofficial until certified by the board of canvassers in each county.
Hurd will face Democrat Roger Halls who had 506 votes in the county in an uncontested primary.
The majority of Taylor County as well as Price County, Rusk County and the rural portions of Chippewa County are in the 68th Assembly District. Rob Summerfield of Bloomer will advance winning the primary with 5,899 votes to the 3,381 votes for Cliff Taylor. The race was much closer in Taylor County with 650 local voters favoring Taylor and 725 voting for Summerfield.
Summerfield will face Richard Pulcher of Lublin in the general election. Pulcher was unopposed in the primary and received 428 votes in Taylor County.
In the Congressional and Senate races, Kyle Kilbourn will advance over Elsa Rae Duranceau to face incumbent Rep. Tom Tiffany (R) in November and senate candidate Eric Hovde easily advanced to the general election defeating Charles Barman and Rejani Raveendran in the Republican primary. Hovde will face incumbent Tammy Baldwin who was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Tuesday’s election also decided the outcome of a slate of local county officials including district attorney, county clerk, county treasurer, and register of deeds who all ran unopposed in the primary and who do not face opposition in the general election.
On the statewide level, Taylor County voters backed two proposed constitutional amendments to give the legislature authority over how to spend federal funds rather than the governor. Taylor County voters supported the first proposed amendment with 2,522 in favor to 1383 opposed. In the second question, county voters were 2,543 in favor and 1,368 opposed. Statewide, however, the amendments failed with 57.4% of voters opposed and 42.4% in support of the first question regarding delegating authority and the 57.5% voting no to 42.5% voting yes for to require legislative approval for federal funds.
