Voters turn out in large numbers for spring election

Taylor County voters bucked the results for statewide races by overwhelmingly supporting conservative-backed candidates for State Supreme Court and State Superintendent.

For Supreme Court, Susan Crawford defeated Brad Schimel with 55% to 45% of the statewide votes, a much larger margin than was anticipated in the race which saw massive spending on both sides and drew national attention.

Locally, Schimel was the overwhelming favorite among Taylor County voters getting 5,264 votes to Crawford’s 2,176 votes out of 7,469 total votes cast.

The voter turnout was significantly higher on Tuesday than in previous spring elections. In 2024, 4,544 voters came out for the spring election in Taylor County and in 2023, 5,658 people voted in the county. Vote tallies are unofficial until after the board of canvassers meets early next week.

In the State Superintendent race, Taylor County voters also favored the conservative backed state Brittany Kinser with 4,532 local votes to incumbent Jill Underly’s 2,367 votes. Statewide, Underley won reelection with 52% of the votes to Kinser’s 48% of the votes.

Taylor County also joined with voters across the state in support of a measure to enshrine existing voter identification laws as a state constitutional amendment. The amendment received 5,977 yes votes in the county compared to 1,364 no votes. Statewide, the amendment passed with 62.8% in support and 37.3% opposed.

In addition to the statewide races, local voters came to the polls for municipal races in the towns, villages and city of Medford as well as school board races in Gilman, Rib Lake and Medford.

School Boards

In the Gilman School Board race, Lynn Rosemeyer (858 votes), Josh Mann (623 votes) and Holly Bacha (616 votes) were elected to full terms on the board getting more votes than challengers Derrick Romig (509 votes) and Vonda Kinas (303 votes).

For the Medford School Board, incumbents Corey Dassow (3,909 votes), Kurt Werner (3,106 votes), and Aemus Balsis (2,531 votes) won reelection over challenger Ben Koch (1,938 votes).

For Rib Lake School Board, Rollie Thums won reelection for the at large seat with 894 votes and Amanda Treffinger won reelection for the town of Greenwood seat with 933 votes.

Villages

In the village of Gilman, incumbent president Jane DeStaercke (83 votes) fended off a challenge from Jerry Smith (68 votes) to be reelected. For village board, Mark Person (114 votes), Russell Baker (108 votes) and Karen James (101 votes) won seats over challenger Derrick Romig (68 votes).

In the village of Lublin, incumbent president Randy Madlon (40 votes) won over Todd Benkowski (22 votes). For village trustee, Christine Compagnone (46 votes) and Christine Nowak (43 votes) won seats over challengers Richard Pulcher (15 votes) and Frenchy Lehouillier (16 votes.)

In the village of Rib Lake, Bill Schreiner (217 votes) won reelection as did the village trustees Randy Budimlija (224 votes), Rocky Jones (191 votes) and George Tesch (184 votes).

In Stetsonville, Greg Brunner (151 votes) won reelection as village president, Al Riemer (145 votes) and Stephanie Bohn (140 votes) won reelection.

City of Medford

In the city of Medford, incumbent council members Laura Holmes (345 votes), Randy Haynes (290 votes), and Mike Bub (218 votes) won reelection with Tim Hansen (256 votes) winning the seat previously held by Peggy Kraschnewski who did not seek reelection.

Town board races

In the town of Aurora, Brian Phelps (126 votes) is chairman with Earl Hinkel (108 votes) and Benjamin Bolstad (117 votes) as supervisors.

In the town of Browning, Damon Brandner (304 votes) is chairman with Ryan Riemann (280 votes) and Donald Purvis (230 votes) as supervisors and Sharon Noland (313 votes) is clerk.

In the town of Chelsea, James Imbach (289 votes) is chairman with Matt Roiger (270 votes) and Jonathan Rief (239 votes) as supervisors. Gail Mildbrand (289 votes) is clerk, and Jayne Haenel (288 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Cleveland, Scott Capelle (110 votes) is chairman with Vince Anglemyer (101 votes) and Norman Mudgett (103 votes) as supervisors. Joseph Liegl (114 votes) is clerk and Tammy Wojcik (115 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Deer Creek, Ray Sackmann (242 votes) is chairman with Harley Waldhart (191 votes) and Richard Halopka (155 votes) as supervisors over Alex Lichtl (111 votes). Jeneane Metz (247 votes) is clerk and Deb Fierke (249 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Ford, Scott Nichols (106 votes) is chairman with Davey Winger (91 votes) and Leonard Nichols (84 votes) as supervisors. Kimberly Meyer (98 votes) is clerk.

In the town of Goodrich, Jason Smola (221 votes) is chairman with Debra Fuchs (205 votes) and Steven Coralline (159 votes) as supervisors. Ashley Dahl (220 votes) is clerk and Julie Lemke (223 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Greenwood, Mitch Peters (226 votes) is chairman with Mike Wudi (229 votes) elected supervisor. Jill Scheithauer (235 votes) is clerk and Linda Bartelt (237 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Grover, Julie Gaunt (103 votes) is chairman with Bruce Faude (93 votes) and Kevin Hauglie (61 votes) as supervisors.

In the town of Hammel, Joe Zenner (195 votes) is chairman defeating Michael Ecklund (108 votes). For supervisor Joe Zenner had 172 votes, David Emmerich had 153 votes, Michael Ecklund had 121 votes and Dylan Neubauer had 112 votes. Jack Johnson (285 votes) is constable.

In the town of Holway, Steve Hamann (195 votes) is chairman with Mary Eder (148 votes) and Paul Woods (153 votes) as supervisors.

In the town of Jump River, Ed Cummings (71 votes) defeated Sandy Hendricks (55 votes) as chairman. For supervisor, Brenda Miller (92 votes) and Mike Hoehn (61 votes) defeated Anthony Burkman (30 votes) and Sandy Hendricks (54 votes). Denise Webster (127 votes) is clerk. Karen Cummings (91 votes) is treasurer defeating JamieLee Saunders (39 votes).

In the town of Little Black, Daniel Hoffman (355 votes) is chairman with Chad Smith (332 votes) and Bryan Jochimsen (314 votes) as supervisors. JoAnn Smith (382 votes) is clerk. Tony Schumacher (392 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Maplehurst, Mark Nosko (132 votes) is chairman with Tony Friedenfels (112 votes) and Andy Friedenfels (102 votes) as supervisors. Marilyn Ovyn (133 votes) is treasurer and Michael Barna (126 votes) is assessor.

In the town of McKinley, Steve Schueller (139 votes) is chairman with Betty Ahlers (113 votes) and William Miller (130 votes) as supervisors. Jason Malisheski (146 votes) is clerk and Julie Siemek (143 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Medford, Stanley Schmidt (889 votes) is chairman with Justin Olson (725 votes) and Rick Dowden (727 votes) as supervisors. Jennifer Strama (934 votes) is clerk and Carol Pernsteiner (930 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Molitor, April Schmeiser (145 votes) is chairman with Steve Halopka (73 votes) edging out David Gruny (72 votes) for district 1 supervisor and Gary Gretzinger (90 votes) defeating Jeff Schmeiser (69 votes) for district 2 supervisor.

In the town of Pershing, Kevin Webster (63 votes) is chairman with Marvin Webster (57 votes) and Walter Lang (60 votes) as supervisors. Kim Curtis (61 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Rib Lake, Joe Knorn (258 votes) is chairman with Mike Krueger (179 votes) and Matt Winnie (132 votes) over Chuck Tveter (113 votes) for the supervisor spot. Karen Schneider (269 votes) is clerk and Julia Braaten (250 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Roosevelt, Gerard Nicpon (107 votes) is chairman with Tom Dubiak (110 votes) and Cheryl Ustianowski (99 votes) as supervisors.

In the town of Taft, Darrell Thompson (83 votes) is chairman defeating challenger Benjamin Niedzwiecki (43 votes). Delano Kroeplin (108 votes) and Gerald Czubakowski (98 votes) are supervisors. Lorrene Czubakowski (117 votes) is clerk and Lana Knox (120 votes) is treasurer.

In the town of Westboro, Jeffery Peterson (272 votes) is chairman with Bryan Strobach (239 votes) and Steve Thums (246 votes) as supervisors. Joyce Peterson (291 votes) is clerk. Debbie Filipiak (288 votes) is treasurer. Josiah Tschanz (52 votes) was elected as a commissioner on the Westboro Sanitary District.