Tuesday’s Choices

What can I say? I like voting on election day. It has been my ritual since I was 18 years old. I did the safe thing for the elections during 2020 and voted absentee. But now, all vaxed up, it seems responsible again to vote in person. (I think we should go back to most everybody voting in person on election day, but I’ll explain why some other time.)

If you live in Madison, here’s what’s on your ballot for Tuesday.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Nobody should be voting for this. It’s an administrative job that should be a gubernatorial appointment. But it’s not, so you have to make a choice. You have two. Jill Underly is backed by Democrats and teachers unions while Deb Kerr is supported by Republicans. They disagree over private school vouchers, but there’s no reason to care because the Superintendent has nothing to say about it. The only thing that really matters is that the winner gets a seat on the UW Board of Regents. If you think any governor should have control over the second largest (and most important) state agency then you want to vote for Underly. If you want former Gov. Scott Walker’s appointees to have more control for longer, then vote for Kerr. Nothing much else at stake here.

Madison City Council Referenda. There are four advisory questions on the ballot. They amount to choosing the current part-time, 20 member, two-year term body without term limits or a new full-time, 10 member, four-year term entity with a 12 year term limit. It really comes down to a simple question: The full-time body would be just like the state Legislature. If you think the Legislature is doing a good job for you then vote ‘yes’ on those questions. If not, vote ‘no.’

Madison Council Seats. It’s Madison, so the basic choice is between liberals and the hard left. The less hard left choices are as follows:

District 2 (near east side, Tenney-Lapham): Patrick Heck, (I), WSJ, CT.

District 3 (far east side): Lindsay Lemmer, (I), WSJ, CT. 

District 8 (campus): Ayomi Obuseh, (I), WSJ.

District 9 (West Towne area): Paul Skidmore (I), WSJ.

District 10 (Midvale area): Mara Eisch (O), WSJ. 

District 12 (near north side): Syed Abbas (I), WSJ, CT, 

District 14 (south side): Sheri Carter (I), WSJ, CT. 

District 16 (southeast side): Matt Tramel (O).

District 18 (north side): Charles Myadze (C), WSJ. 

District 19 (west side adjacent to Middleton): Keith Furman (I), WSJ, CT. 

District 20 (southwest side): Christian Albouras (I), WSJ, CT. 

The highlighted districts seem to be the most competitive.

(I) – incumbent

(C) – challenger

(O) – open seat

CT – endorsed by the hard left Cap Times

WSJ – endorsed by the center-left Wisconsin State Journal

One final note. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi is also up for reelection and he has an opponent on the ballot, but she is not actively campaigning. To learn more about Parisi you can check out a profile I wrote about him a little over a year ago.