Iron County primary: Incumbents top party votes

By PAMELA JANSSON

pjansson@yourdailyglobe.com

Iron County — Tuesday’s primary election in Iron County resulted with state and national incumbents beating the competition in their own parties, although U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and state Rep. Chanz Green, a Republican serving District 74, did garner fewer votes than their opponents in competing parties.

Two referendums also passed, although not by wide margins. Local county officials had faced no competition.

Results provided by Christan Brandt, interim county clerk, remain unofficial until a canvass is performed.

Baldwin received 580 votes with no Democratic competition. However, among Republicans in the same race, Eric Hovde — a Madison native and entrepreneur — earned 587, with Charles E. Berman getting 74 votes and Rejani Raveendran getting 38 votes.

For U.S. Congress, District 7, incumbent Republican Tom Tiffany, whose office is in Wausau, earned 687 votes, which made him the top vote-getter among both major parties. Among Republicans, he faced no competition. On the Democratic side of the same race, Elsa Rae Duranceau, a native of Merrill, a U.S. Air Force veteran and an economic development professional, received 269 votes next to Kyle Kilbourn’s 257 votes.

In the state Assembly’s District 74, Chanz earned 478 votes, easily beating his Republican opponent, Scott Allen Harbridge, who earned 201 votes.

However, on the Republican side of that race, Jeanne Rand Bruce of Spooner, who retired from a 30-year career in program and fund development, earned 523 votes.

Results for Iron County candidates, who faced no competition in the primary, are as follows:

Republican District Attorney Matthew J. Tingstad earned 597 votes.

Republican Brandt, the interim county clerk now running to remain officially as clerk, earned 652 votes. Last year, Brandt was hired on July 31 but was not officially interim clerk till Oct. 6.

Running to retain her seat as county treasurer, Democrat Clara J. Maki earned 540 votes.

Republican Brancy Rowe, running for the role of Register of Deeds, earned 632 votes. Daniel Soine, who was elected to that position in 2013, opted not to run for re-election.

Ballots also will include the following two statewide proposals, for which voters will be asked to vote yes or no:

Two statewide referendums also passed. They posed the following questions:

—Question 1: Delegation of appropriation power: “Shall section 35 (1) of Article IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?”

Question 1 resulted with 645 yes votes in Iron County versus 610 no votes.

—Question 2: Allocation of federal moneys: “Shall section 35 (2) of Article IV of the constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys the governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided by legislative rule?”

Question 2 resulted with 636 yes votes in Iron County versus 613 no votes.

A nominal number of write-in votes occurred at all levels of the election, but none had any effect on election results.

Most voters chose to vote either as Democrats or Republicans. A single Libertarian vote was cast in several races. No votes were cast in the Constitution or Congressional parties.

No other general election news was yet available as of press time.

The general election will take place on Nov. 5.