Evers-Hoffert-2019-Council-Primary
Tag Evers, left, and David Hoffert will face off in the April 2 general election after advancing through the primary.
The primary for District 13 on the Common Council involved one of the more contentious issues in the city: whether Edgewood High School should be allowed to build a stadium.
The district includes the Dudgeon-Monroe, Vilas, Monona Bay and Greenbush neighborhoods.
Tag Evers, an outspoken critic of the stadium, was the clear winner in the four-way race, nabbing almost 54 percent of the vote. In the April 2 general election, Evers will face David Hoffert, who believes a compromise can be reached over the stadium. Hoffert got about 35 percent of the vote. Lee Lazar and Justin Kirchin both finished with less than 10 percent.
Despite the controversy over the stadium, Evers doesn’t believe it’s the most important issue facing his district.
“I didn’t get into this race because of the stadium,” Evers said. “The key issues have to do with racial equity, the pace that we’re growing as a city and how that affects our environment. There were not that many conversations about Edgewood, but I think the fact that I spoke up against [the stadium] was appreciated by the residents of the district.”
The District 13 race was one of only four primaries for Common Council seats. Although all 20 of the council seats are up for election, nine of the incumbents are running unopposed: Barbara Harrington-McKinney, Mike Verveer, Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, Marsha Rummel, Paul Skidmore, Arvina Martin, Sheri Carter, Michael Tierney, and Rebecca Kemble.
Only two incumbents are facing a challenge, but neither involved a primary. Council President Samba Baldeh will face James Creighton Mitchell, Jr., and Keith Furman, who was appointed to the seat last year, will face Allison Martinson.
Four candidates ran to replace Larry Palm, who is stepping down from the north-side District 12. Syed Abbas and Diane Farsetta came in first and second, with 45 and 34 percent of the vote, respectively; Mark-Anthony Whitaker and Lydia S. Maurer both got less than 10 percent. The redevelopment of the Oscar Mayer plant was a key issue in the campaign, along with bus rapid transit and affordable housing.
In the three-way race to replace Amanda Hall — who moved out of the far-east side District 3 — Lindsay Lemmer finished first with 57 percent. She’ll face Mike Cerro, who got 28 percent of the vote, in the general. Jared Schumacker came in last, with 13 percent.
The race to replace Ald. David Ahrens, who decided not to run again for his east-side District 15, was a nail biter. Grant Foster won 690 votes, just four more than Angela Jenkins. They’ll face off again on April 2. Justin Williams finished last with 313 votes.
Five other open council seats — where the incumbent didn’t run — will face competitive elections on April 2.
Patrick Heck and Jim White are running for Ledell Zeller’s seat that stretches from Mansion Hill to Tenney-Lapham; Badri Lankella and Donna V. Hurd Moreland are running for Steve King’s far southwest-side seat; Matthew Mitnick and Avra Reddy are vying for the downtown seat around UW-Madison that is now held by Zach Wood; Zachary Henak and Kristin Johnson are running for the west-side seat held by Maurice Cheeks, who lost his bid for mayor Tuesday; and Christian Albouras will face Erica Janisch for Matt Phair’s south-side seat.
