Clockwise from top left: Tammy Baldwin, Ben Wikler, Melissa Agard, Tony Evers, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Joe Gothard.
Clockwise from top left: Tammy Baldwin, Ben Wikler, Melissa Agard, Tony Evers, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Joe Gothard.
Let’s ignore the top of the ticket for now (you’re welcome) and focus on the biggest winners in state and local politics this past year. Here they are in order of the biggest winners first.
The Madison school board. The biggest winners were the folks in charge of running Madison public schools. In April, two of the school board’s most liberal incumbents won new three-year terms without opposition. Then in November, the biggest referendum questions in MMSD history passed overwhelmingly. The board will now have another $100 million a year to play with in its operating budget and it can spend up to $507 million on a massive building project aimed mostly at middle schools. And the board got widespread kudos for hiring Joe Gothard as the new superintendent. I fully admit to not getting it. Test scores are bad, absenteeism is high, the racial achievement gap is getting worse, and Gothard’s record in St. Paul was so-so. But, for whatever reason, voters don’t see it the way I do. The board just keeps racking up victories — in everything but student achievement.
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. Her Honor had an awfully good year. After the requisite gnashing of teeth, the new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system kicked off without too many glitches. It’s maybe the most significant infrastructure improvement in the city — ever. Monona Terrace and Overture were big, but they sit in one spot and they cater to a specific clientele. BRT is citywide and available to anybody who wants to get somewhere. And she also benefited from passage of a first-ever city referendum to exceed state taxing limits. It didn’t hurt that former Mayor Paul Soglin, who Rhodes-Conway defeated in 2019 and who has been nipping at her heels ever since, took a high-profile stance against the referendum and lost. If Soglin was entertaining ideas about reclaiming his old office one more time, this result will probably make him think again.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin. It was every bit as ugly as expected and the result was closer than expected (at least by me), but Baldwin dispatched Republican challenger Eric Hovde by about 30,000 votes. The mild-mannered Baldwin runs bare-knuckled campaigns, this time attacking her opponent from the opening bell as a carpetbagger — and from the dreaded California, no less. But it wasn’t just that. Baldwin works the whole state and not just at election time. She shows up and delivers for rural Wisconsin. The prospect of being represented in the Senate by the likes of Ron Johnson and Eric Hovde was too much for some of us to bear. Now, we won’t have to bear it.
County Executive Melissa Agard. The state senator breezed into office without any serious challenge. I think she’ll probably do fine, but the process left a lot to be desired. I don’t know that it was rigged for her, but the way the special election played out was tailor made for Agard. Former County Exec Joe Parisi retired mid-term, but inexplicably timed his leaving to set up a special election during the November presidential election, and then he promptly endorsed Agard. Of course, the national contest overshadowed this race and provided a big advantage to a veteran pol with an existing voter base and donor network. The voters got short-changed on what should have been a high-profile contest for one the most important local offices.
Legislative Democrats. Fair maps played out pretty much exactly as the models predicted when they were adopted earlier this year. The Democrats picked up 10 seats in the Assembly and four in the Senate. They’re still in the minority in both houses, but they’re also within striking distance of gaining majorities in 2026. That midterm election should be a good one for Democrats overall as they will now be the party out of power in the White House.
Ben Wikler. In terms of actual results, the state Democratic party chair didn't have such a great year. He couldn’t deliver the state for Kamala Harris (although none of the seven competitive states went for Harris) and the legislative gains were no better than what was predicted by the models. Baldwin won, but that had more to do with her own campaign. Yet, Wikler’s a star and probably deserves to be one for his fundraising and organizing abilities, not to mention his sheer energy. His reputation has put him in a position for the same job with the national party and he seems to have the support of people as influential as none other than Jon Stewart.
Gov. Tony Evers. Evers wasn’t up this year, but he had a good one nonetheless. In the spring, a state constitutional amendment that would have curtailed his ability to spend federal emergency funds as he sees fit, without interference from the Legislature, went down to defeat. And the gains for Legislative Democrats might give him a little more leverage during the budget fight in 2025. Evers hasn’t tipped his hand about his intentions for 2026, but it’s fair to say that most Democrats would like to see his name on the ballot again that year.
Finally, despite the disaster at the national level, Wisconsin Democrats are doing better than they have since 2010. Baldwin survived, Evers would be a favorite for a third term, and they’re in striking distance to regain control of the Legislature, while Wikler has got the organizational aspects humming along and may soon be in a position to do even more.
There’s plenty of well justified doom and gloom around what’s happening at the national level, but around these parts there’s reason for some optimism going into the next couple of years.
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. You can read more of his work at Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos.
