Representatives Mursau, Behnke, Gallagher Are Returned To Office

The Republican tsunami did not roll across the nation in the mid-term elections on Tuesday, Nov. 8 as some pollsters had predicted, but it certainly did roll through Marinette County, where voters favored every Republican candidate by at least a two to one margin over their Democrat Party opponent.
District 88 U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, a Republican, easily won return to office. He was supported by the widest margin of any contested race in Marinette County, with 14,162 votes to 1,052 for Libertarian Jacob Vanden Plas and 2,318 for Independent Paul Boucher. In Oconto County the margin was just as wide, with 12,645 votes for Gallagher, 1,457 for Vanden Plas and 2,318 for Boucher.
Incumbent Jeff Mursau, a Republican, easily won return to the State Assembly as 36th District representative. The margin in Marinette County was 7,100 votes for Mursau to 2,558 for challenger Ben Murray, a Democrat. In the Oconto County portion of the district voters favored Mursau by a margin of 4,143 to 1,254.
Marinette County voters favored incumbent Elijah Behnke, a Republican, for return to the State Assembly as 89th District representative by a margin of 5,705 to 3,058 over challenger Jane Benson, and Oconto County voters favored Behnke by a margin of 4,043 to 2,334.
Randy Miller, a Republican, unopposed as the candidate for Marinette County Sheriff, drew 16,251 votes. In January he will replace Sheriff Jerry Sauve, who is retiring when his term ends on Jan. 2, 2023.
Carrie Brazeau, also a Republican and also unopposed, drew 15,622 votes to become the new Marinette County Clerk of Courts. She will replace Sheila M. Dudka, who plans to retire when her current term ends on Monday, Jan. 2, 2003.
Statewide, with most, but not all, of the ballots counted, incumbent Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, appears to have been returned to office with 1,334,670 votes to 1,307,296 for challenger Mandela Barnes.
Democrat Governor Tony Evers, the incumbent, appears to have won return to office by a margin of 1,355,409 (51.2%) to 1,265,846 (47.8%) in his race against Republican challenger Tim Michels, a political newcomer.
 Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul, the incumbent, defeated Republican challenger Eric Toney by a narrow 51% to 49% margin, and the race was even closer for Secretary of State, where incumbent Doug LaFollette, a Democrat, won 48.3% of the vote over challenger Amy Loudenbeck, with 48.1%,  and 95% of the ballots counted. For Treasurer, Republican challenger John Leiber won with 50% of the vote to defeat Democrat Aaron Richardson, who was supported by 48% of the voters.
Clerks in most Marinette County municipalities reported extremely heavy voter turnout. In one of the two Town of Stephenson voting sites there had been more than 50 ballots cast by 7:30 a.m.
Town of Wagner Clerk Tina Davis reported they had people lined up to vote when the polls opened at 7 a.m., and the last voter of the day came in five minutes before the polls closed at 8 p.m. She said there were 362 voters, including 23 who registered to vote for the first time. The town has 464 eligible voters in the poll book, and for the primary elections there were 181 ballots cast. “We were very, very busy, with a steady flow all day long,” Davis said. Voters there favored Republican candidates by extremely high margins, as did voters all across Marinette County.
There are 34,111 established eligible voters in Marinette County and 24,930 registered voters, of whom 18,706 voted in Tuesday’s elections.