The Spring 2022 non-partisan elections were this past Tuesday, April 5th. All 29 of the county board seats were up for reelection and 21 of the 29 seats were contested. Each member of the county board represents around 3,645 people and serves a two year term.

 

Out of the 21 contested races, 14 of them included an incumbent candidate. 10 of the contested incumbents were reelected. Carl Anton of District 5, Kevin Stelljes of District 8, Donald Mowry of District 9, and Nathan Anderson of District 20 were unable to secure enough votes to be reelected. County Board President Nick Smiar of District 15 was also reelected and will serve another two year term. Another result of Tuesday’s election was the passing of the Eau Claire County Clean Water Referendum. The referendum asked whether the State of Wisconsin should establish a right to clean water to protect human health, the environment, and the diverse cultural and natural heritage of Wisconsin. 

Recounts were conducted for Districts 11 and 23. For District 11, Incumbent Nathan Otto led at the end of the night with by a margin of nine votes over opponent Tara Balts. After the recount Balts had lost one vote which led to Ottos reelection by ten votes. For District 23 Incumbent Robin Leary led by only three votes over challenger Donald Zwicker. After the recount, Leary had lost one vote but Donald Zwicker had lost two which secured Leary as the winner.

 

Below are the results and vote counts for each district and the referendum: 

*=Incumbent

District 1

Candidate	Total	Vote %
Courtney Kneifl	147	36.39%
Todd Meyer	257	63.61%

 

District 2

Amanda Babb	325	54.44%
Brent Knutson	272	45.56%

 

District 3

Joe Knight*	398	54.52%
Gary Mizer	331	45.34%

 

District 4

Stella Pagonis*

266

97.44%

 

District 5

Carl Anton*	118	37.34%
Larry Hoekstra	197	62.34%

 

District 6

Dane Zook*

504

99.02%

 

District 7

Steve Chilson*

689

98.99%

 

District 8

Cory W. Sisk	285	53.47%
Kevin Stelljes*	247	46.34%

 

District 9

Donald Mowry*	400	44.94%
Allen Myren	489	54.94%

 

District 10

Dori Pulse	358	41.87%
Nancy Coffey*	493	57.66%

 

District 11 (Results after recount)

Nathan Otto*	187	51.37%
Tara Balts	177	48.62%

 

District 12

Brett Geboy	349	57.97%
David Lehmkuhl	251	41.69%

 

District 13

Connie Russell*

493

98.40%

 

District 14

Wayne Peters	226	44.05%
Judy Gatlin*	285	55.56%

 

District 15

Joshua Naponiello	59	24.69%
Nick Smiar*	179	74.90%

 

District 16

Benaiah Stanley	118	32.69%
David Hirsch	241	66.76%

 

District 17

Mary M. Sommerfeld	387	38.82%
Thomas Vue	607	60.88%

 

District 18

James A. Dunning*	139	63.76%
Matthew Lehner	74	33.94%

 

District 19

Kathleen Kivlin	232	35.31%
Gerald Jerry Wilkie*	425	64.69%

 

District 20

Nathan D. Anderson*	353	40.62%
John Folstad	513	59.03%

 

District 21

Mark Beckfield*

514

99.04%

 

District 22

Katherine Schneider*

608

99.18%

 

District 23 (Results after recount) 

Robin J. Leary*	348	50.29%
Don Zwicker	344	49.71%

 

District 24

Lewis Titus	313	39.32%
Heather DeLuka*	482	60.55%

 

District 25

Brian Bauer	255	41.60%
Jodi Lepsch	356	58.08%

 

District 26

Tami Schraufnagel*

244

97.99%

 

District 27

Kyle Johnson	221	52.25%
Trudy J. Grill	198	46.81%

 

District 28

Kimberly Cronk*

511

98.84%

 

District 29

Josh Stanley	234	42.47%
Missy Christopherson*	317	57.53%

 

More Information

Election Results Summary Report (Eau Claire County)

 

Posted by Danya Morman, Governmental Affairs Intern

morman@eauclairechamber.org