If the resolution passes the County Board on Thursday, candidates for three open seats will have less than a month to circulate nomination papers. Circulation starts Friday and papers are due April 9th – only 18 days!
RESOLUTION
The item attached in legistar doesn’t really seem like a resolution, its just a motion? Or an announcement? So some bizarre combination of a resoltuion, a motion and an announcement? Doesn’t say who sponsored or authored it.
MOTION ORDERING A SPECIAL ELECTION FOR DANE COUNTY SUPERVISOR – DISTRICT 1, 17, AND 33
The Dane County Board of Supervisors hereby orders that a special election be held for the office of Dane County Supervisor – Districts 1, 17, and 33.
District 1 was made vacant on February 22 by Supervisor Mary Kolar.
District 17 was made vacant on January 29, 2019 by Supervisor Jeff Pertl.
District 33 was made vacant on January 29, 2019 by Supervisor Jenni Dye.
The duly elected supervisors shall serve for the remainder of the term ending on April 20, 2020.
The special election will be held on Tuesday, June 4, 2019. If there are three or more candidates, a special primary will be held on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Nomination papers for this office may be circulated beginning Friday, March 22, 2019 and the deadline for filing nomination papers is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9. Candidates are required to gather a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 200 valid signatures.
District 1 encompasses wards 43, 47, and 50-54 in downtown Madison https://board.countyofdane.com/Districts/Map/1
District 17 is comprised of wards 10-12 and 15-17 on the East Side of Madison https://board.countyofdane.com/Districts/Map/17
District 33 wards 7-8 and 12-19 in the City of
Fitchburg https://board.countyofdane.com/Districts/Map/33
COMPRESSED TIMELINE
District 17 & 33 will have gone without a supervisor for 7 weeks before this action is being taken – and then they are going to rush the election. District 1 will have been without an alder for a month.
Typically the nominations papers are circulated starting Dec. 1st and candidates have 31 days plus the number of days until the 1st Tuesday, or Wednesday if that is a holiday. These candidates will get nearly half the time, with only 18 days.
Typically, there are 7 weeks before the primary. These candidates will only get 4 weeks.
Typically there are 6 more weeks before the general. These candidates will only get 4 weeks.
The entire election cycle that typically takes a little over 4 months, will be wrapped up in a little over 2 months.
WHAT WILL THESE RACES BE LIKE?
Will neighborhoods have time to arrange debates, will there be time to get ads or articles in neighborhood newsletters, will the Cap Times and State Journal do articles and endorsements, will all the organizations that do endorsements have time to set up a process? Will people even realize there is an election? Will there be early voting? Will there be easy access to the early voting? Will we even get any candidates to run – or will people just be anointed to serve and be bestowed incumbency?
WILL YOU RUN?
As a candidate, this is a perfect race to run! It’s short. The weather is great! You only need to get hard core supporters to show up. If you’re involved at all in your district, its a relatively easy thing to do – if you can get people to the polls.
The maps are linked above, but in case you didn’t open them, here they are right in your face and you can’t ignore them! 🙂
Downtown – District 1 (Mary Kolar)
East Madison – District 17 (Jeff Pertl)
Fitchburg – District 33 (Jenni Dye)
NO INFORMAITON AVAILBLE ON THE CLERK’S WEBSITE
If you’re interested in circulating papers in 2.5 days there is some information on the clerk’s website now. There is simple a “Special Election – June 4, 2019” note and then they have “Candidates Tracking for the Special Election”
That tracking sheet has the papers that you need to file. Or you can find them on the clerk’s website as well:
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How to Run for County Office
WE CAN DO BETTER
Insiders are already running for the all 3 of the offices. Liz Doyle is running for Mary Kolar’s vacant seat in District 1 and Alder David Ahrens is running for District 17 where Jeff Pertl has moved on. Ann DeGarmo is running for Jenni Dye’s seat in District 33.
I understand the urgency of making sure people have representation – I think I’m struggling with the following:
– leaving the seats vacant until the special election
– the length of time it took for them to come up with the process
– the lack of public information
– the hand picked candidates that are already running
– the short time to circulate nomination papers for anyone just finding out about this (especially combined with 4 hours of official notice that its actually happening before circulating papers begins)
Typically, or perhaps I should say in the olden days, I was under the impression that seats were filled quickly with someone who wasn’t going to run – preferably a former alder or former supervisor. Then an election was called. Holding the seats open and rushing the election is not how this should be done.
