September 6th the Grant County Democratic Party will be marching in the Platteville Dairy Days Parade. The parade begins lining up at 8:45 a.m. in the main parking lot of UW-Platteville on Hickory St. This parade is a big deal in those parts. I attended last year and hope to do the same again this year.It would be great if some of our friends in Iowa county could help make for a strong Democratic turnout in the parade. Derrick Van Orden participated in the parade last year – let’s do our part to show him that he’s in for a rough time next year! Organizers have prohibited overt political signage in the parade, so the Grant Co. party wants anyone who wants to carry a sign to emphasize community values on the order of the following:
First up, the difficult situation at the cheese factory in Monroe continues without an obvious path toward resolution. The new owners of the plant want to implement ID requirements using e-Verify, and the workers fear that this move could lead to workers being fired and/or deported, causing people who have worked at that plant in some cases for decades to lose their jobs. Indivisible Southwest Wisconsin is sponsoring a Labor Day Community Dinner in Monroe for workers, their families and the community that has been supporting them. If you are interested in attending please contact Indivisible SWW at
The Iowa County Democrats will be sponsoring a big Community Picnic on Sunday, August 10th from 4 to 7 p.m. It will take place at Prairie Creek Farm at 6620 Johnson Drive, which is just south of Ridgeway.
We will have music from the Raging Grannies from Madison and folk singer Denny Egstad. Invited speakers to the picnic include Lt. Governor Sarah Rodriguez and and Rep. Mark Pocan There will also be a silent auction to raise money for local campaigning.
Expect brats and pulled pork with a potluck meal. Bring your best dish to share with your progressive friends! There will also be a cash bar.
Directions to the Picnic: From 18/151, take exit 52 near Ridgeway and go south to the roundabout. Take the second exit from the roundabout, which is Prairie Road. After 1.1 miles continue on Prairie Rd to the left. Proceed another .4 miles on Prairie Rd, and the entrance to Prairie Creek Farm will be on your left. Phone is 608.341.9196.
The next forum will take place in Hazel Green on Saturday, July 26th, beginning at 12:00 noon. Lunch will be served. The location is the Hazel Green Opera House, 2130 N. Main Street, Hazel Green.”
Five aspirants seeking to take on Howard Marklein in the 17th Senate District in November 2026 met July 12 in Dodgeville at a candidate forum. Corrine, Sam, Lisa, Matt, Jenna
Here are the results of a straw poll taken at the Wisconsin Senate District 17 forum of people considering a run against Howard Marklein held in Dodgeville on July 12, 2025. We were delighted to have five people interested, and in the turnout this event generated (over 50 people in attendance, not including the forum participants and organizers).
To score the ranked choice votes we used software available through www.rcv123.org, a nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public on ranked choice voting and providing tools for communities, schools and individuals to use to conduct ranked choice voting.
We asked people to rank their top three candidates; some ranked all five. Forty-seven people voted. Ranked choice voting provides a way for voters to vote for their first choice without feeling like they are “throwing away their vote” if it’s unlikely their candidate can win. If no candidate achieves more than 50% of the vote on the first round, the person with the fewest votes is eliminated and the voters who had their first choice eliminated have their 2nd choice vote counted as a first choice, and so no. Please keep in mind these results are a mere snapshot in time and a small sample size, reflecting the audience impressions of this one event. Many were seeing the potential candidates for the first time. Note that it took four rounds for any candidate to get beyond the 50% threshold.
the monthly meeting of the county party has been bumped forward 30 minutes to 1:30, to make sure that we can get through the business at hand and leave plenty of time to get to the candidate forum in Dodgeville.
Next, also on Saturday the 12th, we will be holding our planned candidate forum for the people seeking the nomination to run against Howard Marklein in the 17th State Senate district. The forum will begin promptly at 4:00 and end before 6:00, which will give everyone who attends a chance to talk one-on-one with the candidates. Location for the forum is the Merrimac and Main center in Dodgeville, 115 W. Merrimac St. Four of the original seven candidates will be attending: Jenna Jacobson, Lisa White, Matt Raboi, and Corrine Hendrickson. Todd Larson and Gerry Bollig have withdrawn from the race, and Sam Rikkers has a conflict that prevents him from attending. You all should come — I think it will be interesting!
Third, the Iowa County Dems will be marching in the Farmers Appreciation Day Parade in Dodgeville on Sunday July 13th. We could use help with decorating our “float” (i.e., my pickup) and with marching in the parade. Lineup begins at 10:00 a.m., and the parade begins at 11:00. I will send out details about where we will gather to do the decorating in a couple of days. Please let me know if you are interested in joining us, if you have not already done so.
And finally, the Fairs Maps Coalition, which is advocating for the creation of a non-partisan mechanism for future legislative and congressional redistricting in Wisconsin, will be holding a public forum on the subject also on Sunday, July 13th, from 4:00-6:00 in Dodgeville. I do not know the location, but there is an online registration form for the event. What a propitious moment it is to hear about that project!
The annual 4th of July parade in Mineral Point, beginning at 11:00. A wonderful parade, it is quite something. You would have trouble believing Mineral Point could possibly accommodate so many people. As is customary, the Iowa County Dems will be part of the parade, hopefully featuring some of our pet photo contest winners, along with our 17th Senate district candidates. Please come and join us, if you can! There will be a delegation from our neighbors in Grant County joining us, and we would love to have you there, too! If you are interested in marching, please let Tom know to send you specifics about when and where we will be meeting to decorate the float and get lined up for the parade.
If marching isn’t your thing — or even if it is — please come to the Open House at our office at 43 High. St., which begins right after the parade. There will be cake, cookies, watermelon, cool things to drink and photos from the pet contest, along with sparkling conversation. If you haven’t poked your head in to say “hi” of late, do so! We would love to catch up.
