Category: Politics
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WI 17th Senate District Candidate Forums
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.
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July Announcements (July Meeting 1:30, 30 minutes early
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!
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4th of July Parade Mineral Point 11:00
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.
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Showing up for a court hearing should be protected
Anyone can go to immigration hearings to bear witness, offer support, and stand up for due process and the rule of law. We must keep showing up for our immigrant neighbors in whatever way we can. Always a pleasure talking with Ali Velshi! youtu.be/jHKWznvDMS4
— Brad Lander (@bradlander.bsky.social) June 28, 2025 at 2:36 PM
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President Biden Pays respects to Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in Minnesota state capitol
President Biden arrived at the Minnesota state capitol to pay respects to Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband who were murdered in their homes by a MAGA assassin. This is what a real president looks like. God, how we miss him. All Biden did was get older, and look where we are.
— Denise Wheeler (@denisedwheeler.bsky.social) June 27, 2025 at 8:55 PM
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