New county board members include 2 from La Crosse City Council

A few new faces will be joining the La Crosse County Board, after last week’s election. 

In results released on Monday, La Crosse city council members Gary Padesky and Barb Janssen won county board seats. 

Padesky defeated incumbent supervisor Sharon Hampson.  

Janssen won the seat of Doug Weidenbach, after Weidenbach’s name was left off the ballot for not having enough valid signatures on nomination papers. 

Dawn Wacek unseated Jerome Gundersen, and supervisor Ralph Geary won another term by just two votes over challenger Coey Oliver. 

A majority of the incumbent supervisors won unopposed. 

Joe Biden and Jill Karofsky were other big winners in La Crosse County’s election. 

Biden scored 62 per cent of the votes in the Democratic presidential primary, with Bernie Sanders a distant second. 

In the state Supreme Court race, challenger Karofsky received 66 per cent in La Crosse County, to 34 per cent for incumbent Justice Dan Kelly. 

Onalaska voters gave interim Mayor Kim Smith a full term, as she defeated Terry Bauer. 

Smith moved up from the Onalaska city council to the mayor’s seat when Joe Chilsen suddenly retired before the election. 

She also narrowly held onto her council seat.  

Turnout in La Crosse County was 43 per cent, in an election featuring massive absentee voting and social distancing at polling places because of the coronavirus.