As I See It
Best look at La Crosse’s mayor candidates happens at WIZM’s debate tonight
A mayoral debate tonight.
Shaundel Washington-Spivey vs. Chris Kahlow.
It’s the only debate in town.
The election cycle begins next week Tuesday with early voting and ends on April Fools Day.
And then, two weeks after that, we’ll have a new mayor taking over for the retiring Mitch Reynolds.
The primary election isn’t really an indicator of turnout, but only 6,209 people showed up to vote in the primary when we had four candidates for mayor.
There are 32,000 registered voters, so that’s a 19.4 percent turnout, but there are around 43,000 eligible voters in the city, which means turnout in that election was actually closer to 14.4 percent.
Regardless, if you haven’t studied up on your candidates much, tonight’s debate is a great way to do that. It begins at 6 p.m. at the UW-La Crosse Cleary Alumni Center.
Otherwise go to the WIZM News election page and check out the questionnaire and interviews.
But I don’t think anything is comparable to listening to these two candidates live, answering questions on the fly with their opponent across the stage, to see how they’ll be representative of La Crosse as mayor.
As I see it, I’m Rick Solem.
Bob N.
March 12, 2025 at 9:38 am
Solem really has a hang-up on voter turnout. He’s written about it here for weeks. For the February primary the temperature and wind chill were so cold that schools were being closed that week, there had been nearly no advertising by any of the candidates, and no differences on issues expressed by any of the candidates. In other words…BORING. Plus, Spring Election primaries historically draw a small crowd.
This time around the turnout should improve pairing a sitting Council member with a voting record challenged by a non-profit leader, an ultra-liberal as evidenced by his record on the La Crosse School Board.
What will probably pull the vote higher than the Mayor’s contest in La Crosse is the Supreme Court Race deciding if the Democrats maintain their slight advantage on the Court as they eye their next big objective, the repeal of Act 10 and flipping of Congressional seats Districts 1 and 3 through redistricting which would go a long way in giving control of the U.S. House to the Democrats.
No less than Elon Musk and George Soros are donating to this one.