Two primary elections needed for Oconto County Board

Eight districts in all have races; two seats have no one on the ballot
By: 
NEW Media Staff

Primary elections will be needed to narrow the field of candidates in two Oconto County Board supervisory districts, and there will be races in those and six other districts come April.

In two other districts, write-in ballots will likely determine the winners after no one registered for the ballot before the Jan. 4 deadline.

Some changes were likely after the County Board approved new district boundaries in November that created five districts with no incumbent and five districts with two or more incumbent board members. In four of the latter districts, one of the incumbents decided not to run for reelection.

The other is District 9, where three incumbents reside — Allan Stranz, Fran Wranosky and Leonard Wahl. The district is comprised of Ward 2 in the Town of Morgan and Ward 3 in the Town of Abrams. Wranosky decided not to run for another term, but Stranz and Wahl will be on the ballot, along with Jolene Barkhaus and Gordon Aprill. A Feb. 15 primary will reduce the field to the two candidates who will be on the April 5 ballot.

A primary is also set for District 20, one of the places where there is no incumbent. Covering Ward 1 of the Town of Oconto Falls and Ward 1 of the Town of Stiles, the candidates are Timothy C. O’Harrow, Keith Schneider, Jerrold Schroeder and Richard Wood.

Other districts with competitive races:

• District 3 (Town of Little Suamico, Ward 3, and Town of Chase, Ward 3) — Brandon Dhuey and Frank Nowak are running for the open seat.

• District 8 (Town of Abrams, Ward 1, and Town of Morgan, Ward 1) — David Behrend and Curt Haffeman are running for the open seat.

• District 11 (Town of Oconto, Ward 2, and Town of Pensaukee, Ward 2) — Incumbent Supervisor Diane Nichols is running against Patrick Scanlan; another incumbent who lives in the district, Karl Ballestad, decided not to run.

• District 22 (Town of Brazeau, Ward 1, and Town of Spruce, Ward 1) — Incumbent Supervisor David Parmentier and Terry Brazeau are on the ballot; County Board Chairman Paul Bednarik, who also lives in the district, is not seeking reelection.

• District 28 - (Town of Breed, Ward 1, and Town of How, Ward 1) — Carol M. Heise and Richard VandeWettering are running for the open seat.

No candidate is on the ballot in District 7 (Town of Chase, Wards 4 and 5) or District 12 (City of Oconto, Wards 1 and 2). By law, the seat is offered to the person with the most write-in votes; if that person declines, the county board can appoint someone. A candidate can file as a registered write-in through the county clerk’s office.

In addition to Bednarik, Ballestad, and Wranosky, six other supervisors submitted their notices of non-candidacy: Elizabeth Paape, Robert Pott, Rose Stellmacher, Buzz Kamke, Kenneth Linzmeyer and Gregory Sekela. Stellmacher’s exit left incumbent Supervisor John Matravers unopposed for reelection, and only one candidate emerged to replace the other five, as well — Chris Augustine (for Paape’s seat), Dennis Kroll (Pott), Joel Lavarda (Kamke), Char Meier (Linzmeyer) and Robert Wolf (Sekela).

Sixteen other incumbent supervisors are running for reelection without opposition: Don Bartels Jr., Tom Bitters, Judy Buhrandt, David Christianson, Tim Cole, Dick Doeren, Gary Frank, Guy Gooding, Stephanie Holman, Doug McMahon, Tracy Ondik, Elmer Ragan, Bart Schindel, Al Schreiber, Alan Sleeter and Theresa Willems.