In a decisive victory, David Bogdala (R) defeated Lydia Spottswood in the mayoral race on Tuesday evening in Kenosha. All votes have been counted, with Bogdala securing 53% with 9051 votes, over Spottswood’s 46.6% and 7960 votes. Bogdala has served as District 17 Alderman for the past 15 years. Spottswood was also a former Alderwoman, and was defeated in a Congressional race by Paul Ryan in the 1990’s.
Bogdala said, “I’m very humbled and honored to be Kenosha’s next mayor. I understand and appreciate the challenges ahead of us. As I have for the past 16 years as alderman, I will continue to represent every person in Kenosha. I also want to congratulate the new City Council members and looking forward to working with all of you!”
Bogdala was endorsed by the current mayor John Antaramian and is often portrayed as a carbon copy replacement. Some have also questioned his many flip-flops on votes over the years, i.e. his recent Yes vote on the casino. Spottswood ran a strange campaign heavily focused on women’s reproductive rights, which is not in the jurisdiction of the City. Local Democrat groups supporting Spotswood also flooded money into Kenosha for daily mailers aimed at bashing Bogdala for an old picture of him with former Governor Scott Walker.
There were also 6 contested City Council seats. Incumbent Alderman Jan Michalski handily defeated Tanya McLean in District 3, with 72% of the votes.
Incumbent Alderwoman Holly Kangas also won in District 4, beating candidate Cali Buchino with 61% of the vote.
A City employee, Peni Keeling, won in District 8 against Ricky Romano with 65% of the vote. Current Alderman Dave Mau (me, the author of this article) chose not to seek re-election. I’ll write a full article about my decision soon, but let me just say now, the job is hell. But for someone who’s worked for the bureaucracy as long as Peni has, my guess is her perspective on tolerating it is quite different than mine. If so, she joins the rank and file in the council, who seem to love big bureaucracy.
Incumbent Alderman Anthony Kennedy beat candidate Kathy Woods for the 2nd term in a row in District 10, with 57% of the vote.
Businessman Kenny Harper won against Joel Trudell with 65% of the vote in District 14, where current Alderman Dan Prozanski also chose to not run for re-election. Harper told KCE that was he was excited about advocating for his district.
Incumbent Alderman Dominic Ruffalo easily won in District 16, garnering 69% of the vote over opponent Steven Guion.
Newcomer Art DeBaere won in District 17, running uncontested to replace outgoing alderman and Mayor-Elect Bogdala.
In total, 11 districts were uncontested, which accounts for 65% of the city, and unfortunately that seems to be the case every election. No one wants these jobs, and I highly commend those who are stepping up to do them, regardless of their beliefs or policies. But in general, there’s really not many changes on the council and it’s status quo as usual.
The full election results with details can be seen on the Kenosha County website: Election Results.
36 Responses
Womp womp, same old same old.
Could it be more that Spottswood lost? Neither candidate was particularly inspirational. But Bogdala is not Spottswood.
Bagdola knows the work, spottswood not as sharp.
Sad to see we will be stuck with Kennedy a little longer.
Missed you at the gig last night. Heard you red pulled out. Kinda sad but take care dood.
Maybe you’ll get better soon and stop being such a dumba$$?
Your politics is ruining your life. Be a socialist. It’s fun.
Heather Iverson’s win is a definite plus for the community. Yesterday Gov Evers insanely vetoed keeping boys out of girls’ sports, which made it even clearer to me that we cannot trust his judgment. Evers appointed Gagliardi. No thank you.
Some people mocked Heather for not applying to be considered by the worst Governor ever, but she showed great wisdom in not wanting to have any of the Evers stench on her. Turned out waiting and applying for the job with the people was indeed, wiser than having skeletor give her a head start and the ability to possibly have an incumbent advantage among the uninformed.
Try the lawfirm of Gagliardi and Michaels! Their motto is no experience, but dream of sucking on the government tit.
We can thank Lydia for making Kenosha the laugh of late night TV.
With a city over 100,000 the voter turnout was horrible. I couldn’t get myself to go over to even vote, thats how inspiring these candidates were.
Im glad to see Iverson win over a spoiled brat, (good job, daddy).
And was happy to see smart diversity in district 14. Who would want a childish, white , race baiter to represent them.
#protip, stay away from these type of democrats!
well thanks –because of voters like you, we have a new school board filled with sexually deviant members who want to push porn and radical gender ideology on children. thanks much
Don’t vote…
2 amendments
Presidential primary.
We see why keno is as ot is.
You are bragging about how dumb u are.
The systemic corruption in Kenosha city government will continue and intensify. Bogdala will take over for the current corrupt mayor. Kennedy will continue to sell out his people for crumbs off the table. Now Peni Kneeling, with her intense history of licking Morrissey’s boots, is now positioned to continue to protect the corrupt administration.
Wow! Kenosha is even worse than what it was before.
David took the bio weapon mascarading as a vaccine so his term will be short lived
I’m not surprised by the results. Disappointed, but not surprised. At least Iverson won her race.
Congrats Kenny – we need a level headed business man as an alder, not a loose cannon like Joel. Joel, Kenosha just isn’t into you – go away.
I know nothing about Harper, but I can see from his photo he is not a fat slob living off his wife who wears t-shirts he is now too fat to wear and shorts to city council meetings.
Harper looks sharper!
No… that will be Sabrina Landry at the KUSD board meetings.
The systemic corruption in Kenosha city government will continue.
Bogdala is a mini-me of the outgoing mayor. Kennedy will continue to sell out his people for crumbs off the table. Peni Knelling will apply her years of experience of licking Morrissey’s boots to continue to resist any attempt to rid city government of it’s criminal influences.
It is hard to believe that Kenosha took a step backward with this election.
We’re being overwhelmed by stupid people.
I see some good wins here. I also see a couple bad ones.
The people have spoken though and will get what they deserve.
A new group of people out to line their pockets
Gags got gagged. Loser
David, I am very bummed about this! You were a phenomenal alderman and I greatly appreciate all of your help!!!
Thank you Dave for keeping Hillary Spottswood out that chair . Maybe she’ll go away now.
Who are the knuckleheads who voted for Joel Trudell ? And Evanston resident Stephanie Knezz ? Are you people crazy ? At least Andy Berg will be sent packing . Rant over
Sorry to see Terry Rose not make it. He isn’t on my side of the aisle, but the man has my respect as a strait-shooter. Something that is sorely lacking in Kenoshas leadership.
We can thank Lydia for making Kenosha the laugh of late night TV.
Bogdala= Antaramian’s buttplug
glad your gone…………
Bogo is a fat turd out for himself
A decisive win for the mayoral candidate? That is such a joke of a statement.
We have close to 100,000 citizens and yet he only wins by a little over 1000 votes with so few people voting. That’s not decisive at all in numbers.
Winning by more than 6% is often considered a landslide in a presidential election. I realize this isn’t presidential, but it’s still a large margin when it comes to politics. Most high profile elections are much closer. But I do agree with you that the voter turnout was low.
The turnout tells you all you need to know about these candidates. They are shitty.
People would rather not vote at all then vote for these candidates. No, voting for the “lesser of two evils” is a poor reason to vote for one or the other. You are a sucker if you voted based off that view….
Bottom line, most people in the city could care less who the judge or mayor is because 99.99% of us won’t come into contact with anything they put their hands on. We know they are going to be fuckups either way. Bogdala will do shitty things within months and I’m sure Iverson will let criminals off lightly her first month. The election goes to show how few qualified candidates we have for judge.
People tend to ignore all spring elections, unfortunately. The turnout this week was about average.
Bogdala will find out soon enough how much fun the job isn’t
I’m sorry, did Elijah not win? Wtf is this conspiracy.