By Press Times Staff

BROWN COUNTY – The ballot for the April 6 general election is set following the primary results Tuesday, Feb. 16.

Moving on from a five-way Republican primary to face Democrat Karl Jaeger in a special election to represent the 89th Assembly District is Elijah Behnke.

Behnke (1,643 votes, 44.56 percent) outpolled Republican challengers Mike Kunesh (862 votes, 23.38 percent), Debbie Jacques (768 votes, 20.83 percent) and Mike Schneider (257 votes, 6.97 percent).

Another Republican on the ballot, David Kamps, announced before the primary he would be supporting Behnke and placed fifth (157 votes, 4.26 percent).

This special election will fill the seat of John Nygren, who resigned to become the executive director for the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans, a state health care lobbying organization.

The 89th Assembly District includes most of the Village of Suamico and part of the Village of Howard, as well as portions of Oconto and Marinette counties.

School board

Three local school districts had primaries in which one candidate was eliminated.

For the Howard-Suamico school board, AJ Walker (498, 11.58 percent) was eliminated from the pool of five candidates.

Incumbents Jeff Eilers (530 votes, 12.33 percent) and Vanessa Moran (1,321 votes, 30.73 percent) advance to the April general election to face Greg Klimek (1,126 votes, 26.19 percent), and Travis Veraghen (801 votes, 18.63 percent), with two seats up for election.

Five candidates also got narrowed down to four in the race for the De Pere school board.

Adam Clayton (361 votes, 7.97 percent), did not advance past the primary.

Incumbents Dan Van Straten (1,124 votes, 24.82 percent) and Jeff Mirkes (1,037 votes, 22.9 percent) will be challenged in the general election by Angela Hoisington (1,036 votes, 22.88 percent), and Chad Jeskewitz (957 votes, 21.14 percent), with two seats up for grabs in De Pere.

In the West De Pere school district, Ryan Van Den Heuvel (680 votes, 48.54 percent) and Jamie Kinjerski (509 votes, 36.33 percent) outpolled Riley Drew (210 votes, 14.99 percent), with Drew being eliminated for one seat up for election this April.

Incumbent Tom Van Den Heuvel decided not to seek a new three-year term.

De Pere city council

District 2 voters in De Pere will see incumbent Jonathon Hansen (394 votes, 55.18 percent) face Susan Netzel (225 votes, 31.51 percent) on the April ballot for a common council seat, as both outpolled Dan Gaumer (95 votes, 13.31 percent).

State Superintendent

In the only race all Brown County voters were able to cast ballots in Tuesday, state superintendent of public instruction, the results mirrored the statewide trend with former Brown Deer Superintendent Deborah Kerr (4,584 votes, 29.7 percent) and Pecatonica Superintendent Jill Underly (4,361, 28.26 percent) being the top two vote-getters in the seven-candidate field to advance to the general election.