Two candidates each for 67th Assembly District and Senate District 23 in November 4 election

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  Two candidates will be on the ballot in the November 4 election for the state’s 67th Assembly District and for Senate District 23, while incumbents in the Dunn County sheriff’s race and the clerk of courts have no opponents.

Colfax resident Gary Stene will be on the ballot as the Democratic candidate for the 67th Assembly District.

Stene has served in a number of local government positions, including five terms as Colfax village president, four terms on the Dunn County Board, two terms on the Colfax Board of Education, and ten years on the Dunn County Economic Development Committee.

Larson, also from Colfax, is the incumbent Republican representative for the 67th Assembly District.

Larson has served two terms as representative of the 67th Assembly District and was first elected in 2010.

Senate District 23

Democratic challenger for Senate District 23 Phil Swanhorst of Chippewa Falls will be on the November 4 ballot.

Incumbent Republican State Senator Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls, District 23, also will be on the ballot.

Moulton was first elected to the state senate in 2010.

The 23rd Senate District includes the 67th, 68th and 69th Assembly Districts.

Clerk of courts

Clara D. Minor, the incumbent Democratic clerk of courts in Dunn County, will be on the November 4 ballot for clerk of courts.

No Republican candidates filed nomination papers for Dunn County clerk of courts.

Dunn County sheriff

Sheriff Dennis Smith will be on the ballot November 4 as the Democratic candidate for Dunn County sheriff.

Smith faced Democratic challenger Chris Kruse in the August primary.

Kruse is Dunn County’s medical examiner.

Smith won the primary with 56 percent of the vote.

Sheriff Smith is a Colfax resident and has been sheriff for 14 years. He has worked in law enforcement for 38 years.

No Republican candidates filed nomination papers for Dunn County sheriff.

State referendum

On the November 4 ballot, voters will be asked whether the state’s constitution should be amended to require that revenues generated by use of the state’s transportation system should be deposited into a transportation fund administered by the state Department of Transportation for the exclusive purpose of funding Wisconsin’s transportation systems and to prohibit transfers of money from this fund.

County referendum

Voters in Dunn County will be asked for their opinions on two questions.

The first question asks whether the governor and state legislature should accept federal funding for the expansion of Medicaid/BadgerCare in Wisconsin to cover people up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level to ensure that additional thousands of Wisconsin residents have access to quality and affordable health coverage.

The second question asks whether the Constitution of the United States should be amended to state that only human beings, and not corporations, unions, non-profit organizations or similar associations, are endowed with constitutional rights.

The second part of the second question to amend the United States Constitution asks whether voters agree that money is not speech, and therefore, regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.

U.S. Congressional

Tony Kurtz will be on the ballot as the Republican candidate for Wisconsin’s U.S. Congressional District 3.

Incumbent Ron Kind will be on the November 4 ballot as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congressional District 3.

Kind has served as the United States Representative for the district since 1997.

The Third Congressional District includes the counties of Buffalo, Crawford, Dunn, Eau Claire, Grant, Iowa, Jackson, Juneau, LaCrosse, Lafayette, Monroe, Pepin, Pierce, Richland, St. Croix, Trempealeau, Vernon, and parts of Clark and Sauk counties.

No voter ID

Wisconsin’s 2011 voter identification law will not be in effect for the November 4 election.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in September upheld the voter ID law for the November 4 election.

In October, the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked voter ID temporarily for the November 4 election.