Winning as few as 1 in 4 voters in the Aug. 11 Democratic primary could be enough to win a state Senate seat representing Madison.
That's because seven candidates are vying for the seat that Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, has held for 58 years. And no Republican or independent candidates are seeking the job.
On this week's political podcast, Milfred and Hands play audio clips from and assess the large and diverse field of challengers. The Wisconsin State Journal editorial board recently met with all but one of the challengers and issued an endorsement.
Click the play button to listen.
Kelda Roys, a well-known former state lawmaker who made a strong bid for governor, is the candidate to beat. Brian Benford, a former City Council member who coaches minority students to succeed at college, impressed our editorial board, too. The knock on John Imes, a tireless environmentalist and Shorewood Hills trustee, is that he's run twice for Assembly in the past and lost by significant margins. Aisha Moe, a recent UW-Madison, is spirited and bright but has never held public office.
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Neither has Amani Latimer Burris, a former journalist and teacher, who touts herself as a uniter. William Henry Davis III wants to advocate for the disabled and homeless. Nada Elmikashfi, the only candidate who didn’t participate in our editorial board interviews, grew up in Sudan and recently graduated from UW. She has raised money and could be a more activist alternative to the more established Democrats in this race.
Our editorial board will be endorsing in some additional legislative races as soon as Wednesday. They similarly are for Madison seats and are likely to be decided by next week's Democratic primary. Stay tuned for that. Our editorial board Monday was interviewing every candidate for two open seats in Assembly districts 48 and 76 on Monday. District 76 features seven candidates. District 48 has four.
"Center Stage with Milfred and Hands" is the State Journal's weekly podcast from the sensible center of Wisconsin politics featuring Scott Milfred, the newspaper's editorial page editor, and Phil Hands, the State Journal's editorial cartoonist.
Find and subscribe to "Center Stage, with Milfred and Hands" on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or your favorite podcasting app. You also can listen to past episodes of "Center Stage" and see the podcast's webpage by clicking here.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this article stated that Amani Latimer Burris had raised little to no money for her campaign. That was based on her campaign failing to file a campaign finance report on time. She filed her report late, according to her campaign, because of a computer problem. Her report now shows that she raised $21,000, including about $3,900 in personal loans.