GOP to choose nominees in special vote Tuesday

Governor failed to stave off state Senate election

MADISON – Tuesday’s GOP primary for a special state Senate election pits a young businessman against a conservative lawmaker who has often clashed with legislative leaders.

In another primary, four Republicans are vying for a seat in the state Assembly. One would-be candidate has said the Assembly speaker has already lined up behind one Republican and warned the race could be costly.

Only one Democrat is running in each race, so they don’t have primaries on their side.

The special elections will be watched closely nationally as possible bellwethers heading into the fall midterms.

The special elections are being held to replace former Sen. Frank Lasee (RDe Pere) and former Rep. Keith Ripp (RLodi), who stepped down in December to take jobs in GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.

Walker tried to leave the seats open, but in March ordered special elections after losing a string of court rulings that found he was required to do so.

The winners will have to run again in the fall if they want to remain in the Legislature.

In the primary for Senate District 1, Rep. André Jacque (R-De Pere) faces businessman Alex Renard. The winner will advance to the June 12 special election and face Democrat Caleb Frostman, the executive director of the Door County Economic Development Corp.

The district includes all of Door and Kewaunee counties and parts of Brown, Manitowoc, Calumet and Outagamie counties.

Jacque has long clashed with GOP leaders as he has pursued conservative causes. Some of those GOP leaders, in turn, have backed Renard, the operations manager at his family’s Renco Machine Co. in Green Bay.

In 2015, Jacque helped advance a bill to eliminate the state’s prevailing wage law even though Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) insisted there weren’t enough votes to pass it. That law set minimum pay levels for those building roads, schools and other publicly funded projects.

Later that year, lawmakers and Walker scaled back — but did not eliminate — the prevailing wage law. They fully repealed the law two years later.

Renard hasn’t said whether he supports the decision to repeal the prevailing wage law, according to an April report from the conservative website Media Trackers.

The two have differed over guns, with Jacque backing so-called “constitutional carry” that would allow people to carry concealed weapons without having to get permits or training. Renard told WisPolitics he supports the current system that requires permits and training.

Renard has said if wins the seat he won’t accept any pay or claim any expense reimbursements this year because the Legislature is not slated to go into session again until 2019.

As of the end of April, Renard had raised about $147,000, including $75,000 of his own money. Jacque had raised about $52,000, including $6,500 of his own money.

In Assembly District 42, four Republicans are running — karate school owner and Lodi Town Board member Jon Plumer; Colleen Locke-Murphy of Poynette; Columbus Town Chairman Darren Schroeder; and self-described “Trump conservative” Spencer Zimmerman of Janesville.

The district includes most of Columbia County and covers parts of Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Marquette counties. Zimmerman lives outside the district and would have to move if he wins the seat.

The primary winner will face Democrat Ann Groves Lloyd, a Lodi alderwoman and University of Wisconsin-Madison academic adviser, and independent Gene Rubenstein of Pardeeville.