Spiker, Doherty prevail in aldermanic primary

They move to District 13 special election Aug. 13

Scott Spiker and Patty Doherty prevailed in Tuesday’s special primary for the District 13 aldermanic seat, knocking five other candidates out of the running and advancing to the Aug. 13 special election to fill the seat vacated at the end of May by longtime Ald. Terry Witkowski.

Witkowski was elected to the Common Council in 2003. At a news conference when he stepped down, he said he had been planning to leave the seat since September.

Spiker, the legislative assistant to Witkowski since 2015, filed papers to run before Witkowski announced his resignation. He received 44.5% of the vote.

Doherty, the legislative assistant to Ald. Bob Donovan, received support from the Milwaukee Police Association and the Milwaukee Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 215 in addition to south side Alds. Donovan, Mark Borkowski and Tony Zielinski.

She received 24.7% of the vote.

City Plan Commission Chairwoman Patricia Torres Najera came in third and did not advance to the special election. She received 15.5% of the vote.

Torres Najera is also director of partnerships and development at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education and recently received her doctorate in urban studies from UWM.

In the days before the election, outside spending by the independent expenditure fund of Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele on behalf of Torres Najera riled some of her opponents.

James Krickeberg, a real estate broker whose team works for RE/MAX Realty 100, received 8.7% of the vote.

Jacob Krieg, the general manager at Canfora Bakery and a member of the Marine Corps Forces Reserve, received 3.7%.

Former Milwaukee state Rep. Josh Zepnick received 2.4% of the vote.

Zepnick lost his state Assembly seat in the Democratic primary last year after having been elected eight times since 2002. The loss came less than a year after he was accused of kissing female colleagues against their will.

Walt Love received 14 votes, less than half a percent of the total votes collected.