A couple election upsets on La Crosse’s city council

Longest-tenured council member loses race.

The votes are tallied in La Crosse County and the longest-tenured city council member is out, while the clerk that’s been around since 1993 will remain.

Despite an unusual challenge, La Crosse city clerk Teri Lehrke will continue her run in the office. Lehrke easily held off challenger and city council member Audrey Kader to keep her job as clerk.

Kader mounted a surprise run for the often overlooked elected seat but failed to make it a contest at the polls. Kader is a former city council president and told WIZM she didn’t expect to win but wanted to bring attention to the elected nature of the office.

Lehrke has held the same office since 1993 and, before this election, had run opposed for the last 20 years.  

As for that longest-tenured city council member, Rich Becker had represented parts of the south side for over 20 years. He came up short in Tuesday’s election to fellow council member Paul Medinger in district 10.

The two were forced to run against each other due to the redistricting process that came with shrinking the council from 17 to 13 members. 

Twelve-year incumbent Jai Johnson also lost her seat to challenger Barb Janssen in district 3, while downtown rep. James Cherf was voted out of office in favor of newcomer Jacqueline Marcou in district 6. 

Marcou won the seat in a district in which only about 260 total votes were cast.  

Challenger David Marshall easily defeated two term council member Bob Seaquist by a margin of three to one in district 4.

In the north side’s district 2, Scott Neumeister staged a successful write-in campaign to win that seat.

Also winning seats on the council; Andrea Richmond, Patrick Brever, Gary Padesky, Philip Ostrem, Jessica Olson, Martin Gaul, Doug Happel and Roger Christians.