Former journalist goes from reporting on La Crosse County board to becoming a member

Not many La Crosse County residents have attended dozens of meetings of the county board, primarily as a spectator.

Randy Erickson has done it, but he was being paid to attend as a newspaper reporter for the Tribune.

Erickson now works at Viterbo University, and on Monday night he was appointed to succeed the late Dave Holtze as supervisor for District 12.

We asked Randy if he sat through all those meetings, thinking he could do as well as the elected officials on the board.

“I thought, I could do this, and after I left the Tribune I thought I should do this,” said Erickson.

All of the county board seats come up for election in April, and Erickson is ready to run for a full two-year term.

As a first assignment, Erickson will fill a spot left open by Holtze on the county public works committee: