Did Wisconsin voters still love Lucey, 50 years ago?

In November of 1974, Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey spoke in the new North Hall of UW-L, now called Wimberly Hall. Democrat Lucey was seeking a second term, and told students he could not support a tuition cut approved by the Board of Regents, because that would put more burden on taxpayers to fund the colleges, and they paid about three-fourths of the cost already. Lucey accused Washington of putting American dairy farmers out of business, by permitting more imports of foreign dairy products. Lucey won the election, but left office halfway through his second term to become U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

Republican Gerald Ford had just become president that year, after the resignation of Richard Nixon. The Watergate scandal turned out to be good for many Democrats in that election. Al Baldus unseated 7-term GOP Congressman Vernon Thomson in the 3rd District House race. Democrat Paul Offner became the new Assemblyman for La Crosse, Ed Nix was elected La Crosse’s district attorney, and Russ Fiedler was the new La Crosse County clerk.

A big-scale production of “Hamlet” became the first play in the new Toland Theatre, inside the UWL Fine Arts Building, now renamed the Truman Lowe Center for the Arts. Downtown at the Community Theatre, the run of the musical “South Pacific” was extended. And on the radio, Eric Clapton admitted “I Shot the Sheriff” in 1974…50 years ago, yesterday in La Crosse.