Update: The final tally was nearly two to one for Rodriguez (1,512) over Kujawa (864). Gehl was third with 535 votes.
I must admit, the margin surprised me.
Jessie Rodriguez, a school choice advocate from Franklin, easily won the Republican primary for the 21st Assembly District seat vacated by Mark Honadel. She will now face Democrat Elizabeth Coppola in the general election on Nov. 19.
This one wasn’t even close. While I don’t have final, district-wide results yet, Rodriguez won in South Milwaukee, despite Mayor Tom Zepecki’s very public endorsement (in literature and on a robocall) of Kujawa. She tallied 516 votes to Kujawa’s 492, with Oak Creek Alderman Ken Gehl finishing third, Larry Gamble fourth and Jason “Red” Arnold fifth.
The margin was much bigger in Oak Creek, which has most of its results listed on its Facebook page.
Of course, Rodriguez doesn’t live in Oak Creek or South Milwaukee. She is from Franklin, where she tallied 57 votes in the small chunk of that city in the 21st District. Kujawa and Gamble each had 22 votes in Franklin.
Next up: the general election, where Coppola is running on a platform of bipartisanship and investment in public schools, among other issues.
Who gets your vote? Check out my new poll!
(And I’ll post final results as soon as I get them.)
South Milwaukee Blog 