Ron Rosner won the District 5 City Council primary elections Tuesday with 323 votes'52.52 percent of the total votes. Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, came in second with 38.69 percent and 238 votes, Wintford Thorton came in third with 7.31 percent and 45 votes with the remaining nine votes going to write-in candidates.
The District 5 primary was one of the only contested campus-area elections, as well as the only City Council election in this voting period.
The special election for the City Council seat is being held because of Ald-elect Jessy Tolkan's resignation last April and Powell's one-year appointment to office.
Although Powell received the majority of the votes in the student wards, he pointed out that only seven students in the Lakeshore residence halls, Ward 62, voted.
\It's unbelievable,"" he said. ""I've never heard in my history of politics of any ward in the state of Wisconsin ever having such a pathetic turnout ever. ... There's no excuse why a neighborhood just a few blocks over can turn out 300 people and lakeshore residence halls can turn out seven people. There's just no excuse for that.""
Powell said he does not understand the poor turnout because he mailed two sets of flyers to the lakeshore residence halls and spent several days outside the cafeteria speaking to students.
""I don't know why they feel so totally detached from their community that they wouldn't even bother to vote,"" he said.
In addition, only five people voted in Ward 60 Tuesday, which includes Eagle Heights residents.
""I would have won this primary if the university students had actually been less apathetic,"" he said.
Rosner said he was pleased with the results, but was also disappointed with the student turnout.
""I'm sorry that we can't energize the student vote,"" he said. ""I have to say that many students may see the City Council and the County Board as somewhat of an abstraction, it's not the highest thing on the agenda.""
Rosner said in the next several weeks one of his goals is to campaign more among the students in an effort to unify them with his other constituents who are predominantly families.
""In the past we've had alderpeople who represent students and alders who represent families and they've battled it out at the City Council if there were differences,"" he said. ""Now we have an opportunity to consolidate both units within one aldermanic district and come to some understanding.""
The District 5 election will be held April 2.
