The mayoral primary election went as many expected Tuesday night with incumbent Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Ray Allen advancing to square off on the April 3 ballot.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said that one of the first steps towards the spring election is keeping up a grassroots campaign and working hard to ""get out the vote.""
Cieslewicz garnered 15,488 votes—nearly double that of Ray Allen's 8,042—and said the Tuesday primary shows that Madison voters were pleased with the way the previous four years transpired.
""I'm deeply honored by the confidence the voters have shown in me,"" Cieslewicz said. ""These are tremendously positive results for us.""
Still, Cieslewicz conceded that even though the margin of victory was an overwhelming success for his campaign, ""the next six weeks are going to be a fight."" He said in order to gain reelection voters are going to have to work just as hard for him to defeat challenger Ray Allen.
The mayor's challenger, Ray Allen, was very optimistic about the number of votes he received and said that this is just the beginning. He said the next weeks will be a struggle, but noted his campaign is very well run and will be geared to get out more voters to the polls, as well as target those who voted for the other candidates.
""The key is to build as broad a base as you can,"" Allen said. ""We will continue to reach out to people who voted for Peter, who voted for Will...we'll build a coalition.""
The other two candidates, Peter Munoz and Will Sandstrom, came in with 10 percent and 2 percent respectively. Peter Munoz said that he was ""pleased with his campaign despite spending only $6,000."" Sandstrom, who aimed to take down organized crime in Madison, was unavailable for comment.
