It's Stroebel vs. Aaron in 60th District After Close Primary

Republican Duey Stroebel withstood a tough challenge from Gary Wickert Tuesday to win the party's primary for the 60th Assembly District by 67 votes.

Final, unofficial results compiled by the Associated Press show Stroebel with 3,116 votes to Wickert's 3,049 in the seven-person field.

If the results stand, Stroebel will face Democrat Rick Aaron in a special election May 3 for the seat that was vacated when Mark Gottlieb was named transportation secretary by Gov. Scott Walker.

Aaron had 2,053 votes in Tuesday's primary, defeating Perry Duman, who had 1,326 votes, in the Democratic primary.

The district is located in Washington and Ozaukee counties. Despite the furor in Madison over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill that stripped unionized state workers of many of their collective bargaining rights, the district continued to vote overwhelmingly Republican Tuesday.

So close was the race that none of the three candidates was willing to make a statement Tuesday night before official results were posted.

"The numbers keep shifting," Aaron said of what he was seeing on television news reports. "It looks like we won but we’ll have to wait until morning to be sure."

Stroebel, a Cedarburg School Board member since 2007, has a real estate management and development business.

Aaron, who is making his first bid for public office, is a former public school teacher in Milwaukee and Madison and a professional flutist. He is the director of activities at the Sarah Chudnow Community, a senior living facility in Mequon.

In his campaign literature, Aaron emphasized the need to set a new, harmonious tone in state government.

Stroebel supports the budget repair bill, which will likely set the stage for a classic partisan fight in the final special election.