Compas wins 13th St. Senate district recall primary

Professional photographer Lori Compas easily won her primary race in the 13th state Senate district and will go on to face Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald in the June 5th recall election.
 
Compas won the race by a 70 to 30 percent margin against protest candidate Gary Ellerman of Lake Mills. Ellerman was recruited by the Republican Party to run to assure there would be a primary in the race. Compas launched her campaign because she says she was angry about the unfair tactics Fitzgerald used to win passage of a budget bill that stripped public workers of their bargaining rights. But she says he'll spend the next four weeks running a campaign based on job creation, “That's what Scott Fitzgerald ran on and obviously his policies have failed. I've been talking with economic development specialists and job creators around the district and I'm going to have a jobs plan that's based on sound economic development principles."
 
It will be an uphill battle for Compas to defeat Scott Fitzgerald in June. He won re-election to his seat in 2010 with twice as many votes as his Democratic opponent.