About 20 percent of Lincoln County voters hit the polls Tuesday for the fall partisan primary election. The high-profile contested primaries were on the Republican ticket. Of the 4,509 Lincoln County voters, 3,537 voted on the Republican side of the ballot.
By unofficial results, challenger Chris Marlowe defeated appointed incumbent Sheila Pudelko in the Republican primary for Lincoln County Clerk. Marlowe received 1,678 votes to Pudelko’s 1,472. There is no Democratic candidate on the ballot for the November general election.
Eric Hovde received the most votes in Lincoln County in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Hovde received 1,093 votes, followed by Tommy Thompson (988), Mark Neumann (935) and Jeff Fitzgerald (327). Statewide, Thompson won the primary to face Democrat Tammy Baldwin in November for the seat being vacated by the retiring Herb Kohl.
The lone contested primary on the Democratic side of the ballot was between Susan Sommer and Lisa Theo for the State Senate District 12 seat being vacated by retiring incumbent Jim Holperin. Theo, of Tomahawk, received the greatest number of votes in Lincoln County, 433 to Sommer’s 353. Sommer, of Phelps, however, won district wide with nearly 63 percent of the votes. Sommer will face Republican Tom Tiffany in the general election.