Peggy Krusick

Margaret Ann "Peggy" Krusick (born October 26, 1956) is an American politician and a former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly who represented her district as a member of the Democratic party.^[1] After representing the district since 1983, she was defeated in a primary election in 2012 after a redistricting, and lost a bid to return to office as a write-in candidate.

Background

Peggy Krusick is a graduate of Saint Gregory the Great Parish School and Hamilton High School, both in Milwaukee. She received her B.A. in Political Science, with honors, from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She and her husband have two children.

State Assembly

Krusick was first elected in 1983, in a special election, to represent the 7th Assembly District. Prior to the 2011 Redistricting Act, the district covered the southwest side of Milwaukee and most of Greenfield. The district now includes West Milwaukee,^[2] and parts of Milwaukee's south side, West Allis and Greenfield, but only about one-third of Krusick's old district.^[3]

Krusick was a member of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economy and Small Business and the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care.^[4]

Krusick's pro-life position^[5] garnered an endorsement from Wisconsin Right to Life.^[6]

Loss of nomination

On August 14, 2012, Krusick was defeated in the Democratic primary by Daniel Riemer, a 25-year-old law student and son of an advisor to former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. She was one of two veteran Milwaukee-area Democratic incumbents (the other being Jason Fields) to be unseated in that August primary by challengers who argued that the incumbent was too conservative to represent the district properly.^[7][8]

Write-in campaign by Krusick

In September 2012 it was reported that Krusick was considering running a write-in campaign against Riemer in the November general election, and it was confirmed that she had contacted staff of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board about the mechanics of such an effort, but had not yet filed registration documents for such a run.^[9]

On October 2, it was officially confirmed that she was running as a registered write-in candidate (under Wisconsin law, write-in candidates must register with the state to have their votes be individually counted, rather than lumped in with other write-in votes). She set up a new website^[10] and began a direct mail campaign that talked about her "independent track record." She did not return press calls, and it was unclear who was funding her campaign against her party's nominee.^[11]

Riemer won easily in the end, with 16,664 votes (85.4%) to Krusick's 2499 (12.8%) and 361 scattered votes (1.8%).^[12]

References

External links

• Peggy Krusick, Wisconsin Historical Society
• Peggy Krusick's 2010 campaign website