State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers soundly defeated Republican Representative Don Pridemore last night to win a second term.Evers defeated Pridemore roughly 61-to-39 percent in an officially nonpartisan race.
The two candidates disagreed on most of the major education issues and Evers says yesterday, voters picked a side.
“The differences between myself and my opponent were crystal clear,” he said. “And I believe on the record I don’t think most people that went to the polls today really had questions in their mind about what was in this campaign and it’s about public education.”
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Evers has been critical of Governor Walker’s budget cuts to public education and his plans in the next budget that would freeze public school spending while expanding vouchers for private schools. He says he has some work ahead.
“The most immediate thing is to make sure that this budget doesn’t harm our public schools, and right at this moment I believe it’s in a position that it would harm our public schools. So we need to be active politically and making sure that we get some changes in the budget.”
Pridemorehas sided with Republican Governor Scott Walker on a lot of issues, including budget cuts to education and vouchers, andblamed himself for the loss last night. But he said he stood for what he believes in.
“I never ran away from my conservative principals and I never will. Maybe voters accepted that, maybe they didn’t.I always thought that people out there right now — people that are really in tune to what’s going on politically — can identify somebody who sticks to their principles.”
Pridemore says he would consider running for the position again.
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