La Crosse Council Pres Keeps Seat

La Crosse’s City Council president has survived a recall attempt Tuesday. (1/29)

Audrey Kader won 74 percent of the vote in the recall primary against two conservative candidates. Since she received more than half of the votes, there will not be a second election.

Kader represents a district close to downtown that includes Viterbo University. The Tea Party-backed ‘Restore La Crosse’ committee initiated the recall, although many of its members live outside her district. Kader says the results show her constituents stand behind her. “This is a clear message that they just really want government to do its business in a responsible way, without distortions of fact.”

Kader says distortions like her stance on the public speaking portion at city council’s committee of the whole meetings. The Restore La Crosse Committee says they targeted Kader for the recall because she tried to restrict public input. Kader says that’s nonsense, and that she and other city council members were trying to more effectively streamline city actions.

Restore La Crosse’s Greg Luce says Tuesday’s outcome will not stop them from targeting other city council members in the future. “It doesn’t change a thing. I mean, if somebody pushes us against the wall like Kader did, we’ll do the same thing.”

Council president Kader says other targeted council members can now rest assured, since she was able to defeat her recall.

She says changes to recall rules should be explored at the state level, since that’s what dictates local elections.

According to the La Crosse City Clerk, preliminary numbers show the election cost the city $1,260.