The race for Marathon County treasurer
Only one candidate, the challenger, agreed to an actual interview
Correction: An earlier version of this post used “clerk” instread of “treasurer” to refer to Beyersdorff. The Wausonian regrets the error.
I need to start out this story by explaining why only one candidate was interviewed.
I reached out to all four candidates of contested Republican primary races two weeks ago, asking to set up interviews to preview the race. I heard from the two candidates for county clerk right away, and so I set those interviews up for last week pretty quickly.
My email to Jen Seliger apparently went to spam, so I only reached her on my second attempt. We set up an interview for Friday.
But I also heard from the current county treasurer, Connie Beyersdorff, right away - only she said she would only respond to written questions. I explained that’s not acceptable. I had already begun setting up actual interviews with candidates - it’s not fair for one candidate to get to see a small set of questions, spend their time thinking of answers, possibly getting advice on those answers, and then turning in polished responses. Not while the other candidate agreed to an actual interview, where follow-up questions can be asked.
That’s obviously not fair.
Once I had set up my interview with Seliger, I reached out one more time. I wanted to give Beyersdorff every opportunity to respond in a fair manner. Beyersdorff had said she was busy working as the treasurer. That’s never in my 20 years of covering local politics something I’ve heard before as a reason they couldn’t do a 15-minute interview. I had offered in my initial email to make myself available during the day or evening. In my second attempt, I explained I would make myself available any time on the weekend, and checked my email to see if she responded.
She responded Saturday morning reiterating that she would answer written questions.
It’s my general belief that candidate questionnaires are lazy journalism. You can’t get a sense of the candidates from a questionnaire the way you can from actually talking to them. You can’t ask follow-up questions or clarifying questions, can’t give any pushback. You don’t even know for sure if they’re the ones writing them.
Unfortunately, in recent local elections I’ve had no choice. There were nearly 30 candidates in contested races on the Marathon County Board alone last spring. And many more than that counting school board and city council There is no way one person could get to them all without email questionnaires. Certainly not under my current arrangement. It’s good that so many people are running for office but it makes it difficult to cover these races in the way they deserve to be.
But in this election, there were four candidates. And I was willing to make myself available day and night to make the interviews happen.
I believe fairness is an important attribute in journalism, and I especially think that’s important in election coverage. So I’m certainly not going to give one candidate special treatment. I offered the same thing to every candidate. If they don’t take that offer, that’s their choice.
Jen Seliger, 50, is currently the administration assistant to the principal at John Marshall Elementary School in the Wausau School District. As a Hamburg resident, she served on the Merrill Area Public School Board from 2008 to 2018, and served some of those years as its president.
Seliger says she is challenging current office holder, Connie Beyersdorff, because she has been hearing that there is a lack of communication from the treasurer’s office, that people can’t get in touch with them and phone calls aren’t returned. Seliger also cited a delinquent tax letter that went out from the treasurer’s office to more than 500 residents in two townships before their taxes were delinquent. Corporation Counsel Michael Puerner confirmed the incident and told The Wausonian that the letter was the result of a database issue that led to the letter going out to residents in February before those residents were delinquent on their taxes.
Beyersdorff refused multiple requests for an interview, saying she would only respond to written questions. But The Wausonian explained that wouldn’t be fair as the other candidate agreed to an actual interview.
Seliger says she wants to bring more transparency to the position, better communication and to set up better standard operating procedures.
The race is a Republican primary, and Seliger says that while she is a conservative, at the end of the day she needs to serve the county first and foremost, and do the right thing for county residents regardless of any party affiliation. Seliger says she has a passion for public service and for getting the job done.
Beyersdorff, 46, from the town of Texas told the Wausau Daily Herald that she served for four years as the Marathon County Treasurer, and worked as a municipal clerk prior to that. She is also the president of the Wisconsin Counties Treasurer’s Association.
The election is Tuesday, Aug. 13. Also on the ballot is a Republican primary for Marathon County Clerk with Toshia Ranallo facing off against Kim Trueblood.
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