Cronce drops out of Shawano mayoral race

The Shawano mayoral race has dropped to one after the city announced Feb. 22 that Jeanne Cronce has dropped out of the race.

Cronce is currently the alderwoman for the First Aldermanic District but was not running for reelection in that race so she could run for mayor.

Cronce’s husband, Dennis, was involved in a serious snowmobile accident on Feb. 17 and is expected to require considerable recovery time and rehabilitation. Knowing that she will need to have all her time and focus on her husband’s recovery, she has made the difficult decision to withdraw herself from the race, according to a city press release.

Cronce said in the press release that she is extremely grateful for all the support the community has shown her during these past few months during her campaign and knows the city will continue in a good direction.

While Cronce has officially removed herself from the race, statutory timing for ballot processing means that her name will still appear on the April 6 ballot alongside Bruce Milavitz, who is also in the mayor’s race. If, for some reason, Cronce gets more votes in the general election that Milavitz, even though she has dropped out, that will set up a conundrum for the Shawano Common Council, according to City Clerk Lesley Nemetz.

“She would then, assumably, decline that role, and she would technically still win because we can’t remove her name from the ballot,” Nemetz said. “What most people would think would be that the second place person would automatically get it, but that’s not the case. What happens in that instance is that the council then has to decide how they would like to proceed.”

The council will have the option of appointing someone to the mayor’s seat, according to Nemetz, or it can call for another special election, but that would have to be on the city’s own dime because there are no more election cycles scheduled for the state in 2021. Nemetz estimated it could cost around $4,000, possibly more, for the city to call for its own election.

There is also the possibility that write-in candidates could register to run against Milavitz. According to Nemetz, anyone wishing to wage a write-in campaign has until noon on April 2 to do so, as state law permits write-in candidates to register until the Friday before an election.

“They would need to fill out the campaign finance registration statement, which can either be found on the city’s website (www.cityofshawano.com) or by going to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission website (ethics.wi.gov), and they have to fill it out and have it in to my office,” Nemetz said. “Their name doesn’t appear on the ballot at all. It’s just strictly word of mouth that people would have to write them in.”

As for Milavitz, he said he was disappointed but that he completely understood that Cronce needed to focus on her family first at this time.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jeanne and Dennis, and we know that was certainly a difficult decision,” Milavitz said. “I am excited to move the city of Shawano forward. It was going in a great direction, and I think she was a big part of that.”

Milavitz has said throughout his campaign that he never felt like he was running against Cronce, but instead was running for the city.

“I still feel that way, and I’m going to run myself that way,” Milavitz said.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com