Big News Day

There's still a few days left before the filing deadline for Appleton City Council races, but my campaign took a pretty sudden turn tonight.

WHBY reported earlier today that Jim Clemons, who currently represents Appleton's 13th district, will not seek re-election this spring. Clemons has been a member of the council since 1992, making him easily the city's longest-serving alderman. Since he has decided not to run, I'm currently the only declared candidate for the seat.


I wanted to take a moment before we go any further to thank Alderman Clemons for his service to the city. Serving on the council can be a challenging and often thankless job, and the fact that he's been doing it for 20 years shows a truly admirable level of dedication to making Appleton a great place to live. You have to respect anyone who's willing to put in that much work and subject themselves to that level of public scrutiny for that long. I'll raise a glass in his honor tonight, and I'd encourage you to do the same.

With that said, Alderman Clemons' decision to step aside changes this race significantly. Things could change before Tuesday's filing deadline (which has now been extended to Friday, January 4), but at the moment things are looking pretty good for me as the only established campaign in the field.

Obviously, a lot of what the coming months will look like remains up in the air. It's still possible multiple candidates will file and there could be a primary in February. However, today is a big day for this campaign and effort to bring a new level of openness to the council.