By Steve Clark
Neenah News
It will be a unique primary for the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors District 18 seat coming up on February 15.
Both James Ponzer and Garth Seiler are looking to garner the seat that is being vacated by Bill Wingren, however the third candidate on the ballot, Phillip Walker has already announced that he I pulling out of the race for the spot.
According to County Clerk Sue Ertmer, Walker’s name will still appear on the ballot since he completed the necessary paperwork and he can still receive votes. Should he earn enough votes in the primary, he would still be on the ballot for April’s general election.
Walker said, though, he is no longer interested in serving on the board at this time.
So it basically is a two-person race for the two spots on the ballot for April’s general election with both Ponzer and Seiler looking for the opportunity to serve the district.
Ponzer, who is retired, said he has lived in the district for more than 40 years and is familiar with the concerns of the people he will be representing.
“I have the free time to go and speak to people and see what they want. I will be their conduit,” Ponzer said. “I don’t mind doing things for the people. I’m representing a smaller group than if you were on city council. I like that.”
One of the concerns for Ponzer is making sure the county is dealing with labor issues and dealing with the worker shortage.
“The county has to realize they have to do something to keep the workers they have,” he said.
He is also a strong proponent of the use of masks and vaccines to combat the health concerns caused the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent variants. Ponzer believes it is a public health issue and the most important factor for him is making sure that the children of the county are protected.
“I don’t want to see any parents lose their kids. There is nothing more horrible,” Ponzer said. “If I can save one child, I did my job.”
Seiler is also retired after working for the city of Oshkosh for more than 30 years and had contemplated running for different public offices over the years.
He felt the time was right to pursue the opportunity to serve. He said he was influenced by a comment from Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson in making the decision to run for the Supervisor post.
“(Johnson said) if you don’t like what’s going on with the government now and you walk away from it, what’s that say about you,” Seiler said. “I talked about doing this for a long time. If I don’t take a crack at it now, what’s that say about me. I could shut up and not say anything the rest of the way about it, so I decided to give it a whirl and see what happens.”
Seiler said he believes the County Board should be focused on the things that the taxpayers are caring about and sees the board’s responsibility to provide advisories on certain issues rather than issue mandates.
“I think we need to just use common sense when it comes to things like COVID. The last thing I would do on the board is to mandate,” Seiler said. “You can give advisories on (issues) but it should be up to the legislature.”
Seiler is a supporter of security and backed the recent pay raises throughout of county sheriffs department and, if elected, will be adamant about representing the people he represents.
“I would never sign a budget that I don’t think is taxpayer friendly,” Seiler said. “If people ask me questions, I’m going to tell you what I believe.”
