Moeller is County’s 1st Woman Elected Judge

Jennifer Moeller earned an historic win, April 2, when she became Door County’s first female Circuit Court judge for a seat that never even had a female candidate.

“I’m very happy that finally happened,” Moeller said the morning after her victory in the April 2 election. 

Moeller announced her candidacy for the seat in August 2023 after Judge D. Todd Ehlers announced he would retire his Branch 1 seat at the end of his term on July 31, 2024. Ehlers had held the seat since 2000.

Shortly after Moeller’s announcement, attorney Brett Reetz jumped into the race. Both candidates campaigned hard – with Reetz also navigating the widely publicized website, reetztruth.com, paid for and conceived by Zack Lozoff, who published blog posts Reetz had written but taken down before the election, and in which Reetz spoke disparagingly about a wide range of topics and people, including liberals, gays in the military and government.

In the end, voters cast their confidence with Moeller – who has served as the Door County Family Court commissioner for the past 12 years – with 6,309 votes versus 3,684 cast for Reetz.

“I was honored; I was thrilled,” Moeller said. “It was wonderful to have that after a couple of grueling months” campaigning – dropping off door hangers, mailing postcards, accepting and extending invitations for meetings and coffee and home visits.

“It all added up to a great victory,” she said.

She said she didn’t have much time to be nervous about the outcome of the race, given how hard she worked for the seat. All she really worried about was that she had missed something or hadn’t done something she should have done. 

“I didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I wish I had done that,” she said.

Polls closed at 8 pm April 2, and Moeller didn’t receive the call about her win until 11 pm – which could be another historic part of this election. A winter storm, with high winds and slushy snow, blasted the area just as people were getting out of work. 

Jill Lau, Door County Clerk, was not available prior to deadline to answer questions as to whether the storm had an impact on the number of ballots cast. Door County voters cast 10,382 votes this year, versus 11,031 in April 2020, the last April election with a presidential primary.

Two years ago, when all Door County Board of Supervisor seats were up for election – as they were this year – almost twice as many votes were cast this April versus April 2022’s 5,282 votes. In April of 2023, when a hotly contested state supreme court race was on the ballot, there were 2,051 more votes cast.

Meanwhile, Moeller is looking forward to beginning her first, six-year term in office on Aug. 1, 2024.

“I want to thank everyone who voted for me, and for the support and encouragement,” she said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to serve the county.”

In Southern Door County, where three communities – Brussels, Gardner and Union – had referendums asking voters if they agreed with borrowing money to fund internet, all three said ‘no’, as follows: Brussels 207 no to 143 yes; Gardner, 313 no to 170 yes; and Union, 254 no to 116 yes.

On the two, statewide referendum questions that pertain to the use of private funds in elections, and to election officials, both passed at the state level, and the Wisconsin Constitution will now be amended.

If Door County voters had their way, only one of those two questions would have passed: they did not go for the change in the use of private funds question, with 4,920 casting a ‘no’ vote to the 4,839 ‘yes’ votes, but on the second ballot measure pertaining to election officials, the vote was 5,238 (yes) to 4,497 (no).

Below are the results for the contested races that Door County voters considered at the polls April 2. Names of write-in candidates for two open County Board of Supervisor seats were not yet available as of deadline. 

Presidential Preference

Democratic Primary

Joe Biden, 4816
Dean Phillips, 106
Uninstructed, 194

Republican Primary

Donald Trump, 3,700
Nikki Haley, 639
Uninstructed, 138
Ron DeSantis, 134
Chris Christie, 99
Vivek Ramaswamy, 32

Circuit Court Judge Branch 1
Jennifer Moeller, 6309
Brett Reetz, 3,684

Door County Board of Supervisors

District 3
Roy Englebert, 247
Jacob VandenPlas, 172

District 7
Claire Morkin, 230
Wayne Denil, 213

District 8
No one filed for this open seat, and a total 14 write-in votes were cast. A write-in candidate will take it, but as of press time, the name had not been released yet.

District 9
Ryan Shaw, 289
Jon Kruse, 161

District 19
No one filed for this open seat, and a total 28 write-in votes were cast. A write-in candidate will take it, but as of press time, the name had not been released yet.

Towns, Villages, City of Sturgeon Bay

Baileys Harbor Supervisor
Susan Tishler, 324
Paul Kordon, 277
Terry McArdle, 241

Gardner Supervisor
Ted Anderson, 268
Kevin Fleischman, 184

Sevastopol Supervisor
Jeanne Vogel, 558
Trent Olsen, 479
Mark Haberli, 392
Derek Denil, 363

Washington Supervisor
Peter Sownie, 266
Lawrence Kahlscheuer, 176
Loren Roznai, 151

Sister Bay Trustee
Denise Bhirdo, 307
Louise Howson, 293
Kurt Harff, 292
Eric Smith, 172

Sturgeon Bay Alderperson 

District 2
Matthew Huston, 235
Dennis Statz, 184

District 6
Seth Wiederanders, 145
Tom Benzshawel, 133

School Boards Races
Sturgeon Bay School Board
Angela Kruse, 1,511
Cathy Meyer, 1,409
Wayne Spritka, 1,335
Damion Howard, 1,274
Jeffrey Matson, 1,197

Southern Door County School District
Adam Schopf 1,297 
Janel Veeser, 1,188 
Seth Wilson 1,176