Wisconsin 2026 elections:Republican Frank Kostka challenges freshman Democrat Angela Stroud in the 73rd Assembly District

 

Before redistricting, the GOP gerrymandered 73rd Assembly District included all but a small slice of Douglas County, eastern Burnett County, and northern Washburn County,  

 

Redistricting reunited a community of interest along the southern shore of Lake Superior. It now includes northern tier of Douglas, Bayfield, and Ashland counties.

  

The Redistricting Data Hub website defines a "community of interest" as:

...a group of people with shared concerns, interests, and characteristics. Every COI is unique; they might be formed around neighborhoods or the physical landscape, cultures, values, and many other things. Because of these shared interests and concerns, a common redistricting criteria is that COIs be considered during the process.

Maps and election results:  Ballotpedia 

The 2020 and 2022 elections in the 73rd Assembly District were won by razor-thin margins, with Democrat Nick Milroy winning by 0.4 percentage points in 2020 and Republican Angie Sapik flipping seat with a 1.8-point victory two years later.  In 2024, Democrat Angela Stroud rousted her Republicans challenger Frank Kostka,  In a 2026 rematch, Kostka will play a very convincing GOP sacrificial lamb.

 

Related reading:

Wisconsin Applied Population Lab, 6/18/2018

Malia Jones explains:

Two core concepts of gerrymandering were central to the arguments presented to the high court: cracking and packing. A third process, known as stacking, also crops up in gerrymandered political maps, but was not the focus of Gill v. Whitford.

Cracking and packing both refer to specific ways of drawing legislative boundaries with the outcomes of elections in mind. These two processes operate in tension with one another, but both can be implemented by a party in power seeking to maximize its electoral chances through gerrymandering. 

Packing refers to the practice of drawing particular districts in such a way as to ensure that another party's candidate wins that seat by a tremendous margin. Although the opposing party is all but guaranteed the seat, packing makes surrounding districts less competitive, and thus tips the balance of power in the legislative body overall toward the ruling party. 

Cracking involves drawing districts in such a way as to divide a concentration of specific types of voters across several districts such that they are a minority in each one, with practically no hope of achieving representation in any of the districts. This practice also helps make districts less competitive. [emphasis added]

Other Wisconsin 2026 election posts:

1st Assembly District.  (6/11/2026)

2nd Assembly District.  (6/14/2026)

3rd Assembly District.  (6/15/2026)

4th Assembly District.  (6/17/2026)

5th Assembly District.  (6/18/2026)

6th Assembly District.  (6/20/2026)

7th Assembly District.  (6/21/2026)

8th Assembly District.  (6/21/2026)

9th Assembly District.  (6/22/2026)

10th Assembly District.  (6/23/2026)

11th Assembly District.  (6/23/2026)

12th Assembly District.  (4/17/2026)

13th Assembly District.  (6/25/2026)

14th Assembly District.  (6/25/2026)

15th Assembly District.  (6/25/2026)

16th Assembly District.  (4/17/2026)

17th Assembly District.  (6/30/2026)

18th Assembly District.  (6/30/2026)

19th Assembly District.  (7/1/2026)

20th Assembly District.  (7/1/2026)

21st Assembly District.  (5/8/2026)

22nd Assembly District.  (7/5/2026)

23rd Assembly District.  (7/5/2026)

24th Assembly District.  (4/19/2026)

25th Assembly District.  (7/6/2026)

26th Assembly District.  (4/17/2026)

27th Assembly District.  (7/7/2026)

28th Assembly District.  (7/8/2026)

29th Assembly District.  (7/10/2026)

30th Assembly District.  (7/11/2026)

31st Assembly District.  (7/12/2026)

32nd Assembly District.  (7/13/2026)

33rd Assembly District.  (7/15/2026)

34th Assembly District.  (4/24/2026)

35th Assembly District.  (4/15/2026)

36th Assembly District.  (7.16.2026)

37th Assembly District.  (4/20/2026)

38th Assembly District.  (7/17/2026)

39th Assembly District.  (7/18/2026)

40th Assembly District.  (7/19/2026)

41st Assembly District.  (7/20/2026)

42nd Assembly District.  (7/21/2026)

43rd Assembly District.  (7/212026)

44th Assembly District.  (5/5/2026)

45th Assembly District.  (7/23/2026)

46th Assembly District.  (7/24/2026)

47th Assembly District.  (7/25/2026)

48th Assembly District.  (7/27/2026) 

49th Assembly District.  (7/28/2026)

50th Assembly District.  (7/29/2026)

51st Assembly District.  (7/30/2026)

52nd Assembly District.  (7/31/2026)

53rd Assembly District.  (8/2/2026)

54th Assembly District.  (8/4/2026)

55th Assembly District.  (8/7/2026)

58th Assembly District.  (4/12/2026)

59th Assembly District.  (4/10/2026)

60th Assembly District.  (8/9/2026)

61st Assembly District.  (8/16/2026)

62th Assembly District.  (8/11/2026)

63rd Assembly District.  (8/16/2026)

64th Assembly District.  (8/17/2026)

65th Assembly District.  (8/18/2026)

66th Assembly District.  (8/19/2026)

67th Assembly District.  (8/24/2026)

68th Assembly District.  (8/25/2026)

69th Assembly District.  (8/26/2026)

70th Assembly District.  (8/27/2026)

71st Assembly District.  (4/28/2026)

72nd Assembly District.  (8/29/2026)

81st Assembly District.  (5/2/2026)

82nd Assembly District.  (4/15/2026)

92nd Assembly District.  (5/7/2026)

93rd Assembly District.  (4/11/2026) 

97th Assembly District.  (4/23/2026)

99th Assembly District.  (4/18/2026)

17th Senate District.  (4/14/2026)

23rd Senate District.  (4/15/2026)

31st Senate District.  (4/15/2026)

Keeping tabs on authors in LINKcat: Margo Howard

 

South Central Library System LINKcat online catalog

New York Times, 8/21/2026

Penelope Green reports:

Over the decades, Ms. Howard dipped in and out of the news business, and marriage. After ditching the wealthy businessman whom she described as her “starter husband” and who was the father of her three children, she went on to marry three more times. Husband No. 2 was an undertaker — when she left him after three years, she gave him the family dog as consolation, which upset the children — and No. 3 was the actor Ken Howard, whom she married in 1977. 

She and Mr. Howard fell in love after she interviewed him for a column, after which she gave up newspapering for a spell. It was a mostly happy union, and lasted more than a decade.

The 52 member libraries of LINKcat

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Antonio Lobo Antunes.  (3/10)

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Robert Coles.  (6/11)

John Crowley.  (8/17)

Erich von Daniken. (1/13)

Brian Doherty.  (4/2)

Paul Ehrlich.  (3/16)

Charles Faddis.  (8/15)

Carlo Ginzberg.  (6/23)

Barbara Gordon.  (4/17)

Andrew Hacker.  (4/25)

Edward Hoagland.  (2/28)

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Tracy Kidder.  (3/26)

Suzannah Lessage.  (2/11)

Richard Lingeman.  (8/15)

Shirley Lord.  (6/28)

Dave Marsh.  (8/28)

David Malouf.  (5/2)

Judith Michael  (5/19)

Roy Medvedev.  (2/17)

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Herschel Parker.  (7/13)

Rex Reed.  (5/17)

John Rousmaniere.  (8/30)

James Sallis.  (2/8)

Susan Sheehan. (2/25)

David Sklansky.  (4/20)

Jill Smokler.  (6/29)

Robert H. Spector.  (4/18)

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Calvin Tomkins.  (3'22)

Barbara G. Walker.  (1/25)

Mildred Pitts Walker.  (8/6)

Gordon S. Wood.  (6/12)

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Melody Beattie.  (3/24)

Sue Bender.  (12/23)

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Barbara Taylor Bradford.  (1/6)

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David Lodge.  (1/6)

Martin E. Marty.  (3/5)

Dennis McDougal.  (3/20)

Joseph S. Nye, Jr.  (6/8)

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Best books on politics.  (9/2)

Dorothy Allison.  (11/13)

Paul Auster.  (5/9)

Lynne Reid Banks. (4/10)

Donald L. Barlett.  (10/15)

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Katherine Barber.  (5/26)

Mary Catherine Bateson.  (1/26)

Rosalind Cartwright.  (3/21)

Kim Chernin . (1/10)

Beverly Cleary.  (4/8)

Angelo Codevilla.  (10/10)

Christina Crosby.  (1/31)

Geoff Crowther.  (5/17)

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Joseph Galloway.  (8/25)

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Lawrence Graham.  (3/9)

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Patricia Bosworth.  (4/6)

Ben Bova.  (12/17)

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Johanna Lindsey.  (1/15)

Barry Lopez.  (12/29)

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Julia Reed.  (9/8)

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Jill Paton Walsh.  (11/29)

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Kate Braverman.  (10/28)

Stephen Dixon.  (11/12)

Ernest J. Gaines.  (11/8)

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Paule Marshall.  (8/27)

Robert K. Massie.  (12/4)

Martin Mayer.  (8/3)

Wright Morris.  (7/25)

Toni Morrison.  (8/12)

Anthony Price.  (6/17)

James I. Robertson.  (11/20)

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John Simon.  (12/1)

Sol Stein.  (9/30)

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2017 (3)

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Kit Reed.  (10/1)

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2015 (1)

Gunter Grass (1927-2015).  (4/15)

2014 (2)

Thomas Berger  (1924-2014).  (7/23)

Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014)   (4/8)

2013

Barbara Branden.   (12/26)

So far in 2026, 95 of Wisconsin's 100 cases of measles have been reported in August

 99% of those infected are not vaccinated.

Headline:  Wisconsin State Journal, 8/28/2026

Dashboard.  Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Teagan King reports:

Cases of measles in southwestern Wisconsin’s ongoing outbreak have more than doubled to 92, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said Friday, up from 42 reported Tuesday. 

As of Friday, Iowa County recorded 52 confirmed cases and Lafayette County had 37 confirmed and six probable cases. Neighboring Grant County had three cases. 

The jump in cases likely reflects disease transmission between people connected to the previously identified cases, DHS said, noting that “while the increase in cases is significant, it does not necessarily indicate an increase in exposure risk to the broader public.”

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Trump goes batshit crazy at yesterday's executive order signing.  (8/11)

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Measles cases set new record:  This is the kind of moving backward that happens when a crackpot incompetent is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the county's top health official.  (7/25)

April-June 2026

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Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are hazardous to our health (chickens come home to roost edition).  (5/9)

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More evidence that the FDA under RFKjr is hazardous to our health.  (5/5)

WARNING:  Donald Trump, Robert Kennedy Jr., and spineless Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy M.D.  are hazardous to our health. (4/14)

2025

Anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr. is visiting Texas.  Will he apologize for being hazardous to Texans' health?

Hazardous to your health RFKjr @HHS has a cure for the accelerating measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico.  (3/10)

Antivaxxer RFKjr @HHSGov: Hazardous to your health and taste buds (cod liver oil edition).  (3/6)

Antivaxxer RFKjr @HHSGov: Hazardous to your health (measles outbreak edition).  (3/5)

RFKjr @HHSGov: Hazardous to your health (bird flu vaccine edition.  (3/3)