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• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Jorgensen likely winner in 43rd District race

MILTON—Andy Jorgensen is already getting used to his new turf.

This evening, the veteran lawmaker was at the Junction Pub in Milton, toasting his win in the 43rd Assembly District race.

Residents of Milton and other Rock County communities will get more used to seeing Jorgensen, the Fort Atkinson Democrat who crossed over from the 37th District this year to run against 43rd District incumbent Evan Wynn, R-Whitewater.

Jorgensen, 45, a former worker at the General Motors assembly plant in Janesville, was well on the road to defeating Wynn handily tonight.

He leads by a 6 to 4 margin, according to unofficial totals of more than two thirds of the vote tonight in Rock, Dane, Walworth and Jefferson counties.

Carrying Jorgensen in the election were voters in parts of the 43rd District in Dane County and in Rock County, where he was favored by more than 11,000 of 18,000 voters with about 90 percent of the votes in there.

Jorgensen was not surprised that he did so well in Rock County, where he said blue-collar people knew and recognized him from his years at General Motors. He said the more people he met, the more he realized he was being viewed the 43rd District's everyman candidate.

“I always try to represent the working man,” Jorgensen said. “And In this district and in Rock County, you are dealing with the working man.”

Jorgensen said his biggest goal is to work “from the middle” to get bipartisan jobs bills passed. A third-term incumbent in the 37th Assembly District, Jorgensen ran in the 43rd District after legislative redistricting last year carved his district into four pieces.

By law, Jorgensen must now move, because his current residence in Fort Atkinson is three blocks from boundary lines of the 43rd District.

He said he’s put his house up for sale, and he’s gearing his family up for the move.

For more on this story, read Wednesday’s Gazette, The Gazette’s e-edition or check back at gazettextra.com.