Winner: Robert McPherson Wins seat on Waunakee Village Board after running for the 5th time.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try again. And again. And again. And again. And then probably again.”

Wayne Gretzky, probably

The following post is the first of several planned articles regarding the recent election in the Waunakee/Westport area, and is a revised version of a post I made one year ago on April 4, 2022.

On April 4, 2023, Robert was elected to the Waunakee Village Board with 2,437 votes, by a healthy margin of over 2.5%

I asked Robert for a more recent photo to use in this post, and this is what the guy sent me, with the simple message “Behold. The face of scary change in Waunakee.”

It should be clear at this point for anyone who is paying attention that qualifications and competency can be irrelevant when it comes being elected to any local office. No reasonable person thought that the top vote getter in 2020 was qualified through any instrinic factor of merit. I’ve told many people that I had many reasons for not bothering to run for the School Board again in 2021. The number one reason was seeing the proof in 2020 that actually being good at the job and being remotely competent was unnecessary to getting elected. So I got to spend the rest of my term being honest and unafraid of displeasing any of the people who wield influence in Waunakee.

I knew that doing this would make me increasingly unlikely to be re-elected, and in my selfishness, in my cowardice, I prefered to have the freedom to be myself and to simply walk away, lest I fight for the position and see myself lose.

Robert McPherson was a loser.

Robert has now run for Village Board five times. In dating terms, 2022 was the place where the phrase “They’re just not that into you” came into my mind. Robert would not simply take losing as a definitive answer. “It’s not about winning” Robert told me over messages in April 2022. “It’s about keeping the change conversation going.” I asked him why he endorsed one of the other candidates, Angie Ramos, for the Board. “Because she brings a different voice. She’s not just another one of the candidates who will let the local power players do whatever they want. I would probably be trying harder to get elected if she wasn’t there.”

Now-outgoing Village President Chris Zellner publicly attacked Robert in 2021 in a Village Board meeting, apparently stating that he was “afraid” of a person like Robert being elected. Two years later, I still don’t know what Chris meant by that. I don’t know if he was referring to Robert that way because he doesn’t toe the party line, doesn’t act like a cheerleader for the community, or something else. Robert has been the target of anti-semitism, as have I. Chris never put Robert on any local committees, despite Robert being an expert when it comes to local financing, banking, and real estate regulations. A uniquely qualified person never put on committees that often beg for volunteers? Odd choice, that.

One powerful village committee has even included an individual who has in writing, repeated the insidious lie about Village employees at the Waunakee Library. Yet, I have been told by multiple elected officials in Waunakee that Village officials chose to admonish those who recently defended the Village library, but apparently not those who openly repeated lies about it.

I shouldn’t put too fine of a point on this: This person is currently an appointed official for the Village of Waunakee, replying directly to a candidate for office and current Village Board member (Nila Frye). In writing, in the last week, he repeated the claim above, which originates from an anonymous blog (Dane Undivided) titled “Grooming Kids at the Waunakee Library“

So in short, Robert couldn’t get appointed to anything. Yet a person who would repeat a defamatory attack on the Village children’s librarian about grooming children did!

“Doing the right thing isn’t always popular, and I’m perfectly comfortable with being disliked, so long as I’m getting that hate in response to taking a moral stance.” Robert told me last year.

I will never live in Waunakee, so I’m never going to get to vote for him. Regardless if you agree with his politics, I said in 2022 that Robert is still worth your vote. He didn’t get enough then, but it didn’t stop him from being involved, and on April 4, 2023, he was succesful.

I said last year that Robert would keep losing… for a good cause. Now that he’s finally won, he’ll have the opportunity to use his win to do some good.