2024 Wisconsin State Legislature Voter Guide: Assembly District 40
Dan Shafer
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This is part of The Recombobulation Area and Civic Media’s 2024 Wisconsin State Legislature Voter Guide. Read the first part of the series, “New Board, New Game,” here. See the full district-by-district breakdown of the Wisconsin State Senate here. See the comprehensive Voter Guide here.
R: Jerry Helmer
The new 40th is located northwest of Dane County, including the cities of Baraboo and Portage. It is similar to the old 81st District, represented by Dave Considine, who is retiring after a decade in the Assembly.
Karen DeSanto is the Democratic candidate in this district after winning the primary with about 53% of the vote, defeating Brad Cook (23%) and Kyle Kunicki (24%). DeSanti is the former CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of West Central Wisconsin. She also worked as a circus clown for three decades in her hometown of Baraboo, the city where the Ringling Brothers Circus was founded in the late 1800s. A clown in the State Assembly? She’ll fit right in.
The Republican running here is Jerry Helmer, the chairman of the Republican Party in Sauk County. Sauk is a bellwether county in Wisconsin, having voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Donald Trump in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020. Helmer was recently featured in a story on Wisconsin politics in the Financial Times.
CNalysis: Very Likely D (FLIP)
- Proj. margin: D+15
Modeled 2022 outcome: D+10.6
Wisconsin Eye interview:
