Kimberly Plache

Kimberly Plache
Kimberly Plache
Member of the Wisconsin Senate; from the 21st district
	In office; June 14, 1996 – January 6, 2003
Preceded by	George Petak
Succeeded by	Cathy Stepp
Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly; from the 62nd district
	In office; January 3, 1989 – June 13, 1996
Preceded by	Jeffrey A. Neubauer
Succeeded by	John Lehman
Member of the Racine Unified School Board
	In office; 2009–2016
Personal details
Born	January 4, 1961 (age 63); Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Paul Hable
Children	1
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin–Parkside

Kimberly Plache (born January 4, 1961) is an American Democratic politician and former member of the Wisconsin State Senate.

Early life and education

Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Plache graduated from William Horlick High School in 1979. In 1984, she received her bachelor's degree in psychology from University of Wisconsin–Parkside.

Career

Shortly after her college graduation, Plache was hired as a legislative aide by her representative in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Jeffrey A. Neubauer. When Neubauer chose not to run for re-election in 1988, Plache ran and was elected to succeed him in the Assembly.

She was re-elected in 1990, 1992, and 1994.

In October 1995, Racine County's representative in the Wisconsin Senate, George Petak, ran into controversy when he changed his vote on a funding bill for the Miller Park stadium. Miller Park was being planned to replace the forty-year-old Milwaukee County Stadium and was being pushed by Republican Governor Tommy Thompson and Milwaukee Brewers owner and future-Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig. Petak had promised his constituents that he would vote against the bill, but changed his mind based on the belief that the Brewers would leave Wisconsin if a new stadium wasn't built.^[1]

Petak's deciding vote supported a 0.1 percent sales tax increase for the five counties in the proposed stadium's vicinity, including Racine.^[2] Petak faced immediate outrage in his home district, and local Democrats were energized to collect signatures for a recall petition. The petition was certified on March 26, 1996, and a recall election was ordered for June.^[3]

Plache decided to run in the recall and faced no competition in the Democratic primary. In June, she defeated Petak, making him the first Wisconsin state legislator to be removed from office in a recall election.^[4]^[5]

Plache was re-elected to a full term in the senate in 1998, defeating Racine Unified School Board Member David Hazen.^[6] Plache sought re-election again in 2002, but was narrowly defeated by Republican Cathy Stepp.^[7]

In 2009, the Mayor of Racine was forced to resign after being indicted. Plache ran in the special election to replace him, but did not pass the primary. In the same year, however, she was elected to the Racine Unified School Board. She served on the school board until 2016.^[8]

She is currently a senior community relations officer for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

Personal life

Plache married Paul Hable in October 1999. They live in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, and they have one daughter.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Assembly (1988-1994)

Wisconsin Assembly, 62nd District Election, 1988
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache	2,846	43.18%
	Republican	Saundra Herre	1,932	29.31%
	Democratic	Thomas A. Kexel	1,799	27.29%
	Independent	Kay C. Rouse	14	0.02%
Total votes			'*4,645'*	'*100.0%'*
General Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache	11,796	62.76%	+1.07%
	Republican	Saundra Herre	6,703	35.66%	−2.65%
	Independent	Kay C. Rouse	297	1.58%
Total votes			'*18,796'*	'*100.0%'*	+28.27%
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Assembly, 62nd District Election, 1990
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	1,320	65.87%
	Republican	Kay C. Rouse	684	34.13%
Total votes			'*2.004'*	'*100.0%'*	-18.60%
General Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	7,484	62.75%	−0.01%
	Republican	Kay C. Rouse	4,443	37.25%	+1.59%
Total votes			'*11,927'*	'*100.0%'*	-18.60%
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Assembly, 62nd District Election, 1992
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	3,644	69.88%
	Republican	Mark Ladd	1,571	30.12%
Total votes			'*5,215'*	'*100.0%'*
General Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	14,244	61.28%	−1.45%
	Republican	Mark Ladd	8,999	38.72%
Total votes			'*23,243'*	'*100.0%'*	+69.56%
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Assembly, 62nd District Election, 1994
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election
	Republican	James Turek	1,258	40.26%
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	989	59.74%
Total votes			'*2,247'*	'*100.0%'*
General Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	9,504	59.74%	−1.54%
	Republican	James Turek	6,404	40.26%
Total votes			'*15,908'*	'*100.0%'*	+33.38%
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Senate (1996-2002)

Wisconsin Senate, 21st District Recall Election, 1996
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election
	Republican	George Petak (incumbent)	14,147	60.20%
	Republican	William A. Pangman	5,174	22.02%
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache	4,016	17.09%
	Libertarian	Todd Mascaretti	163	0.07%
Total votes			23,500	'*100.0%'*
General Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache	21,045	51.22%	+13.33%
	Republican	George Petak (incumbent)	19,318	47.02%	−15.09%
	Libertarian	Todd Mascaretti	725	1.76%
Total votes			41,088	'*100.0%'*	-10.00%
	Democratic gain from Republican

Wisconsin Senate, 21st District Election, 1998
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	5,505	61.45%
	Republican	David Hazen	3,454	38.55%
Total votes			'*8,959'*	'*100.0%'*
General Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	27,353	55.46%	+4.24%
	Republican	David Hazen	21,967	44.54%	−2.48%
Total votes			'*49,320'*	'*100.0%'*	+20.04%
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Senate, 21st District Election, 2002
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Primary Election
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	12,207	63.31%
	Republican	Cathy Stepp	5,462	28.33%
	Republican	John W. Knuteson	1,613	8.36%
Total votes			'*19,282'*	'*100.0%'*
General Election
	Republican	Cathy Stepp	25,367	50.68%	+6.14%
	Democratic	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	24,594	49.14%	−6.32%
Total votes			'*50,050'*	'*100.0%'*	+1.48%
	Republican gain from Democratic

Racine Mayor (2009)

Racine Mayoral Special Election, 2009
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
Primary Election
	Independent	John Dickert	2,307	23.09%
	Independent	Robert L. Turner	1,671	16.73%
	Independent	Kimberly Plache	1,313	13.14%
	Independent	James Spangenberg	1,249	12.50%
	Independent	Greg Helding	1,150	11.51%
	Independent	Pete Karas	851	8.52%
	Independent	Jody Harding	658	6.59%
	Independent	Q.A. Shakoor II	414	4.14%
	Independent	Lesia Hill-Driver	161	1.61%
	Independent	Raymond Fay	148	1.48%
	Independent	Jaimie Charon	69	0.69%
Total votes			'*9,991'*	'*100.0%'*
General Election
	Independent	John Dickert	6,027	55.46%
	Independent	Robert L. Turner	4,841	44.54%
Total votes			'*10,868'*	'*100.0%'*

Racine School Board (2009–2016)

Racine School Board Election, 2009^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election
	Independent	Don J. Nielsen (incumbent)	9,550	24.46%
	Independent	Gretchen L. Warner (incumbent)	8,440	21.62%
	Independent	Kimberly Plache	7,747	19.84%
	Independent	Stella A. Young	7,041	18.04%
	Independent	John Leiber	6,176	15.82%
		Write-ins	85	0.22%
Total votes			'*39,039'*	'*100.0%'*

Racine School Board Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election
	Independent	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	12,223	22.27%
	Independent	Don J. Nielsen (incumbent)	10,383	18.91%
	Independent	Gretchen L. Warner (incumbent)	10,012	18.24%
	Independent	Brian Dey	7,910	14.41%
	Independent	Roger Pfost	7,416	13.51%
	Independent	Scott Brownell	6,840	12.46%
		Write-ins	112	0.20%
Total votes			'*54,896'*	'*100.0%'*

Racine School Board Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election
	Independent	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	11,183	25.33%
	Independent	Don J. Nielsen (incumbent)	9,571	21.68%
	Independent	Lisa Parham	9,248	20.95%
	Independent	Wally Rendón (incumbent)	7,494	16.97%
	Independent	Bryn Biemeck	6,656	15.08%
Total votes			'*44,152'*	'*100.0%'*

Racine School Board, 4th District Election, 2016^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election
	Independent	Julie McKenna (incumbent)	2,293	51.13%
	Independent	Kimberly Plache (incumbent)	2,192	48.87%
Total votes			'*4,485'*	'*100.0%'*

Notes

^ Sandomir, Richard (1998-05-07). "Stadiums Are Proposed, but Public Isn't Always Disposed to Pay Price". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
^ "Petak Recall Counter to History". Racine Journal Times. Madison. 1996-04-12. Retrieved 2011-10-04.
^ "Recall gets green light". Racine Journal Times. Madison. 1996-03-27. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
^ "Plache sworn in as state senator". Racine Journal Times. 1996-06-14. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
^ Toner, Robin (1996-06-09). "Political Briefing: The States and the Issues;Wisconsin: Recall Alters Balance of Power". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
^ Sides, Phyllis (2003-01-08). "Unified School Board veteran not seeking re-election". Racine Journal Times. Racine. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
^ Wisconsin Historical Society-Kimberly Plache
^ ProgressMajority.org=Kimberly Plache
^ Official Proceedings (PDF) (Report). Racine Unified School District. 2009-04-20. p. 7. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
^ Final Official 04-05-2016 Election Results for State and County Races (Report). Racine County Clerk. 2016-04-05. p. 20. Retrieved 2019-04-05.

[1] Sandomir, Richard (1998-05-07). "Stadiums Are Proposed, but Public Isn't Always Disposed to Pay Price". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-02-15.

[2] "Petak Recall Counter to History". Racine Journal Times. Madison. 1996-04-12. Retrieved 2011-10-04.

[3] "Recall gets green light". Racine Journal Times. Madison. 1996-03-27. Retrieved 2019-02-15.

[4] "Plache sworn in as state senator". Racine Journal Times. 1996-06-14. Retrieved 2019-02-15.

[5] Toner, Robin (1996-06-09). "Political Briefing: The States and the Issues;Wisconsin: Recall Alters Balance of Power". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-02-11.

[6] Sides, Phyllis (2003-01-08). "Unified School Board veteran not seeking re-election". Racine Journal Times. Racine. Retrieved 2019-02-24.

[7] Wisconsin Historical Society-Kimberly Plache

[8] ProgressMajority.org=Kimberly Plache

[9] Official Proceedings (PDF) (Report). Racine Unified School District. 2009-04-20. p. 7. Retrieved 2019-04-05.

[10] Final Official 04-05-2016 Election Results for State and County Races (Report). Racine County Clerk. 2016-04-05. p. 20. Retrieved 2019-04-05.

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