Challenger Jason Gonzalez, vying to become Fitchburg’s first Latino mayor, garnered 47.9 percent of the vote, ahead of incumbent Steve Arnold’s 37.9 percent. Marc Jones finished with 13.8 percent of the vote.
Gonzalez is from the south side of Madison and an alumnus of University of Wisconsin-Madison. He moved to Fitchburg in 2007 as a part-time firefighter shortly after graduating. He ran for and won a contested election for Alder in 2013, becoming the first Latino to sit on the Fitchburg city council. He won re-election in 2015, again contested.
“It’s turned into a tale of multiple cities and we have a struggle for a sense of identity and coming together, but over the last 18 months the city hasn’t really come together. In fact we’ve grown apart,” Gonzalez told Madison365 earlier this month.
Gonzalez and Arnold will face off in the April 4 general election.
