The sheriff's race has taken all the air in the room. The Flock cameras have taken the rest. Somewhere underneath both, on the same Aug. 11 ballot, two Republicans are running for an office most voters could not describe if asked.
The Clerk of Circuit Court is not a ceremonial job. The clerk keeps every court record in the county. The clerk authenticates orders and judgments, runs the jury system, and handles the money moving through the courts — the fines, the restitution, the filing fees. If you are ever served, sued, summoned for jury duty, or trying to get a copy of your own case file, you are dealing with that office. It is one of the few countywide offices where a single elected official controls, day to day, how ordinary people experience the courts.
It is also open.
Kari Tidquist, elected to the post, resigned before her term ended. Mary E. Lee has run the office since 2024. Whoever wins in August will be the first person to hold it on their own mandate in years.
Open seats are when voters should be asking the most questions. This one is getting the fewest.
The two candidates
Leni Nilsestuen is the office manager and paralegal in the Trempealeau County District Attorney's office, where she has worked for several years. She knows the courthouse, its filing systems and the people who run them.
Jessica Schue is not part of the county's legal apparatus.
Those are the résumés. Both candidates have also published campaign material — Schue an advertisement, Nilsestuen a campaign page — and each names priorities for the office.
What neither says is how the office would run. Not what a copy of a court record costs, not how the money moving through the courts is checked, not what public access looks like for someone without a lawyer. Voters are being asked to choose between an insider and an outsider without an answer to any of it.
This paper is not going to tell you that experience inside county government is disqualifying. It is not. Nor is coming from outside it a qualification by itself. Both are descriptions of where someone has worked. Neither tells you whether the person will run the office well.
Open seats are when voters should be asking the most questions. This one is getting the fewest.
What to ask them
There is a chance to fix that. The Republican Party of Trempealeau County is set to hold a forum for the clerk of court candidates on July 28. Anyone who goes should bring questions, and these are the ones worth the trip:
What would you change about how this office runs today? A candidate who cannot name one thing has not thought about the job.
What does it cost, and how long does it take, to get a copy of a court record? The clerk sets the practical answer to that, not the statute. It should not be a mystery.
What happens to the money? The office handles fines, restitution and fees. Ask how those accounts are reconciled, and who checks the work.
What would you do about public access? Wisconsin's CCAP puts case information online, but that is a state system. Ask what this office does locally for someone without a lawyer or a computer.
Who do you answer to? The clerk works alongside the judge, the district attorney and the county board, and is elected by none of them. Ask how each candidate would handle a disagreement with any of the three.
Why it matters that nobody is watching
Low-turnout races are decided by small numbers. In a county primary with no Democratic contest for this seat, a few hundred votes will pick the person who keeps the county's court records for the next four years. That is not a reason to shrug. It is the reason a single informed voter counts for more here than in any race on the ballot.
The winner faces Democrat Mary Teresa Foss on Nov. 3 for a four-year term.
This is the quietest race on the ballot. It is not the least consequential one. Show up, ask the questions, and make both candidates earn it.