Three candidates are facing off in a special election in DeForest that follows a years-long dispute involving police reports, a burner email account and Facebook fights over dental hygiene.
During next Tuesday’s election, voters will weigh whether to keep Trustee William Landgraf in office or replace him with either Stacey Petersen orAlicia Williams.
The recall attempt comes amid political discord in the village of some 12,000 people, about 30 minutes north of Madison.
Those tensions reached a boiling point in February, when trustees, including Landgraf, voted 4-3 to stop adding fluoride to the the village’s water.
Landgraf, who has served multiple stints on the board, has framed the election as a political witch hunt, saying he’s being targeted because of his blunt approach.
“I don’t back down to attacks,” Landgraf told WPR. “Some people do.”
But recall organizers say the election is about more than just one board vote, pointing to Landgraf’s conduct.
“This is is not a fluoride recall,” said Chris McDonald, one of the recall organizers. “That is one component of the reason for the recall. But really the behavior — the intimidation, the harassment — is the other reason.”
Tensions reached boiling point with vote to remove fluoride from water
While other factors may be at play in the special election, the fight over fluoride put a spotlight on DeForest.
Both of the candidates running to replace Landgraf say they want to restore civility and cooperation in village government. But both have declined to say definitely whether they support or oppose adding fluoride to DeForest’s water.
Petersen has said the issue has been divisive and she doesn’t want to revisit it. Effectively, that would mean keeping the status quo with no added fluoride in the water supply.
Meanwhile, Williams, who is endorsed by the recall organizers, said she believes trustees need to hear more input on the topic. She said she would support restoring fluoride “if a majority of my constituency says they want fluoride back.”
Fluoride, a mineral, can be naturally present in drinking water, but many communities add fluoride to their water supply to maintain levels that are optimal for preventing tooth decay.
There’s broad consensus among dental health experts who support adding fluoride to water. The American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics both have championed water fluoridation.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously heralded water fluoridation as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century, which led to a dramatic decline in cavities.
The new U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. has shared false information about the effects of fluoride, however, and he’s said he wants to issue recommendations that would urge water systems to remove it.
‘This is not a fluoride recall’: Recall organizers cite unprofessional conduct
Landgraf was among the board members who voted to remove the fluoride,but McDonald said that’s not the only reason people are attempting to boot him from office.
“That really got a lot of eyes on the board,” McDonald said. “And the way some of the trustees behaved.”
McDonald, who lives in the neighboring village of Windsor, said some of the residents who signed the recall petition supported the anti-fluoride vote. Nonetheless, he says they’re opposed to Landgraf’s conduct both on and offline.
The recall petition says Landgraf failed to follow “DeForest’s core values for civility and conduct” and accuses him of creating an “atmosphere of fear, division and mistrust.”
Landgraf served as a village trustee from 2003 to 2005, before being elected again in 2020, 2022 and 2024. A successful recall would lead to Landgraf being ousted part-way through his current two-year term, which expires in April 2026.
Landgraf has a pattern of waging personal attacks against residents who criticize him, McDonald said.
“He has been known to park in front of people’s homes that have disagreed with him to the point where several residents have doorbell camera footage of him sitting in his car in front of their houses,” McDonald said.
Landgraf, meanwhile, says he’s being unfairly targeted.
“If this was Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, I’d have a better chance to defend myself then against these baseless accusations,” Landgraf said.
He described himself as “blunt and to the point” but said that can be effective.
“I’m an intimidating guy, just in my presence,” Landgraf said, mentioning he is 6 feet 2 inches tall and 280 pounds. “I don’t beat around the bush, and I get things done.”
Landgraf is urging residents to reject the recall.
“I have a solid record of voting, showing up, doing my homework,” he said. “I stand by my decisions, my votes.”
Landgraf filed complaint against dental hygienist who criticized anti-fluoride vote
Opponents also point to Landgraf’s actions against a dental hygienist who opposed the vote to remove fluoride.
That hygienist, who is also a DeForest resident, had raised concerns during public meeting comments and on Facebook about how the vote would hurt dental health.
In March, she got into an argument with Rebecca Witherspoon, one of the trustees who voted to remove the fluoride. The hygienist tagged Witherspoon in a Facebook comment.
“Hope those crowns on multiple of your teeth hold up well without fluoride, Becky,” the hygienist wrote in a Facebook group. “Dental care is expensive and so are new crowns!”
The hygienist continued to describe Witherspoon’s possible dental issues, saying her observations were based on how Witherspoon’s teeth and jaw look in photos. Witherspoon is not one of the hygienist’s patients.
The next day, Landgraf called the dentist’s office where the hygienist works and said he wanted to speak to a “decision maker” about “unprofessional misconduct,” on the part of the hygienist.
Later that week, Witherspoon and Landgraf each filed a complaint against the hygienist with state’s Department of Safety and Professional Services.
“To publicly ridicule and shame an individual like this under the guise of a licensed medical professional was appalling,” Landgraf wrote in his complaint, according to records provided by DSPS. “(The hygienist) needs some time off at the very least to reconsider the damage she did to the public trust of dentistry.”
The state’s licensing agency dismissed both complaints against the woman, and her license remains active.
Landgraf’s actions prompted the hygienist to file a report with police, saying she was concerned about his behavior, and the fact that he knew where she worked.
Police determined that Landgraf’s actions involving the woman didn’t amount to a crime. But a village police sergeant did tell Landgraf to leave her alone.
“I explained if he did continue, he could venture potentially into criminal stalking, and that would not be good,” the officer wrote in his police report.
In an interview with WPR, Landgraf said he did nothing wrong by reporting the woman.
“I asked for a call back (from the dentist’s office) and I never got it — that’s when I filed a complaint with the state,” Landgraf said. “I thought it was very unprofessional of a resident (to be) degrading publicly the facial features of another person.”
Original article online at: https://www.wpr.org/news/deforest-recall-election-fluoride-william-landgraf-stacey-petersen-alicia-williams