William Dyke

William D. Dyke (born 1930) is an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was a two-term mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, from 1969 to 1973. A conservative Republican, he briefly left the party in 1976 to join Lester Maddox's American Independent Party presidential ticket as the vice presidential nominee; however, he disavowed Maddox's segregationist views.^[1] Maddox and Dyke won 170,274 votes in the general election (or 0.21% of votes).^[2]

Dyke's tenure as mayor of Madison is considered a colorful, albeit often controversial, part of Madison's history.^[3] Dyke presided over Madison during what is perhaps the most turbulent era in the city's history, highlighted by the Sterling Hall bombing and subsequent clashes with student uprisings. One of those student activists, Paul Soglin, unsuccessfully challenged Dyke in the 1971 mayoral elections, only to return and defeat Dyke's attempt for re-election in 1973. Undeterred, Dyke ran as the Republican nominee for governor in 1974, losing to Democrat Patrick Lucey (who, like Dyke, would also run as a third-party vice presidential candidate, joining John Anderson's ticket in 1980).

Dyke also illustrated (as Bill Dyke) the children's book The General's Hat, or Why the Bell Tower Stopped Working, a tale about two mice who get on the same ship with General Ulysses S. Grant on his travels to Galena, Illinois.

Prior to entering electoral politics, Dyke hosted Circus 3, a local children's television program on WISC-TV, while completing his degree at the University of Wisconsin Law School.^[4] He also moderated Face the State, a local political news program modeled after the nationally-televised Face the Nation. The program included interviews with political luminaries such as Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Gerald Ford, and John F. Kennedy.^[5]

Dyke is currently the chief judge of the circuit court in Iowa County, Wisconsin.^[6]

Electoral history

Notes