Stanley has a new official mayoral candidate, and his name is Ben Wald.
Wald, currently the alderperson for First and Eighth Wards in Stanley, was the only one to return candidacy papers by last week’s Tuesday deadline for the April election. Incumbent Mayor Mike Henke has neither filed candidacy nor non-candidacy papers for the election this April, serving as mayor in non-consecutive terms from 2012 to 2017 and 2024 to the present.
“I didn’t run last time either,” Henke said in response to the question of candidacy this spring. Henke was asked to run in 2024 by then mayor Al Haas.
As for Wald, he is a graduate from Stanley-Boyd with the Class of 2007, coming to council in January 2024 to fill the seat vacated by Joe Davison for first and eighth wards, then winning election to the seat outright in 2025. Wald is married with a young son, and studied organization leadership in college.
At the time of coming to council in 2024 he expressed interest in “getting to work and working to facilitate an environment where we have things like the rodeo and bringing businesses to town to provide jobs for folks and making Stanley a place where people want to be whether it’s work or living or entertainment.”
On the ballot this April, Wald would be the 35th chief executive for Stanley and 30th individual to fill the mayor’s post, starting with L.G. Moon in 1896.
A list of official April ballot candidates follows:

City of Stanley
Mayor - Ben Wald
Alderperson seats
Wards 1 and 8 - Mark Fitzsimmons
Ward 2 - no filed candidate
Ward 3 - Terry Metzger
Wards 4 and 9 - Aaron Dickson

Village of Boyd
Trustee - Josh Walters
Trustee - no filed candidate

Stanley-Boyd Area School Board
Area 2 (Delmar, Colburn, and Taft) - Denise Hoffstatter
Area 3 (Village of Boyd - Bob Geist
Area 4 (City of Stanley) - Toni Seidl

As for county board seats, relevant seats are as follows:

Chippewa County Board
District 2 (Ruby, Lake Holcombe, Cornell, part of Estella) - Pam Guthman
District 6 (Colburn, Goetz, Arthur, and parts of Delmar and Estella) - Timothy Goettl
District 8 (City of Stanley) - James Ericksen
District 10 (Delmar, Boyd, and Edson) - Matthew Peterson

Clark County Board
District 6 (Withee township and part of Hixon) - Joe Waichulis Jr.
District 7 (City of Thorp) - Jill Hoff
District 8 (Thorp township, parts of cities of Stanley and Thorp - Arlene Kodl
District 12 (Reseburg) - Roy Tyznik
District 13 (Worden, Butler, Foster North, Foster South, Part of Thorp township) - Al Bower

Eau Claire County Board
District 1 (Wilson, Ludington, Bridge Creek, Fairchild) - Caleb Aichele

Taylor County Board
District 15 (Aurora, Ford) - Lynette Rosemeyer
District 16 (Taft Roosevelt, Maplehurst) - Darrell Thompson

The spring election arrives April 7.