Madison, the first week of April, 1961 Close Close Close Madison, the first week of April, 1961. As the municipal election of 1961 approached, no one expected Mayor Ivan Nestingen to be a candidate. The 39-year-old attorney and former state representative was certainly popular enough to coast to victory — first elected in a special election in 1956, elected to a full two-year term in 1957 by a 3–1 margin, he was reelected without opposition in 1959. And now he’s riding high as the champion of the Frank Lloyd Wright Monona Terrace auditorium and convention center, which he’s pushed to the verge of construction. But Nestingen had led the Kennedy for President Club during the successful Wisconsin primary campaign in 1960, and chaired the state delegation to the national convention, so everyone assumed he’d leave Madison for a job in the new administration.