Dan Cody

As I alluded to a few days ago, there's a new entry into the race for Wisconsin State Senate in the 6th District (where I live): County Supervisor Nikiya Harris.

She's making the announcement on the Eric Von radio show this morning and I am very excited to see her bring her energy, enthusiasm and personality to the race. She's going to have a website up soon where you can find out more information about her and her campaign and I'll pass it along as soon as I get it.

Nikiya has been a friend for several years now and I'm looking forward to supporting her.

I hope you'll join me to kick off the 18th Assembly District campaign of Evan Goyke tomorrow. Details:

Wednesday, May 9^th

African American Women’s Center, 3020 W. Vliet Street

5:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Remarks at 6:00 p.m.

This is another open seat. Rep. Tamara Grigsby is leaving the Assembly to deal with serious health issues. She's been a great Representative and I hope I can continue to be represented by a young, energetic voice in Madison. That's why I'm supporting Evan and I hope you will too.

I had heard about this a few weeks ago and over the weekend it became official.. Milwaukee County Supervisor Michael Mayo is going to be running for the Senate seat opening up when the term of Spencer Coggs expires this fall/winter. Despite being elected to City Treasurer this spring, Sen. Coggs is keeping both positions – and both paychecks for that matter, a move that's en vogue amongst elected officials in Milwaukee these days.

Over the weekend, Supervisor Michael Mayo announced he'd be running for the Senate seat. Rep. Elizabeth Coggs is also going to be running for the seat.

This is the Senate district I live in, so I'm watching it with a close eye. Frankly, I'm happy that there's another – yet unannounced – candidate who will be announcing her run later this week. Mayo has been on the County Board for over a decade and Coggs was there for over 20 years before running for the Assembly in 2010.

And yes, it does seem like we're in the midst of a never ending campaign cycle these days.

Welcome our new daughter Campbell Cody, born this morning at 8am. Tale of the tape: 7lbs 7oz, 20.5 inches. Both mom and baby are doing great. Campbell is the most alert baby we've ever seen. Her eyes were open for long periods of time today. Here are some initial pictures:

It's nice to be on the wrong side of a missed call for once. And ohhhhhh Nyjer Morgran. A great example of the love/hate relationship I have with him. If he's called out (as he probably should have been) he's lambasted for blowing a huge opportunity, but he wasn't so he's the smartest guy in Milwaukee.

My new favorite picture:

Two nights, two walk offs, and most importantly, two wins. Highlight of the play below:

Yesterday, my State Rep. Tamara Grigsby announced that as a result of her fight with cancer, she wouldn't be seeking re-election in the 18th Assembly district.

First and most importantly, all the best to Tamara. We've gotten to know each other a bit over the years and people on both sides of the aisle would agree that she's everything that's right about an elected representative. Hard working, passionate, a fighter, responsive.

Her resignation isn't a huge surprise to those who've been paying attention, but now that it's official, the horse race to replace her is already fully under way.

First, let me just say that while I appreciate more than a few people urging me to consider running for her seat, I am not interested in running for office at this time. The district has changed a bit under the 2010 redistricting but maintains Washington Park as it's center.

I know there is at least one very good candidate who is already committed to running, but I don't want to steal their thunder and will let them announce on their own later today or tomorrow. The last time there was a contested election in this district, it was also an open seat and there were plenty of candidates – some good, some not so good – who were in the race. I'm sure we'll see the same thing in the coming months as more than a few people will position themselves for a rare opportunity to run for an open Assembly seat.

Time sure does fly. Hard to believe that on this day half a decade ago Carter was born!

Now that the campaign is done, I should be getting back to blogging shortly. The past six months is the longest in 10 years I've gone without being able to write on a continual basis. There's a lot pent up.

Apparently, Rep. David Cullen has decided that he's running for Milwaukee County Supervisor now that his Assembly District got changed and is no longer an easy win for him. It should be worth noting that in a 20+ year career as a State Representative, David Cullen:

• Failed to support the Milwaukee County Parks system while in Assembly by supporting or even proposing a dedicated funding source for parks.
• Joined Republicans to cast a decisive vote against the creation of a regional transit authority here in Milwaukee County.despite being approved in a referendum by a majority of Milwaukee County voters.
• Showed little interest in the issues facing Milwaukee County until his Assembly seat was redistricted in 2011 and needed to find a new job.

This is not negative information, they're simple facts. Voters should ask Rep. Cullen what he thinks he can get done as a Milwaukee County Supervisor that couldn’t accomplish over the last 20+ years as a legislator in Madison.

I've been a bit behind in posting updates about the 2012 County Budget battle that's been taking place over the past few months. Without rehashing the entire thing, it looks like the pattern of County Exec. proposing no tax increase and the County Board coming back with modest increases has happened again.

The Milwaukee County Board on Wednesday completed work on the 2012 budget by overriding most of County Executive Chris Abele's vetoes, resulting in a property tax levy increase of $5.8 million, or 2.15%.

The board reversed Abele vetoes to restore $1.6 million and avoid layoffs of 27 sheriff's deputies; $3 million to soften a big increase in county employee health insurance costs; and nearly $800,000 for paramedic subsidies.

Abele had sought a tax levy freeze for 2012 at this year's $269.6 million. The board's action raises that to $275.4 million to be collected from property taxes toward a $1.2 billion budget.

The impact of the levy increase on the owner of a $150,000 home in Milwaukee will be a $3.84 increase in taxes, according to a County Board estimate. The rise is expected to be significantly higher in many Milwaukee County suburbs. – jsonline.com

Once again, Milwaukee County Parks will see a decrease in their budget while being expected to raise more revenue for themselves. It's sad and as I've pointed out before, the blame for this can be spread far and wide and isn't unique to this County Executive or the previous one.

I was also disappointed to see that Sheriff's Deputies were facing such a huge cut and many of them were to be laid off. This rests on the shoulders of the Sheriff himself as he'd rather deal with a cut to his budget by laying off Deputies instead of cutting high profile – and low impact – programs like his lakefront "command center" or "boot camp".

Thankfully, the grown ups with the Sheriff's Deputies Assoc. and County Board were able to restore some funding and prevented a major layoff which would have taken Deputies out of our neighborhoods and parks and put them in the unemployment line.

Everything can be traced back to the fact that our funding mechanism is completely and utterly broken. As long as we remain over reliant on a property tax to fund the services we all rely on, this cycle of tax increases coupled with service decreases will continue.

Remember to thank a Veteran and their family for their service today.

On a personal note, it's been a while since I've shared some pictures of the kids. Enjoy and have a great weekend.