Daniel Cody - “Left on the Lake”

I understand Milwaukee County Exec. Scott Walker is flying high off his recent victory and all, but can anyone tell me how the man who couldn’t even win the support of his own Republican party two years ago is going to knock off twice elected Gov. Doyle in 2010? All I’ve heard from Republican friends over the past few days is how “This victory locks him in for Governor in 2010!!!”, much to my amazement.

Like I said, he couldn’t even come out ahead of Rep. Mark Green in 2006 - who proceeded to lose handily to Jim Doyle - to get the Republican nomination.

Suspending disbelief for a moment and assuming he were to get his parties nomination, what would his platform be exactly?

Look how well I’ve “held the line” on taxes in Milwaukee County and run it into the ground! or
If you think I had “innovative” and “creative” ways of screwing up a single county, just wait till I control 72 of them! or
I can’t even achieve a compromise with a legislative body who are non-partisan - just imagine how quickly state government will grind to a halt once I have to deal with an actual opposition party!

I mean, I know a doe-eyed conservative political opportunist like Walker inhabiting the Governors mansion again is the dream of every other doe-eyed conservative political opportunist in Wisconsin, but I just don’t see his campaign playing very well outside that group.

As the old saying goes, nothing changes if nothing changes. That may best describe the outcome of the 2008 spring elections in Milwaukee.

With the exception of the Alderman who was in jail and the County Supervisor who didn’t file his nomination papers on time, every incumbent in the County won their race yesterday. In the case of the race between Michael McGee Jr. and Milele Coggs, I was pleased to see her come out ahead in that race because it’s about time the residents of that district get some active and unincarcerated representation from their Alderperson. It’s also nice to have a woman back on the Milwaukee Common Council.

As for County government, it’s makeup remains largely unchanged with the re-election of the County Executive and the re-election of most County Supervisors. Again, the notable exception is Sup. James White who failed to turn in his nomination papers. The two new Supervisors who were elected in open races are both good progressive candidates in Johnny Thomas and Chis Larson.

Closer to home in my district, the incumbent Sup. Debruin won by an extremely close margin of 170 votes. She received about 800 fewer votes than she received in the primary election back on Feb. 19th. In all, there were about 2,000 fewer voters in the April 1st general compared to the primary in the 15th district, and this was one of the closest races in the entire county.

The interesting thing here will be to see whether Sup. Debruin takes her narrow victory as a sign the conservative voters in the district are unhappy with her and starts to vote more in line with their views. If so, the County Executive will have even more support for his conservative agenda in the next few years, and County services will suffer as a result. 49% of residents voting against a 16 year incumbent sends a very very strong message in my opinion.

The last ten months during this election cycle have been a really interesting time in my life, and I met a lot of great people along the way who both won and lost last night. During that time, I learned a lot about campaigns and elections, and in a way, the end of this campaign cycle closes an important period of time in my life as well.

Now it’s on to November!

I got a mailer today for former my former opponent and current County Supervisor candidate Lynne DeBruin, and while I normally wouldn’t have paid much attention to it, one sentence in it did catch my interest.

The part that caught my interest was the proclomation that she had been supported by a “clear majority of residents” followed by, “more neighbors cast their votes for Lynne DeBruin than the other candidates combined.“.

Here’s a picture of the mailer:

The recorded vote counts from the primary on Feb. 19th from the Milwaukee County Election Commission disagree with Sup. DeBruins claims:

Wycklendt: 3894 30.02%
Cody: 2490 19.19%
DeBruin: 6398 49.32%
Write in: 191 1.47%

Total votes cast: 12973 100.00%

Saying that you got a “clear majority” much less a “majority” at all with 49.3% of the vote is on par with President Bush stating he had a “clear mandate” with 50.7% of the vote after the 2004 election.

The second claim that Sup. DeBruin had more votes cast for her than all other candidates combined is also just plain incorrect. Again, the numbers show that 6,575 votes were cast on Feb. 19th for myself, Dan Wycklendt, or was a write in vote for another candidate compared to the 6,398 Sup. DeBruin received.

Here’s why this troubles me: the day before a general election you have a candidate knowingly mailing out an incorrect and over-exaggerated claim to thousands of people about the amount of votes they received and the level of support they have in the district.

I realize some may see this as sour grapes from a former opponent to the candidate, and there’s nothing I can say or do that will change that opinion.

The fact of the matter is that I’m a resident of this district who is deeply concerned with the direction it’s headed and the kind of representation we’re getting from some of our public servants. When you have a candidate who won’t even be completely honest in a piece of campaign literature or tries to pull the wool over voters eyes by exaggerating the level of support they have, you have to question the kind of representation you’re in store for should that candidate win.

So I don’t see it as sour grapes at all. Rather, I see it as holding our potential public servants to a basic standard of truthfulness in communicating with voters and calling them out on it - no matter who it is or what the situation may be - when they fail to meet that standard.

It’s the first step towards basic accountability which is something we need more of at every level of government, but especially here in Milwaukee County.

Wisconsin’s largest daily newspaper has an interesting article in the paper today bemoaning the fact that more people aren’t getting involved in local politics. They find that nearly 60% of local races in Southeastern Wisconsin and 40% of those in Milwaukee County are uncontested for the spring election cycle which is an unfortunate fact, I agree.

It’s interesting though to see that as they publish their final candidate endorsements for this spring election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has endorsed only one non-incumbent candidate in Milwaukee County.

So on one hand, they’re crying about not having anyone wanting to get involved in local politics and challenge incumbents, and on the other, they’re supporting the candidacy of those same incumbents.

And to be clear, there are a lot of incumbents in Milwaukee and the surounding areas that do deserve to be endorsed and re-elected. I support several of them myself.

But once again, the major media outlet in this state wants to have it both ways. Lamenting the fact that more people don’t challenge local politicians while winking and nodding at those same politicians at the same time.

In Milwaukee County for example, here are the list of candidates endorsed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

MILWAUKEE - COUNTY
Executive: Walker
Circuit Court: Dallet
Supervisor, 1st District: White
Supervisor, 4th District: Dimitrijevic
Supervisor, 9th District: Cesarz
Supervisor, 10th District: Coggs-Jones
Supervisor, 11th District: Borkowski
Supervisor, 14th District: Larson
Supervisor, 15th District: De Bruin
Supervisor, 16th District: Weishan
Supervisor, 17th District: Holt
MILWAUKEE - CITY
Mayor: Barrett
City Attorney: Langley
Council, 1st District: Hamilton
Council, 3rd District: Flaherty
Council, 4th District: Bauman
Council, 5th District: Pullen-O’Donnell
Council, 6th District: Coggs
Council, 7th District: Wade
Council, 9th District: Puente
Council, 10th District: Murphy
Council, 11th District: Dudzik
Council, 12th District: Witkowiak
Council, 13th District: Witkowski
Council, 14th District: Zielinski
Council, 15th District: Hines

The only challenger the JS endorsed out of that entire slate was Brenda K. Pullen-O’Donnell for the 5th district alderman in Milwaukee. 1 out of 26.

Again, I support the vast majority of those candidates listed above, but that isn’t the point. Getting involved in a local race for public office against a sitting incumbent is tough enough on its own, but having the states largest newspaper almost predetermined against your campaign only serves to keep qualified candidates for public office on the sidelines.

Quick thought of the day. If you have a weekly television show on local network affiliate, a 2+ hour daily radio talk show on the biggest AM station in the region, and write an occasional editorial column in the daily newspaper, you are the “mainstream media”.

Not some Robin Hoodish character on the outside looking in who’s rebelling against it.

Some Milwaukee County officials have been floating the idea of borrowing large amounts of money at a certain percentage rate (about 6%) an reinvesting it in various markets to increase the returns (theoretically at 8%) to cover our future pension obligations.

I’ve said it’s not only a bad idea, but is akin to taking next month’s mortgage to Las Vegas. Cities like Philidelphia who have put their pension obligations into such a risky scheme are now seeing why borrowing money with the hope of getting a better return on it is a bad idea and can only lead to further economic trouble.

This is something we here in Milwaukee should avoid like the plague; and not only because it’s as risky as taking next month’s mortgage payment to Vegas.

Philadelphia’s $4 billion pension deficit is causing the city’s retirement-fund manager to shun Treasuries at a time when the Bush administration needs him most.

Yields on 30-year U.S. bonds that fell to a record low of 4.10 percent this year are forcing pension funds to favor equities, corporate debt and commodities in an attempt to cover unfunded liabilities and meet return objectives of about 8 percent. Even the federal government’s own Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said on Feb. 19 that it plans to shift $15 billion to stocks from debt. - Bloomberg

Well it’s disappointing, but the results are in and I won’t be advancing to the general election for Supervisor.

It’s tempting to go back and try to second guess how I ran my campaign, or think “if only X had happened” but like I said a few days ago I’m extremely pleased with how I ran my campaign. I didn’t pander to one group or another, I didn’t go negative, and I didn’t trade in my principles for votes.

I ran a very positive campaign, was honest with voters where I stood on the issues, and worked extremely hard over the past nine months. 2500 people believed in me which is no small number, and that is an honor in itself. At the end of the day though I didn’t win, and like I said above it’s obviously disappointing.

But that doesn’t mean I’m going away or will stop working on behalf of working families throughout Milwaukee County. One setback isn’t going to stop me from doing that, nor will it dissuade me from public service in the future at a time when perhaps the timing is more favorable.

One thing I’m going to miss most is knocking on doors and meeting people in the district and talking to them about the important issues we’re facing as a community.

I’d like to say thank you to all of those who helped my campaign over the last year. It really means a lot to have your support, and I truly appreciate what you’ve all done for me.

For the time being, I’m keeping my chin up and am looking forward to spending more time with Jenny and our kids. I’m also looking forward to getting my voice back and not spending every waking moment out in the brutal winter weather that we’re experiencing.

Thanks again and we’ll talk soon!

As many people in Milwaukee County take a final look at information to help them make a decision about who to vote for in tomorrow’s County Supervisor primary, some have asked me in emails, on the phone, and in person recently to explain why I deserve their vote tomorrow and on April 1st.

It’s a good question and one that I like to answer with the following story:

Over the past four months I have spoken to literally thousands of people in the 15th district as I’ve been out knocking on doors, attending community events and talking to them at neighborhood meetings. One thing always jumps out at me, and that’s the sheer number of people who don’t know who their County Supervisor is.

In fact, about 9 out of 10 of those people don’t know their name of the elected official who has represented them for more than 15 years.When you’ve represented a district for over 15 years, like the incumbent has, and 9 out of 10 people don’t know who you are, there is something very very wrong with the way you’re doing your job as a public servant. And it’s not that those people aren’t paying attention because they can almost always name their Alderman.

Why? That’s because our Alderman are engaged with their constituents, and make a point of coming out to all the street parties, block watch meetings and neighborhood association meetings to listen to where their constituents are at on the issues.

I believe it’s about time we have the same kind of responsive, engaged, and active representation at the County level as we do at the City level, and that’s the kind of representative that I will provide as a County Supervisor.I believe it’s time for Milwaukee County government to leave the shadows of obscurity and start leading this community forward.

I believe it’s time to change the status-quo and shake things up. I believe that if you want to change the direction this County is heading, you have to change it from the bottom up.

To do that, it’s going to take leadership that is engaged, energetic, and has the innovative solutions to the problems this County faces today and in the future.

I know I can provide that kind of leadership and I ask that tomorrow you join me and take the first step to changing the direction this County is heading by voting for me, Daniel Cody, as your choice for Milwaukee County Supervisor in the 15th district.

As always, I encourage your feedback because active communication between an elected official and the people they serve is the first and most important duty a public servant must provide.You can get in touch with me by visiting http://danielcody.com/contact/

Thank you again for your support!

First off, here is a direct link to the website for my campaign for Milwaukee County Supervisor where you can find out everything you’d like to know about me and my campaign.

It’s incredible to realize that the primary election in my race for County Supervisor is next Tuesday already.

I think that no matter how things turn out next week, I’ve learned a lot about about how running as a candidate is so very different than working on a campaign and one other very important lesson. Some people will say anything, do anything, and spend whatever it takes to stay in power.

On the positive side of things, I’m really happy looking back with the campaign I’ve run. It’s been focused on direct voter contact and talking about the great potential Milwaukee County has as well as my ideas for getting this County back on the right track. I can say without a doubt that no one in this campaign has worked harder than I have, and outside of a few timing issues at the beginning of the campaign, there honestly isn’t a lot I would have done different. And those are both things that I’m very very proud of.

The last week before the primary is going to be crazy and will undoubtedly mean posting here on my personal website will suffer. I will try to get in a few more updates before the primary and of course afterwards with the results.

As always, I appreciate the support so many of you have shown over the last six months! It’s been an exciting journey and I’m looking forward to making it through next weeks primary and to the April 1st election!

One final update to the story of Mitch Laputka and Rachel Anderson that I’ve following since last September. Original story here and a follow up here.
You may recall they were arrested for neglecting their toddler son by strapping himin a stroller for hours on end while they went out and “partied”. That resulted in the body of the toddler being covered with diaper rash, his body temperature was 12 degrees below normal and he stopped breathing, requiring 21 minutes of CPR to revive him when rescue personnel arrived.

Today, they were sentenced in Milwaukee County Court.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jeff Wagner sent the mother, Rachel C. Anderson (21), to prison for three years and the father, Mitch Laputka (also 21) to prison for five years.

He also gave Anderson nine years of extended supervision and Laputka five years, ordering both to get a parole agent’s supervision for any visits with their child during the sentences.

I think the concern I and others had about the possibility of a light sentence has been addressed. Three and five years in state prison is a serious punishment, and even with good behavior, they’re both (rightfully) looking at doing a serious time.

Hopefully the child can get into a good foster or adoptive home and lead a much more fulfilling and moral life than either of his parents.

I’ve gotten word that the campaign of Scott Walker will try to smear Lena Taylor’s campaign through one of Walkers most reliable water carriers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in tomorrows edition of the paper.

Stay tuned.