Apr 02 2008
Quick Thoughts on the April 1st Election in Milwaukee
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 the case of Lynn, I think it really comes down to her lack of responsiveness to her constituents is the reason why she won by such a narrow margin. You do make a good point about her even going further to the right by aligning herself with Walker even more. If she goes that route, this will be her last term.