Election 2008: Covering Milwaukee-Area Races
This post is part of a series I will run over the next few months covering elections throughout the country. I have decided to highlight a few races in the Milwaukee area that demonstrate one of the underlying threads in local politics throughout the country. The city attorney race and the county executive race in Milwaukee show the ongoing tension between expanding government roles and deferring to other offices.
I am not sure the prominence of city attorneys in other communities but Milwaukee’s city attorney has been overlooked in recent years. The challenger to incumbent Grant Langley is state representative Pedro Colon who wants to expand the attorney’s office to fight Milwaukee’s growing crime problem. Langley has countered that the office has a limited mandate for crime fighting and wants to streamline the department with another term. Colon has stepped up his campaign beyond the bounds of handshakes and door knocking with a brief ad showing in the Milwaukee television market. I think that the race will be close though the tide of change in Milwaukee politics may sweep Colon over the edge due to the low profile of the office.
The hotly contested county executive office in Milwaukee features state senator Lena Taylor and incumbent Scott Walker. The main consideration in this race is the county’s budget problems including decreased funding for parks and the county bus system. Lena Taylor has hit Walker on his poor leadership of Milwaukee County while Walker has countered that Taylor is unfamiliar with the intricacies of running a county budget. There is a potential problem for voters who think that Walker will run for governor in 2010 and leave the county high and dry. I think Walker will likely win the county executive’s race though Taylor is a rising star in the state’s Democratic Party.
I will speak about the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race, the state’s Congressional races and other tight contests around the country in upcoming weeks. I invite my readers to submit their suggestions for races they would like covered.
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