Milwaukee County Executive’s Race Shaping Up To Be A Battle Between Abele And Larson

Several actions taken by Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers have emerged as key issues in the election for Milwaukee County executive. The primary race has incumbent Chris Abele trying to fend off three challengers, including a Democratic state senator.

Abele comes from a wealthy family and has used some of that money to pay for a slew of pre-primary television ads that tout his five years as county executive.

In one ad, a narrator tells viewers Abele it, “cleaning up the mess. Balanced the budget without raising taxes five years in a row, while increasing services.”

But while Abele’s ad appears to also take a swipe at Walker, the previous county executive, it’s Abele’s occasional partnerships with the governor and legislative Republicans that have another county executive candidate, Milwaukee state Sen. Chris Larsen, on the attack.

At a news conference on Monday, Larson criticized Abele’s support for a GOP-authored law that gives the county executive the ability to sell some county parks that are not zoned as parkland, without the okay of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Larson said Abele has often teamed up with the GOP in Madison.

“There’s other pieces of legislation that he’s sought that would give him near-unilateral authority on budgeting, as well as near-unilateral authority on policy,” Larson said.

Thursday night in Milwaukee, Larson, Abele, and the two other men running for Milwaukee County executive finally squared off face to face at a debate sponsored by local Democrats. Abele said he won’t sell any county parks:

“I’ve spent 20 years trying to do everything I can, not just saying, not just talking, committing real resources and working very hard, and with some success, to protect land and, since I’ve been at the county, increase parkland.”

Abele said no one knew some county parkland isn’t zoned as parks, and he’s asked Milwaukee County communities to rezone their land to protect it.

Abele took on Larson’s concerns about cooperation with Republicans in an answer to a

question about a GOP law that allows a locally appointed administrator to take over some failing Milwaukee public schools. Abele said he didn’t seek that authority.

“Rather than just say, ‘Hey, you know, this is wrong,’ and walk away from it, I’m taking legislation that did pass, and try to turn into something good,” Abele said.

But Larson argued Abele should not have appointed a local school administrator at all.

“The executive should not have done anything with it, and as executive, I would have done what the mayor did, and said, ‘No thanks,’ because he knows this is designed by the same people who delivered the largest cut to education in our state’s history,” Larson said.

Some public-sector Labor unions like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are supporting Larson.

The two other candidates for Milwaukee County executive are running lower-profile campaigns. Entrepreneur Joe Klein, who’s with the Wisconsin Pirate Party, is making a big push for more open government.

“You know, I’m willing to if need be, hang a camera above my desk, ” Klein said. “I’m certainly willing to put staff meetings on streaming video.”

The fourth candidate, carpenter Steve Hogan didn’t say a lot during Thursday night’s debate, but

did pound on the state’s Milwaukee Bucks arena financing deal that Chris Abele helped negotiate.

“I think we should tell the NBA to go to hell,” said Hogan. “Nobody wants to spend $80 million of taxpayer money on a building because the Bradley Center doesn’t have nice box seats for the rich people.”

The top two vote-getters in the Feb. 16 primary will square off again in April.