A prominent Democratic lawmaker wants to shake up the Milwaukee County Executive’s office.
State Sen. Chris Larson of Milwaukee announced Monday that he will challenge incumbent Chris Abele in April.
The election promises to be competitive.
Larson announced his bid outside his childhood home in Greenfield. Flanked by his parents, wife and two small children, Larson said he’s been mulling his decision for months.
“Today I am announcing that I am running for the office of Milwaukee county executive and with your help we will win and take the office back for the middle class,” Larson says.
Larson served on the Milwaukee County board for two years before he was elected state senator in 2010. He says he supported incumbent Chris Abele when Abele ran for county executive that same year. Now, Larson says he’s grown disappointed in Abele’s leadership, calling him out of touch with residents.
“Over these past four years, I’ve seen the needs of the powerful trump the needs of our citizens. I’ve seen the power of our elected representatives be stripped and consolidated into the powers of one man,” Larson says.
Larson says what bothers him in particular is a new law that allows the county executive’s office to take over struggling Milwaukee Public Schools. He vowed to end what he called divide and conquer politics in the county.
“I will lobby to end the MPS takeover and work instead to get our kids and our schools the resources they need. Let’s let schools do what they do best and leave the county to do what the county does best,” Larson says.
Larson also promised to hold listening sessions every year in all the municipalities, and restore peace between the county and its labor unions, if elected.
Larson acknowledges Abele’s massive personal wealth gives him a financial advantage. He says his campaign will focus on grassroots. One person who plans on going door to door for Larson is Democratic state Rep. Jonathan Brostoff of Milwaukee.
“I think it will be a classic money vs. people sort of race and I think if you have a great candidate as we do with Chris Larson, great people beat great money the vast majority of the time,” Brostoff says.
Brostoff says he hopes the election doesn’t dissolve into mudslinging. Much of Larson’s support is expected to come from the newly formed Working Families Party, headed by former Milwaukee County Board Chair Marina Dmitrijevic. She and Chris Abele often sparred during her tenure on the board.
UW-Milwaukee Professor Mordecai Lee notes that local offices such as county executive are officially non-partisan, yet both Larson and Abele have been active with the Democratic Party, with Abele sometimes leaning to the right and Larson to the left. So Lee says the election could pose interesting questions for some voters.
“Are they going to be making an ideological decision, are they going to be saying to themselves, am I more of a moderate Democrat or a farther left of center Democrat, or are the voters going to be viewing this as the incumbent vs. the challenger in the sense of did the incumbent do a good job and deserves re-election, or am I dissatisfied with the incumbent and am I going to vote for the challenger?” Lee asks.
County Executive Chris Abele declined to be interviewed. He issued a statement on Monday, welcoming Larson to the race.
Abele says the county is in better shape now than in 2011 and he’s confident difficult issues in the community will continue to be addressed without raising taxes.
