Milwaukee Alderman Robert Puente is facing a very serious challenge from nonprofit executive and 9/11-era military veteran Chantia Lewis.
Puente’s time as the District 9 representative on the Milwaukee Common Council has been very lackluster and his constituents aren’t too happy about his lack of leadership and initiative. He survived the February primary with just 42% but at the last minute Chantia Lewis surged into second place over Milwaukee County Supervisor Martin Weddle, a strong finish for a relative newcomer. The primary results show that residents want a change.
I interviewed Lewis about her background and candidacy. Puente didn’t respond to my request, which Lewis says is how Puente typically responds to the public.
“He’s so far removed, he’s so invisible, it’s almost like we don’t have an alderman,” Lewis said.
Lifelong Milwaukeean Lewis is an Alverno College graduate who enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after 9/11. She served for three years, specifically in Alaska.
Lewis started the nonprofit One Step at a Time, which teaches at-risk young people and women transitioning out of welfare the life skills they need to land and retain a job.
“I was working in the for profit arena running a business and I started to see the need for the soft skills and the life skills,” Lewis told me. “What I learned was that they’re not something that is given to everyone. In order for our single mothers and our young people to succeed they need those vital life skills. I was compelled to start working with them. Even before it became an organization I was working with them and that’s when I realized that this was something that was a great need. I worked with funds from my pocket because it was something I believed in and I wanted to make sure that every person could go into an interview prepared and know how to navigate through that and know how to get the resources necessary to put them on the pathway to self-sufficiency.”
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Lewis said an Alverno classmate encouraged her run for office because she showed such a passion for changing the direction of the district.
“I’ve been in the district for almost 15 years and in that timeframe I’ve seen the decline in the district,” Lewis said. “We were there before Northridge closed. We were really excited about having that accessibility to the mall and the restaurants and having that area that was so beautiful. We had pride in that area. Then as we saw the mall close and the steady decline of the district it really started putting a fire in me.”
She said she’d like revitalize the district, which is home to a lot of young families with children. Key for Lewis is promoting small business growth and addressing the neighborhoods’ status as a food desert. She said the young families need easy access to nutritious food, as well as a variety of entertainment choices, including community centers.
“It’s vital that we can live, work and play in our area,” Lewis said.
She said Puente’s lack of leadership didn’t cause the decline, but it certainly doesn’t help to have such a passive alderman.
“As an alderperson your main job is to be an advocate for the district,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she’d like to revise the city’s sex offender ordinance. Currently, registered sex offenders have to notify the public when they’ve lived in a residence for four days. That’s led to sex offenders being moved by the Department of Corrections every few days, so that they are rotated around the community without public notice. Lewis said she wants to tighten the ordinance so that the public is notified on Day #1.
“I will fight to make sure that on Day #1 their residency is established but also that we have notification that they’re coming into the area,” Lewis said. “As a parent I am very concerned that our children are being put at risk because we don’t know who our neighbors are.”
She said she would be far more responsive to constituents’ concerns than Puente.
“In order to see the turnaround and to combat the issues that trickle down from the top level we need to make sure that we have strong voices in these key positions,” Lewis said. “That’s what the constituents of the Ninth District will get from me.”
