Photo credit: Chris Abele for Milwaukee County Executive Facebook Page
Chris Abele, Milwaukee County Executive since 2011, will exit the stage as an elected official after the April 7 election but his message to metropolitan Milwaukee is: “You’re stuck with me.” Abele recently said he intends to keep funneling scads of cash into local and state politics. He has already spent a staggering $750,000—and counting—trying to influence citizens to elect a handpicked successor and keep in place “the amazing team” of county officials he appointed.
Abele was interviewed on Jan. 24 by Mike Gousha, a distinguished fellow at Marquette University Law School. Unless otherwise noted, Abele’s quotes are from that event.
Gousha asked about the fact that “there are people who feel that at times your money is having an outsized influence on local races…that people just can’t possibly compete against a candidate that’s funded with thousands and thousands of dollars” in a small race. Abele, the son of a Boston billionaire, responded, “Is it too much? I’m not really sure.” He added, “I feel privileged that I have the opportunity to control the disposition of a lot of resources.”
Abele further equivocated: “I agree with anybody who thinks that Citizens United did a giant disservice to just about…every citizen...If there’s a federal law and we get a chance to undo that, I’m all for it.” Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates for money in politics. It allows unchecked campaign spending by corporations and other entities, including groups such as Leadership MKE, Abele’s political-power pipeline.
Citizens United paved the way for plutocracy—government by the wealthy—to undermine American democracy. In his 2015 book, Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections, legal scholar Richard Hasen contended that the impact of Citizens United is about “political equality,” not merely traditional quid-pro-quo corruption. A leading expert on election law, Hasen wrote, “Principles of political equality embodied in the Supreme Court’s rejection of poll taxes and its embrace of the one person-one vote rule should carry over to money-in-politics decisions.” Hasen cited three ways that money harms democracy: in terms of electoral outcomes, legislative influence, and public confidence.
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Daniel Bice reported this week in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Abele’s investment in the county executive race exceeds all other combined spending in Milwaukee’s mayoral and county executive campaigns.
Planning for his Succession
Last October Abele abruptly dropped his re-election bid. He had announced his candidacy just five months earlier and was running unopposed. Abele’s sudden change in plans came with the catch-all “I want to spend more time with my family” as an explanation. The father of three young daughters, Abele had just recently married his third wife, Jennifer Gonda—a former City of Milwaukee lobbyist.
Abele told Gousha he had been clear in his first campaign that “I’m not running because I want to make a career in politics…In the past nine years I have never sought or thought about another office…and I’ve been asked plenty of times and speculated about in terms of other offices…I don’t have to make decisions based on how I think this is going to help my career.” He also distanced himself from career politicians “who think my first office is my first step” or who stay in one office for decades.
Abele said he’s now “focused on creating the most empowering transition plan for whoever comes next,” as Milwaukee County executive. He said he had been involved in transition planning “for a lot of organizations I’ve run,” referencing numerous volunteer board positions he has held—even though boards do not “run” organizations.
Apparently, Abele now intends to retain power by proxy, without any of the public accountability that elected office demands.
When asked by Gousha about his often-contentious relationship with the county board, Abele conceded that he “probably could have done better” but voiced no regret about “downsizing the board or their responsibilities.” Gousha said, “I hear you saying you still think that was a wise decision.” Abele said he believed his job was to ensure that appointed “experts on these fields are…making the decisions” about bus routes, golf fees or whatever. Abele said the role of legislators is merely to decide policy…about the broad big issues, such as ‘Should we provide this kind of care?’” Abele claimed that elected county supervisors, without citing instances, “want to get involved in a lot of decisions about which they don’t have a lot of expertise.”
Stephanie Sue Stein, who retired in 2015 after serving as director of Milwaukee County’s Department of Aging for 22 years, said Abele seems unaware of fundamental differences between government and private organizations. “In a democracy, citizens elect public officials, who then create their own transition teams.” Stein said governmental department heads often remain on the job following an executive change in an administration, but that it’s not up to departing elected officials to ensure that.
Stein said Abele’s wresting power from elected representatives showed that he “does not respect that legislators are a co-equal branch of government, that they are charged with making policy, including about decisions such as whether there are parking meters in parks, while the executive branch handles operations. Elected representatives hear from and answer to citizens; in the process they recognize patterns of concerns of those they represent.”
Around 2014, during Abele’s first term, now-retired Supervisor Gerry Broderick began sounding the alarm about the direction Abele was taking. Broderick publicly repeated that Abele was now “finishing the dismantling of Milwaukee County government that Scott Walker started” during his years as the preceding county executive.
Responding to Gousha’s questions, Abele sometimes darted among references to his venture-capital and real-estate investments, philanthropy, nonprofit board positions, and efforts as county executive. Stein said, “Abele does not distinguish between the roles and rules of the public sector and those of the private sector.”
Once and Future Campaigns
When pressed, Abele did not rule out seeking another office. “I’ve got a long list of things ahead of elected office that I want to focus on,” he said.
Fred Kessler, an elder statesman of Democratic politics locally and statewide, said recently, “Chris Abele has no ideology. For him, everything is transactional. Specifically, he has spent massive amounts of money to unseat anyone who opposes him.”
Abele used some of his inherited millions to form Leadership MKE. Larry Sandler recently wrote in Milwaukee Magazine, “Leadership MKE spent an unheard-of $600,000 to target five supervisors [in 2018], aiming almost one-third of that sum at [County Board Chair Theo] Lipscomb alone. Outspent nearly 7-1, Lipscomb prevailed even as three of his [supervisor] colleagues fell to Abele allies.”
Sandler quoted state Rep. David Bowen, a former Milwaukee County supervisor: “…growing up in East Coast wealth Abele ‘came from a background where he wasn’t used to working-class families, Midwestern style. He was just not in tune’ with the values of many supervisors and their constituents. Add to that Abele’s private nature, and hardly anyone in local politics claims much insight into his thinking.”
Pawns in Abele’s Power Grabbing
Abele contends that his financial contributions to elected officials have never influenced their votes or other actions. “For every single person I’ve ever supported, I’ve always been explicit about two things: You don’t owe me anything; vote your conscience. If there’s an ask, I say look for solutions, not fights.”
Abele’s quaint no-quid-pro-quo avowals ring hollow to Kessler and other political observers. Kessler points to a prominent issue where Abele’s money appears to have influenced decision making. “Two Republicans, Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooynega--whose campaigns Abele has supported—introduced bills in the Wisconsin Legislature that helped him amass considerably more power for himself while removing it from supervisors,” said Kessler (see sidebar). “Abele’s working across the aisle invariably has been to accrue power, so that he would not have to cooperate directly with the county board, rather than to develop solutions to pressing challenges,” said Kessler.
Stein said, “Almost every cabinet meeting with Abele started with two admonitions: Do not speak with anyone on the county board, and do not ever talk to the media.” Stein recalled getting irate calls from Abele’s top aides because she had been seen walking in the courthouse hallway with a county supervisor. “One time I got in trouble for responding to a media call about the potential impact of a heat emergency on older people.” Said Stein: “Abele’s dictate, enforced by his inner circle, was ‘Control, control, control, control.” Stein said it became increasingly difficult to perform her job. After retiring, she continued advocating for seniors through several nonprofit organizations.
When Gousha interviewed Abele, there was uncertainty about whether Abele’s original hand-picked successor, Jim Sullivan, would be on the ballot. Abele appointed Sullivan in 2011 to head Milwaukee County’s Child Support Services department. Then in 2017 Abele tried to appoint Sullivan as county parks director, despite Sullivan having no experience in anything parks-related except as a teenaged lifeguard. The county board rejected that appointment based on lack of qualifications. When Sullivan failed to meet nomination-petition requirements for county executive, as did Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy, who some considered Abele’s second choice, Abele landed on David Crowley. A Wisconsin’s state representative since 2017, Crowley was among already-declared candidates. Although politicians sometimes endorse other candidates, it’s unprecedented locally for a politician to spend stratospheric cash to attempt to secure a successor.
A Longer-term Endgame?
At the end of the Gousha interview, Abele reiterated: “It may disappoint some people, but we’re not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me. As you may know, we’re building a house,” he said, pausing for expected chuckles. Although they have not yet broken ground, last summer Abele cleared the way by having his recently-purchased $2.8-million, historic Alexander Eschweiler lakefront mansion reduced to rubble. Many of their new neighbors were aghast at the conspicuous destruction.
Kessler thinks Abele has a long-range plan. “It’s been widely rumored for some time that Chris Abele wants to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022.” Other political observers reiterated that conjecture. Kessler said that Abele had been facing “increasing pushback against proposals he was floating to sell or privatize parks, close or repurpose senior centers, and cut bus routes. His demolition of a landmark home also triggered negative feedback. I think he hopes that some of that unpopularity will have diminished in two years.” Kessler said that Abele’s donating to the campaign of the newly elected mayor of Madison, Satya Rhodes-Conway, further ignited speculation that Abele is plotting a senate run and wants to increase his base outside Milwaukee.
Coping in Life-Threatening Times
Time will tell what role Chris Abele will again play in metropolitan Milwaukee as a private citizen. Abele said he looks forward to continuing his philanthropy and venture-capital investments. He mentioned the Boys & Girls Clubs, Milwaukee Area Technical College and No Studios as well as other new ventures.
The COVID-19 pandemic is dramatically changing our world, day by day. Public services, public spaces and public servants are playing ever-more-critical roles. Dain Maddox, a retired federal public servant who now advocates for seniors, said “It’s at times like this that we can appreciate how essential it is to have responsive and accountable government protecting and providing for everyone’s well-being. That’s especially critical given our current pandemic and its unknown ramifications.” Although politics is mostly contentious, those who govern--especially in a life-and-death crisis—must bring hope and help to those in need.
Abele’s arrogance in limitlessly financing his chosen “transition” proxies—in the midst of a pandemic and economic meltdown--is unseemly. Can Chris Abele now pivot from pursuing personal power to truly practicing altruism?
Plutocracy pollutes a living democracy. Only a sturdy government of, by, and for the people will now restore our spirit and safety—and foster metro Milwaukee’s resurgence.
