Photo Credit: Eric Allix Rogers
Milwaukee County Courthouse
For the Milwaukee County Executive race, we think there are three qualified candidates: state Rep. David Crowley, state Sen. Chris Larson and Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors Theodore Lipscomb Sr. Each of these elected officials has some strong experience in public service to bring to the position, if elected. After much deliberation, the Shepherd Express decided not to make an endorsement for this office in the February 18 primary. Two candidates will emerge from the primary, and the Shepherd will make an endorsement in the Tuesday, April 7, general election.
Initially we were excited about this race, because, unlike the last three county executive races which were won by Chris Abele spending several million dollars of his family’s money on negative and distorted ads, we felt that it would be a low-spending race. We looked forward to a race where each candidate would compete on hard work and good plans for moving Milwaukee County forward. But unfortunately, that will not be the case.
Despite the fact that he is not on the ballot, Abele is still around with his family’s money as “independent expenditures” on behalf of Crowley. (Crowley did not solicit the hundreds of thousands of dollars Abele is pumping into the race.) The U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allows anonymous donors with what is known as “dark money” to pervert our democracy.
The race for Milwaukee County Executive is one of several items on the ballot on Feb. 18. See all of our endorsements here.
