When the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors listened to the 72% of the Milwaukee County residents surveyed who oppose raising the wheel tax and rejected County Executive Chris Abele’s plan to double the tax, Abele went into one of his hissy fits: So, if you are going to go against my wishes, take this, and he came up with the plan to put parking meters in our magnificent Milwaukee County parks. These parks are gifts that our parents, grandparents and great grandparents who worked hard and paid taxes built and bequeathed to their children and grandchildren.
Enter the rich guy from Boston, who grew up with the country club set and doesn’t understand that the other 99% who can’t afford the country clubs use public parks as their country clubs.
Fortunately, the public rallied to protect their world-class parks and their heritage and forced Abele to back down. Abele claimed he heard their voices and backed down—at least for the moment. Unfortunately, it is far from over. Apparently, he plans to come back with some version of a parking-meters-in-parks plan, and this time, he won’t let the people of Milwaukee County or the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors get in his way. Abele has made it clear over the years that he feels that he knows better about what is good for Milwaukee County than the lifelong residents of the county.
Voters Aren’t Stupid, Just Not Wealthy
However, the majority of us Milwaukee County residents have realized what we elected and tried to defeat Abele in the last election. After State Senator Chris Larson defeated Abele in the 2016 primary, Abele called in his dad’s money and outspent Larson well over 25 to one when you include the money Abele contributed to various nonprofit groups to either buy their support or keep them from endorsing Larson. Using high-paid consultants and several million dollars, Abele managed to use negative and dishonest ads to defeat Larson, whose supporters did not have the money to counter the deceptive and dishonest ads.
When you look around the world, you may wonder how and why countries like Turkey, Russia and the Philippines, for example, elect anti-democratic, authoritarian leaders. In most cases, they didn’t start that way. They were elected as leaders who were there to carry out the will of their constituents. Slowly, often using various crises (some of them manufactured) to create fear and division within their constituency—and with the aid of dark money—they intimidated elected legislators to change the laws to create a more authoritarian position for themselves.
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County Executive Chris Abele has been doing a similar thing, albeit on a much smaller scale and with some different tactics, but the goal is the same: slowly accumulate the tools of unchecked power. Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan use physical intimidation; Abele uses dark money to panic legislators into fearing a massive, negative campaign ad attack in their next election.
Abele’s Anti-Democratic Power Grabs
When Abele is unable to convince a majority of Milwaukee County citizens or Milwaukee County Supervisors of his positions, rather than negotiate a compromise, he consolidates power by running to the Republican-controlled state legislature. They will then override the wishes of the local voters and give his position of Milwaukee County Executive almost unchecked power. He also tries to get a couple of sleazy legislators from Milwaukee, apparently for sale to the highest bidders, to sign on to these anti-democratic bills. His first power grab was in 2013, when he had the GOP-controlled legislature change the law for a populous county (which, as defined, is only Milwaukee County) to weaken the checks and balances of Milwaukee County government and consolidate power in the county executive’s hands.
That increased, unchecked power wasn’t enough for him (think of Putin’s and Erdoğan’s slow rise to authoritarianism). In 2015, when he was again pushing things Milwaukee County voters did not want, he went back to those Republican legislators for more unchecked power. Many of these small-town politicians have expressed contempt for Milwaukee despite the fact that a disproportionate amount of state tax dollars coming from Milwaukee County keeps Wisconsin functioning.
Remember former Governor Tommy Thompson’s famous rallying call against Milwaukee, cheered by many rural Republican legislators: “Stick it to ’em!” So in 2015, Abele again got the Republican controlled legislature to further dismantle Milwaukee County’s system of checks and balances to give the county executive even more unchecked power, thus opening it up to yet more corruption. For example, Abele has almost unilateral authority to sell off any of the county’s non-park lands and buildings. Abele, one must remember, takes good care of his friends, often at the county taxpayer’s expense.
He’s Back!
Now in 2018, Abele is once again going to the Republican legislative trough for more unchecked power and more opportunities to take care of his friends. To make his work easier, Abele has now set up a campaign fund. Some of the money he uses to influence votes comprises above-board, transparent contributions; some is what is called dark money. This dark money is legal but under the radar, which allows him to spend unlimited money to assist elected officials he believes he can “influence” or punish others and keep these contributions off the books. (Keep an eye on state legislators who are either currently running for higher office or have plans to do so.)
His new piece of state legislation—according to a document from an attorney for the nonpartisan Wisconsin State Legislative Council—“gives the county executive sole authority to exercise the powers granted to the county board with regard to establishing parking areas.” Isn’t that interesting that he is trying to have this codified in state law?
The bill also “gives the county executive of a populous county sole authority to determine the compensation, fringe benefits, human resources, hiring, creation and elimination of positions, pay ranges, expense reimbursements and classifications for county employees.” This obviously is designed to allow Abele to create more positions for his friends and pay them whatever he wants to pay them and give them expense accounts so they can eat and drink at the finest establishments in the country. There is much more to this proposed state senate legislation (SB 777) and its identical assembly bill (AB 923). Putin and Erdoğan must be proud of their little protégé.
