Just when you thought big-money spending couldn’t get any worse in politics, the campaigns for Milwaukee County Board are about to go over one-million dollars. There is actually just one person responsible for that spending, County Executive Chris Abele–who between his own contributions to candidates, his formation of a local political action group to back those candidates and fundraising on behalf of his candidates is pouring seven-figures into what are basically neighborhood elections.
For those not familiar with Chris Abele, he is a millionaire–the son of the founder of Boston Scientific. He first came to Wisconsin to attend Lawrence University and stuck around afterwards to live in the Milwaukee area. He is one of those “one-percenters” that blame the “one-percent” for all of society’s problems–and he likes to spend other people’s money on ever-expanding government services and programs.
However, Abele is sometimes thwarted in his efforts to do things like spend 770-thousand dollars of taxpayer money on public art displays at the County Courthouse instead of repairing failing systems inside the building, or establishing a wheel tax on private vehicles to fund public transportation programs instead of fixing roads, and charging a parking fee in county parks–by members of the Milwaukee County Board. And that is why he is spending beaucoup bucks–though still chump change for him–on getting people he knows will support his “initiatives” elected.
Now imagine if you are one of the candidates that Abele has decided to oust from office. You likely work a regular 9-to-5 job, have kids to support, a mortgage and car payments. You are not about to spend $200,000 to offset the efforts of a multi-millionaire to push you out of a part-time job you do because you want to have decent parks and roads. But if you don’t run, Chris Abele gets to dip into your pocket to fund whatever his heart desires anyway.
Not every county has a trust-fund baby that considers himself a “social engineer” and wants to turn his community into a personal version of “The Sims” video game. But six and seven-figure county board and city council races are a point at which we the voters have to draw the line.
