Keep Walker County Executive
It is essential that Scott Walker completes his four-year term as Milwaukee County Executive. Not because he is doing a great job (actually county facilities and services have declined on his watch), but because the alternative is far worse.
If the office of County Executive becomes vacant, the Chairman of the County Board, now Lee Holloway, would become acting Executive for 30 days, then he would appoint an interim Executive until a special election would be held, probably in April. If the incumbent runs in this election, he would enjoy a substantial advantage. Here are three reasons why Holloway should not have this office, even for a short time:
1. In 1988, Lee Holloway lost the primary for Mayor of Milwaukee to Martin Schreiber and John Norquist. He then convened a "Black Political Caucus" to endorse one of the nominees for Mayor. Participants were required to pay an admission charge to Holloway's political committee. The rules of the Caucus assured that Holloway would make the final choice himself. (Only Schreiber asked for the endorsement, got it, and then lost to Norquist).
2. Lee Holloway was charged with 39 building code violations on his apartment house at 2041 W Atkinson Avenue plus additional violations for property on 7th Street in March of 2009.
Previously, he accepted $165,000 from the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) for rent for a property at 2100 W Atkinson, which OIC never used. Meanwhile, Holloway voted for $1.8 million of county funding for OIC. He paid a fine of $3,000 for filing false ethics statements with the County from 1998 through 2003, on which he failed to note that he still owned this property.
3. Holloway supported a notorious redistricting gerrymander in 2004 that included some absurdly-contrived districts to virtually guarantee the re-election of some incumbent supervisors, including his ally Michael Mayo in the weirdly-configured seventh district (1).
I will not even mention the vote-fraud cases from his 2003 recall election (2). OK, I could not resist mentioning them. In my view, Lee Holloway gives "political sleaze" a bad name.
Barring a revolution on the County Board, Holloway will be chairman through 2012. So the only way to keep him from becoming the next Milwaukee County Executive will be to keep Scott Walker in that job for the rest of his term.
There are two ways to do that:
1. The Republicans could nominate Mark Neumann for Governor on September 14. Neumann is just as strong a candidate for Governor in the general election, and would make just a good a Governor, so why not?
2. If Walker is nominated, Wisconsin could elect the Democratic nominee (presumably Tom Barrett, although there is another candidate in the Democratic primary) Governor in November.
Would Scott Walker abandon his ambition to become Governor of Wisconsin just to save this county from Lee Holloway? NO WAY. But we can do that for him.
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(1) The 7th District is U-shaped: it extends from 24th and Congress on the NE to 78th and Silver Spring on the NW, but does not include most of the land in between, which is assigned to the 2nd district.
(2) Holloway was never charged in these cases, and there is no proof he was involved in any election fraud.
If the office of County Executive becomes vacant, the Chairman of the County Board, now Lee Holloway, would become acting Executive for 30 days, then he would appoint an interim Executive until a special election would be held, probably in April. If the incumbent runs in this election, he would enjoy a substantial advantage. Here are three reasons why Holloway should not have this office, even for a short time:
1. In 1988, Lee Holloway lost the primary for Mayor of Milwaukee to Martin Schreiber and John Norquist. He then convened a "Black Political Caucus" to endorse one of the nominees for Mayor. Participants were required to pay an admission charge to Holloway's political committee. The rules of the Caucus assured that Holloway would make the final choice himself. (Only Schreiber asked for the endorsement, got it, and then lost to Norquist).
2. Lee Holloway was charged with 39 building code violations on his apartment house at 2041 W Atkinson Avenue plus additional violations for property on 7th Street in March of 2009.
Previously, he accepted $165,000 from the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) for rent for a property at 2100 W Atkinson, which OIC never used. Meanwhile, Holloway voted for $1.8 million of county funding for OIC. He paid a fine of $3,000 for filing false ethics statements with the County from 1998 through 2003, on which he failed to note that he still owned this property.
3. Holloway supported a notorious redistricting gerrymander in 2004 that included some absurdly-contrived districts to virtually guarantee the re-election of some incumbent supervisors, including his ally Michael Mayo in the weirdly-configured seventh district (1).
I will not even mention the vote-fraud cases from his 2003 recall election (2). OK, I could not resist mentioning them. In my view, Lee Holloway gives "political sleaze" a bad name.
Barring a revolution on the County Board, Holloway will be chairman through 2012. So the only way to keep him from becoming the next Milwaukee County Executive will be to keep Scott Walker in that job for the rest of his term.
There are two ways to do that:
1. The Republicans could nominate Mark Neumann for Governor on September 14. Neumann is just as strong a candidate for Governor in the general election, and would make just a good a Governor, so why not?
2. If Walker is nominated, Wisconsin could elect the Democratic nominee (presumably Tom Barrett, although there is another candidate in the Democratic primary) Governor in November.
Would Scott Walker abandon his ambition to become Governor of Wisconsin just to save this county from Lee Holloway? NO WAY. But we can do that for him.
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(1) The 7th District is U-shaped: it extends from 24th and Congress on the NE to 78th and Silver Spring on the NW, but does not include most of the land in between, which is assigned to the 2nd district.
(2) Holloway was never charged in these cases, and there is no proof he was involved in any election fraud.
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 12:02 PM
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