Different paths, visions for county
Abele, Larson both passionate about job
Away from the negative ads and contentious political debates, beyond the glossy, over-the-top literature slipped into mailboxes, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and his challenger, state Sen. Chris Larson, are both passionate and ambitious.
They are utterly certain of their abilities and committed to their dueling visions of the county they wish to lead.
Abele, 49, is a billionaire’s son from Massachusetts, who made Milwaukee his home and philanthropy his calling card before entering politics in 2011 and taking on the task of riding herd on Milwaukee County government as county executive.
Larson, 35, is a middleclass Milwaukee County native who won his first political race in 2008 and became minority leader in the state Senate in 2013. Two years later, he declined to run for the leadership post and eventually turned his attention to becoming county executive.
The men are utilizing their assets before Tuesday’s election.
Abele has thrown his wallet at keeping the office, spending at least $3.5 mil-
lion on the race while launching one attack ad after another against his opponent. He envisions a county government that is nimble, efficient and empowering, able to address the concerns of a diverse constituency, from the inner city to the suburbs.
“I’ve been saying for five years, and I’ll keep saying it, hold me accountable, not just for what I say but for what I do,” he said in an interview.
Larson has used his savvy organizational skills to build support the old-fashioned way, with volunteers, doorknocks and an alliance with key labor groups. His campaign has spent $210,000, so far.
“This race will definitely be a referendum on Chris Abele’s lack of performance over the last five years and the fact that he has consolidated so much power away from the public,” Larson said.
Sit with them for any length of time and you can note their differences.
Listening to Abele is like hitting a scan button on AM radio. He bounces from one subject to the next, often within the same sentence. He speaks in paragraphs. He admitted: “I’m quite sure I can be maddeningly obtuse to people.”
“I’m excited about what can be, and push hard. I see the vision of what can be and communicate it with enthusiasm,” he said.
Larson speaks calmly, in well-crafted sound bites. He still dresses like the parochial school kid he once was, shirt and tie, sometimes a vest, a young man eager to please. A marathoner, Larson said his political sprint was in part a “testament to my work ethic.”
Abele was born and raised in Concord, Mass., the oldest of three children. His father, John, is the retired co-founder of Boston Scientific, a medical device company, and a prominent philanthropist; his mother, Mary, is a Unitarian minister.
Abele remembered when his father’s company had four employees. He said he only realized how wealthy the family had become when his father was named to the Forbes list of the world’s richest people.
“I didn’t have any frame of reference for that,” Abele said, adding: “Yes I’m incredibly lucky. I don’t see it as an entitlement. I see it as a responsibility.”
Larson was born and raised in Greenfield, the youngest of four children. His father, Larry, is a retired electrical engineer, and his mother, Marge, is a retired Catholic schoolteacher. Larson recalls joining his brother and two sisters to put on impromptu shows in the family’s living room, dancing and lip-syncing to songs from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
“Our family definitely has a sense of humor,” he said. “We could find a way to laugh at just about everything to get through stuff.”
Abele and Larson charted different paths in college. Abele bounced around different schools over eight years, reading voraciously and widely but never focusing on one subject. He left Lawrence University in 1994 without a degree.
Larson worked his way through University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee over eight years, taking part-time jobs and then a full-time position as a manager in a sporting goods store. He graduated in 2007.
In the late 1990s, Abele settled in Milwaukee with his girlfriend, who would become his first wife. In his new home, he made his mark through philanthropy, doling out cash to nonprofits through the Argosy Foundation. The private family foundation was set up by Abele’s father and based in Milwaukee.
Among the boards Abele serves on are the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Schools that Can-Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Film Festival. His business interests include a real estate company and a venture fund. He also helped create the start-up hub Ward 4.
Before running for office in 2011, he became a behindthe-scenes political player through personal donations to Democrats, including Gov. Jim Doyle.
Larson, whose love of politics was fired by a politicalscience professor at UWM, made a quick political rise once he decided to run for office.
He won a Milwaukee County supervisor position in 2008, upset an incumbent Democrat to grab a state Senate seat in 2010 and was catapulted to national prominence during the fight over Gov. Scott Walker’s move as governor to curtail collective bargaining for public-sector workers.
By early 2013, Larson was the leader of the minority Democratic caucus in the Senate. It was an ultimately frustrating two years as Democrats were flattened by the Republicans in the Legislature. After one term, he stepped down as Democratic Senate leader in favor of state Sen. Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse.
Larson said, “I was away from home a lot, going to all these Senate districts, doing what a leader should do. A lot of personal sacrifice was involved.”
He stepped back and reevaluated his career. He and his wife, Jessica, have two children, and he wanted to spend more time with them. He turned his sights to making a local run.
“The reason I’m running is because I saw my local community under threat,” Larson said.
In many ways, Larson is probably right about this contest — the election looms as a referendum on Abele’s tenure.
For Abele, the positives of his years in office include proposing no tax increases, whittling away at the county’s structural deficit, overhauling the troubled mental health system and reshaping county government with the help of Republicans in Madison.
Critics have pointed to what they call rash personnel decisions, including the firing of parks director Sue Black without much explanation, a failure to cooperate or work with the County Board and Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and cutting a deal on the new basketball arena for the Milwaukee Bucks that puts the county on the hook for $80 million.
On Friday, Black endorsed Larson.
“For better for worse, the way I tend to approach leading any organization is I like to know details,” Abele said. “I like to get involved.”
Even as he coped with the daily tumult of public office, Abele dealt with personal change. Late in 2014, he separated from his second wife, Miriam. They have three daughters and are going through a “collaborative divorce.”
“We get along great. We both want the best for each other. And we both love, love, love our girls,” Abele said.
He is dating Jennifer Gonda, a lobbyist for the City of Milwaukee.
Larson and Abele have had past brushes with the law that are routinely discussed around election time. The men appeared chastened when the incidents were raised during a televised debate with commentator Mike Gousha.
Larson shoplifted food from a Milwaukee grocery store in 2000, the ticket was dropped after he agreed to take a class. In 2004, Larson jumped into his car when it was being towed and was ticketed for disorderly conduct. The ticket was later dropped.
He regrets those incidents but said going through such moments “builds a connection for a lot of people in the community who have been through similar experiences or in many cases worse.”
“I think the message is we are not, and people are not, who they were in their worst moments,” Larson said. “And as much as it’s out there and it may be frozen in time in a record, I think most people get that. Everyone can self-reflect and think of when they made a mistake. It’s a matter of, can you learn from that.
“The question shouldn’t be have you made mistakes or not,” he said. “The question should be, have you learned from it?”
Abele was arrested on allegations of driving under the influence in 1996 in Glendale and seven years later pleaded no contest and paid a fine. At one time, he also had nearly 100 unpaid parking tickets in Milwaukee.
“If I could go back in time and talk to that me, I’d punch him; I’d say, ‘What were you thinking?’ ” Abele said of the drunken driving incident.
“I was held accountable,” Abele said. “I tried to do what most people do when you do something you regret later. You learn from it. You become more aware. You can’t not grow from it. You can’t not gain some perspective from it.”
These are two candidates, flaws and all, who aim to lead.
“I’m excited about what can be, and push hard. I see the vision of what can be and communicate it with enthusiasm.”
Chris Abele, Milwaukee County executive “The reason I’m running is because I saw my local community under threat.”
Chris Larson, state senator