Abele pours more than $32,000 into race for alderman
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is sticking his nose — and his wallet — into the race for an open seat on the Milwaukee Common Council.
Records show that Abele’s independent expenditure fund, Leadership MKE, has spent more than $32,000 helping Patricia Torres Najera in the seven-way contest.
So far, Leadership MKE has spent $24,705 on a mailer for Najera, chairwoman of the City Plan Commission, and $7,500 for online advertising, according to campaign records.
That is more than twice the combined amount spent by all seven candidates in the race, which has its primary on Tuesday. The top two finishers square off in the Aug. 13 general election.
Abele’s involvement in the race has caught the attention of Najera’s opponents.
“Why is the Milwaukee County executive pouring thousands of dollars into this race to support one candidate?” candidate James Krickeberg asked in a Facebook post this week.
Krickeberg, who is self-funding his campaign, declined to answer his own question about what is driving Abele, the son of a Boston billionaire. But Krickeberg added, “I think it’s fair for residents of District 13 to question if these contributions will compromise her ability to fully represent their interests.”
Candidate Scott Spiker, who worked as an aide for Ald. Terry Witkowski, is also questioning Abele’s spending in the race for the seat representing the south side district. Witkowski retired abruptly in May from the position he has held since 2003.
“We have a lot of folks in the 13th District who are proud, working-class people,” Spiker said. “They don’t need a millionaire coming in and telling them who to vote for. They can make up their own minds.”
Of course, only Abele and his campaign folks can say why he has taken an interest in this contest.
Since creating Leadership MKE last year, Abele has spent more than $1.3 million in support of numerous candidates in local races for mayor, school board and sheriff. Earlier this year, he created Leadership WI and dropped nearly $50,000 to help Satya RhodesConway in her successful bid for
Madison mayor.
Overall, Abele’s group has a mixed record. Most notably, Leadership MKE spent big bucks trying unsuccessfully to unseat Milwaukee County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. and in support of Acting Sheriff Richard Schmidt’s failed election bid.
But Abele’s team is not responding to any questions about the Common Council race. Aldermen make $73,222 annually.
On the Leadership MKE website is a bland statement endorsing Najera, noting she has lived in the district for 35 years.
“She knows the only way to solve problems is to reject politics as usual and focus on the issues that matter most to us,” the statement says. “As our alderwoman, Patricia will fight to fix our roads, make neighborhoods safer for kids, and bring more economic development to the Garden District.”
Najera is also being tight-lipped about her support from the Democratic county exec.
Asked if Abele recruited her to run or interviewed her before issuing his endorsement, Najera issued a general statement saying she was proud to have gained his support, as well as that of others.
“As folks in the district know, I’ve been thinking about running for this seat for a long time,” she said by email. “During this short campaign, I’ve talked to leaders across Milwaukee and neighbors throughout the district about our need for better public safety, more city services, and a real plan for business development.”
Najera made slightly less than $80,000 in 2017 as director of partnerships and development at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education. She recently received her doctorate in urban studies from UWM.
Alison Dirr of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.