3 Milwaukee County Board races to appear on Feb. 15 primary ballot
Three Milwaukee County Board races will appear on Feb. 15 primary ballots — two in which incumbents are facing challengers and another for an open seat.
District 1 Supervisor Liz Sumner — who represents River Hills, Bayside, Fox Point, Whitefish Bay, Shorewood and part of Glendale — and District 3 Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman, who represents Milwaukee’s east side, are both facing challenges.
However, one of Sumner’s opponents, Peter Tase, dropped out following backlash to his comment that he feared Glendale would “turn into an African shantytown” because of homelessness.
His decision to leave the race came after ballots had been printed.
Tase’s name will be listed along with
Sumner and Karen Gentile.
In District 3, Wasserman, an OB/ GYN, will face activist Eric Rorholm and landscape architect Jennifer Current.
A four-way primary without an incumbent will be held in District 12 representing a heavily-Latino area south and west of downtown Milwaukee.
Running for the seat that Supervisor Sylvia Ortiz-Velez did not seek again are resident Rosie King, caregiver Christian Saldivar Frias, union organizer Juan Miguel Martinez and former state Rep. Josh Zepnick.
Ortiz-Velez decided to finish her term on the County Board after she was elected to represent state Assembly District 8 in 2020.
Rorholm and Martinez, along with District 4 Supervisor Ryan Clancy, are a slate of candidates being run by the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America.
In each race, voters will narrow the field to two candidates who will face
each other on April 5.
District 3
Wasserman is chair of the Parks, Energy and Environment Committee. He said he expects to maintain that position if granted another term. He was elected to the County Board in 2016. Wasserman was elected to the State Assembly in 1994 and spent 14 years there.
Wasserman said he is focused on three issues: health care, the parks system and public transit. Specifically, on the parks system, Wasserman wants to address the lifeguard shortage the county has been experiencing in the summer months.
“We have to get more swimming pools open; we have to get lifeguards for our beaches. And for our pools, we have to have full opening of all aquatic facilities in Milwaukee County,” he said.
Wasserman said his background as a doctor is a unique trait, when discussing health care issues, stating the County Board has a significant role in the funding of mental health services.
One of Wasserman’s opponents, Rorholm, said he graduated from Marquette University in 2021 and considers himself a working-class citizen and renter. He serves as social media and marketing lead with Our Wisconsin Revolution. Our Revolution was created following Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
He referred to himself as a Black Lives Matter activist, climate activist and democratic socialist.
He said he would want to reduce the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office budget and use the money to “fund our parks, expand our green spaces, protect the existing green spaces and protect the Mitchell Park Domes.”
Rorholm raised concerns about the Sheriff’s Department’s overtime costs and said the department should not have equipment such as riot gear and rubber bullets.
Wasserman said Rorholm’s socialist policies don’t represent the district.
“I don’t know who he’s talking to, but we’ve spent a lot of time talking to work with people, renters, homeowners … they’re ready for my vision,” Rorholm said.
Current is another political newcomer seeking the District 3 seat. She is a landscape architect and is focusing her campaign on public space, which Current defines as streets, parks, open spaces, plazas, community centers and senior centers.
Current said that historically funding for public spaces has been treated like a secondary commodity, she wants to change that conversation.
“I realized that even as a landscape architect working with public space, I was unable to navigate through the process of advocating to save a public space from demolition. After that, running for office was my call to action. We share this tremendous asset and I want to be a voice for people who also want to stand up for it,” she said.
District 12
King, a first-time candidate for public office, said she wanted to make the county safer and did not feel elected officials were representing their constituents.
“I’m in the race because ‘We the People’ are losing our rights to freedom of speech, mandated to get vaccinated, forced to wear mask, and those who are elected to office are no longer representing the people they promised to service,” she said in an email. “I want to see a Milwaukee County where all citizens count, children are educated across the spectrum, the removal of Critical Race Theory, and Common Core.”
She also said she was “appalled” at what she saw as a socialist direction of the country.
King said she would work for more positive interactions between law enforcement and residents, the revitalization of the Mitchell Park Domes and surrounding area, and greater business investment.
Saldivar Frias said he is currently a caregiver for a relative with a traumatic brain injury while also serving on the state Board of Nursing and having previously worked in education and at a nursing home.
He first ran in 2020 for an open seat as Milwaukee District 8 alderperson and then mounted a primary challenge to Democratic state Rep. Marisabel Cabrera.
Saldivar Frias said his experience working with older residents and youth prepared him to serve on the County Board. He said he realized that the current systems can always be improved.
“We need someone to articulate what is going on and what can we do about it,” he said. “Our politics is in disarray, it seems all over the place. I think we need someone to bring us to common ground.”
He would prioritize public safety and public health initiatives on the County Board.
Also among his top issues would be seeking more funding for Milwaukee County from the state.
Martinez writes for various Milwaukee publications but said his primary work is as a union organizer for the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization.
He said as a county supervisor he would treat the district like a union in the sense that he would want to talk to residents to find out their priorities and have monthly town halls with people who would serve as “community stewards.”
It’s an approach he connected to the endorsement from the Democratic Socialists.
He said he would listen to residents whose views span the political spectrum.
Martinez said he would want to focus on green spaces, ensuring the Domes have the funding they need, and advocating for strong union jobs.
He also said he would want to reallocate funding from the Sheriff’s Department to “mutual aid resources.” He did not have an amount he wanted to reallocate or specific duties he would want the department to cease with less funding.
“It is very important that we tackle crime at the root because over-policing I feel is just putting a Band-Aid on an open wound,” he said, adding that affordable housing and resources for mental health and addiction are needed.
Zepnick said he decided to run for County Board because he was “flabbergasted” by the creation then failure of the county’s first independent redistricting body last year.
“I think my skills as a state legislator would be very helpful at the level of the County Board,” he said. “Just about every single thing that the county does has some major connection to state government, and the trouble that the county is in financially is only going to be solved by getting things resolved inside the state Capitol.”
Zepnick served eight terms in the state Legislature before losing a re-election bid to Cabrera in 2018. The loss came less than a year after he was accused of kissing female colleagues against their will in separate incidents in 2011 and 2015.
He said he has been sober since October 2015 and that he hoped others would believe in “forgiveness and redemption.”
“I made mistakes, took ownership, paid a heavy price losing my seat in the Assembly, and ultimately made improvements in order to have a more positive and productive life over the last 6 years,” he wrote in an email.
He said given his own experience he could appreciate others’ struggles and be a voice on the board “for those who want to turn their lives around for the better.”
He said if he were elected he would also want to expand the county’s role in addressing reckless driving, saying the Sheriff’s Department was well-positioned on the issue because its jurisdiction crosses municipal boundaries.
He said he would also want to fight for more funding for state-mandated services and seek authorization for a 1-cent sales tax to provide the county financial assistance and property tax relief.
District 1
Sumner was elected to the County Board in 2020. She ran for the State Assembly in 2018 and lost. Sumner owns SHOP, a women’s clothing and accessories boutique in Shorewood.
She is seeking a second term because she wants to continue working on environmental issues as a member of the Parks, Energy and Environment Committee, such as “working towards the carbon neutral goal that we set and working on implementing recycling programs.”
The County Board adopted a policy in April, setting the goal of going carbon neutral by 2050 aimed at combating climate change.
Sumner wants voters to know that as a small business owner she is fiscally minded. “I’m responsible with our tax dollars, but I also but I want to see them invested in a way that will get a good return,” she said.
Gentile did not respond to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel inquiries.