As if election politics weren’t bizarre enough on the national level with Trump and Bernie upsetting the apple carts belonging to the Republican and Democratic parties, we now have two races in Milwaukee that have the potential to be equally strange.

Against all conventional wisdom, two insurgents – Chris Larson and Bob Donovan – turned in stronger than expected performances in the primary races Tuesday and have set up real challenges in both the county executive and mayoral races.

Let’s start with the race for county executive where Larson, the youngest senator in the state at 39, actually beat incumbent Chris Abele by 708 votes.

Abele spent hundreds of thousands of his own dollars in his campaign, and the strong showing by Larson was a surprise. It was a pretty clear example that voters have changed this year and that television ads are not a guaranteed ride to victory.

_{(PHOTO: Flickr/A. Michael Simms)}

Abele spent $1.59 million on advertising before the election, and on Feb. 1, he reported his campaign had $904,193 on hand. Larson spent about $3,000 on radio and reported he had $28,227 on hand.

The two candidates have profound differences in their election strategies.

Abele uses his vast wealth to buy whatever his campaign needs, including the very best in television creative talent and as much time on stations as he wants. On the other hand, Larson is a boots on the ground guy. Three years ago, he started a group called Dem Team, designed to teach individuals how to be effective campaigners. By all reports, his team has worked doors every day of the campaign.

It’s unlikely that either one will change strategies between now and the general election in April, so brace yourself for a tsunami of Abele ads on television and brief glimpses of Larson in ads and in rare news coverage.

And now to the mayoral race, where Donovan, who has been a bomb-throwing alderman since 2000, will face Tom Barrett, who has been mayor for 12 years. It may seem like Barrett’s never really been all that happy being mayor since he's run for governor three times, losing all three times.

_{(PHOTO: Flick/City of Milwaukee – Public Information Division)}

Barrett won the primary with 46 percent of the vote. As unexpected as it may be, Donovan got over 20,000 people to vote for him, 33 percent of the votes cast. Meanwhile, Ald. Joe Davis again proved that there just isn’t much black voter activity in the city, drew 18 percent of the vote.

Some experts think Barrett is vulnerable because he is a low-key mayor. When asked about his achievements, he talks about the Downtown renaissance, expansion of library services and progress fighting the foreclosure crisis. His big vulnerability is the fact that last year Milwaukee set a homicide record, and there is rampant fear of crime in the city.  

Donovan, who never met a television camera he didn’t like, seems to pop up after every murder, screaming about Barrett and what he calls a lack of support for the police. Donovan himself has a moderately checkered history (good taste requires that I don’t go into it again) but it has never seemed to hurt him at the polls. He doesn’t live in the same house as Sheriff David Clarke, but he’s at least in the neighborhood. He’s kind of a one-trick pony, but for voters for whom safety is the top issue, Donovan will pander to all of them.

The Milwaukee Police Association is one of his biggest backers. Here’s an endorsement message from the association:

"The Milwaukee Police Association has announced our support for Bob Donovan. Without doubt we have witnessed unwavering advocacy from Alderman Donovan focused toward making Milwaukee a better, safer place to live. He has demonstrated unwavering leadership – consistently has stood tall in the face of adversity. He [Donovan] has never put his political career before an issue; quite the opposite, while others may run from controversy Bob Donovan charges full speed ahead. He calls it as he sees it. While common sense (CS) is not as common as we might wish – you can count on Fighting Bob to thoroughly display the 'CS' gene."

There are elements of this race that are similar to the county executive race. Barrett had almost $1 million on hand on Feb. 1 while Donovan had just over $27,000.

Donovan has limited his message to one theme: How can you spend money on a trolley while cutting cops and letting us set a new record for homicides? It’s the kind of simplistic message Donovan has used often in his career. It’s hard to actually think of Donovan being mayor, but sometimes simplicity can truly catch on. After all, the plain-spoken message, "It’s the economy stupid," carried a little known governor from Arkansas into the White House. 

In just five weeks, we are all going to be able to vote for whichever Republicans are still in the presidential race, either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, and at least two very interesting races in Milwaukee that could end in upsets. Fasten your seat belts. No smoking.