• It would be a huge blow to the Coggs family if Milele Coggs loses to jailed Ald. Michael McGee April 1. After all, losing to a guy running from behind bars would be a further embarrassment to the North Side political machine the Coggs family has built for decades.

There have been county board supervisors, state representatives and state senators in the Coggs family. No matter that many have been do-nothings. For example, state Rep. Leon Young is better known as co-owner of a nightclub where people were killed than for his legislative record. Young has also been consistently a top requester of per diems for daily work supposedly done in the Capitol, but lacks the track record to back up those claims.

Milele Coggs failed in 2003 to win in a neighboring aldermanic district, not even making it through the primary. The ultimate winner then, Willie Wade, is also from a prominent North Side family, but one not as extensive as the Coggs' machine.

Despite holding a law degree from UW-Madison, Coggs, 30, is not practicing and lists herself as a "political consultant." But for a political consultant Coggs is going light on the issues, offering no specifics on her Web site and neglecting to fill out a candidate questionnaire requested from the daily newspaper. She does have a nice picture of herself with Gov. Jim Doyle and Sen. Barack Obama on the Web site, however.

• Brad DeBraska lists his occupation as a "judicial consultant" in his race against Southeast Side Ald. Terry Witkowski. DeBraska is best known, however, as former president of the Milwaukee Police Association, which long battled with police chiefs of the past.

It is also one of the few unions that endorses Republican candidates -- some that even the Milwaukee Police Supervisors Organization would not dare to cozy up to. MPA's endorsement of Tommy Thompson for governor was soon followed by DeBraska's appointment to the UW System Board of Regents by Thompson

DeBraska now serves as chairman of the Police Officers Defense Fund, Inc., which hires lawyers for cops in trouble, sponsors youth sports teams and doles out $2,000 scholarships to cops' kids.

• It is kind of interesting when candidates try not to disclose their age, especially in an electronic age that renders such information easily available. Brenda K. Pullen-O'Donnell, a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher challenging two-term incumbent Ald. Jim Bohl on the Northwest Side, declined to give her age to the Journal Sentinel, however a quick check of state court records shows she is 57. We also found that Pullen-O'Donnell had her wages garnished over some hospital bills in 2003 and 2004.

Pullen-O'Donnell received the daily newspaper's endorsement over the oft-acerbic and quite preachy Bohl, 36; a rare move for the staid daily.

• Sharon Polk, who is running against Downtown Ald. Bob Bauman, gets the candidates' lead-foot award, having been ticketed twice for speeding -- once for going more than 16 miles per hour over the limit on the freeway -- and twice for not wearing a seat belt.

• Despite a famous name, Andy Reid faces the near-impossible task of overcoming Bay View Ald. Tony Zielinski, who nabbed 83 percent of the vote in the primary. The real estate exec shares his name with famous NFL coach Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles and formerly of the Green Bay Packers. But timing is everything in politics, they say, and Reid's real estate firm -- Kinetic Realty on Brady Street -- failed to shovel the sidewalk in front of its office after the last big snowstorm, claims one eagle-eyed Bay View resident. The building was one of the last on the street to finish the job. Good thing it was on the East Side.

Reid has also taken the unique position that being a Milwaukee alderman is not a full-time job despite its $70,000 plus annual pay. He says he could keep his real estate job and the aldermanic post and return some of his aldermanic pay.