For all the talk about "time for a change" and "throw the bums out," Tuesday night's election results in Milwaukee and Wisconsin showed that the power of incumbency is difficult to overcome.
In the three biggest races – State Supreme Court, Milwaukee County Executive and Mayor of Milwaukee – all the incumbents won, and fairly easily.
Supreme Court
Incumbent Justice Rebecca Bradley beat Court of Appeals Judge Joanne Kloppenburg by a 53-47 percent margin.
During the campaign, Bradley had to withstand withering attacks based on comments she had written about AIDS patients and homosexuals more than 20 years ago while a college student at Marquette. Kloppenburg and her supporters hammered away at the claims that Bradley was homophobic and racist and should be held accountable for her comments in college.
Bradley fought off the accusations saying "that is not the person I am now," and apparently voters agreed with her.
Bradley likely benefited from the hot Republican presidential primary. Over 70,000 more Republicans voted than did Democrats, and while the high court position is technically nonpartisan, Bradley was backed by Republican groups while Kloppenburg had the Democratic vote.
Milwaukee County Executive
Incumbent Chris Abele, who suffered a narrow loss in the three-way primary, easily beat challenger State Sen. Chris Larson, 55-45 percent.
Abele was elected to his second full four-year term after spending nearly $4 million of his own money on his campaign. Abele pledged to serve out the full four years, putting a damper on speculation that he might challenge Gov. Scott Walker two years from now.
Larson, who spent virtually nothing compared to Abele, said that he lost to "big money" but vowed to continue the grassroots movement he hoped would carry him to election. Larson has also been the subject of continued speculation that he wanted to use the county executive race as a springboard for a gubernatorial campaign.
Abele laid out an ambitious agenda during his victory speech, pledging to attack homelessness, inequities in sentencing and other racial problems. He pledged to continue to work with both sides of the political aisle on behalf of "all the people of Milwaukee County."
Milwaukee County Board
There were eight seats up for election on the Milwaukee County Board, three that were open seats and five with an incumbent.
All five incumbents won their races, while the new supervisors will be Marcella Nicholson, David Sartori and Dan Sebring.
The board has undergone significant changes with the position being reduced to part time, as well as the power of the board drastically reduced. There has been an ongoing battle between the board and Abele, and none of the newly elected board members are likely to mitigate that hostility.
Mayor of Milwaukee
Tom Barrett won his fourth term as mayor by soundly beating his challenger, Ald. Bob Donovan, 70-30 percent.
Donovan had made public safety and the Downtown streetcar his two big campaign issues and hammered away relentlessly at Barrett. He had trouble gaining traction with voters and in the media, where his spats over reporters and his own legal history too up much of his headlines and coverage.
Barrett called himself "optimistic about the City of Milwaukee" and said that he thought voters wanted someone who felt good about the future. He acknowledged that there were problems in public safety and inequalities in the life of all citizens in the city, but said he had worked on those problems and that he thought the voters recognized that there were no easy answers to many of these problems.
Milwaukee Common Council
Thirteen of the aldermanic seats were up for election, and only one incumbent, Ald. Robert Puente, lost. He was ousted by newcomer Chantia Lewis, 54-46 percent.
There were two open seats, with Khalif Rainey and Chevy Johnson elected to fill them Tuesday.
Eight of the winners in aldermanic races had over 65 percent of the vote with the closest race coming in the eighth district, where Donovan kept his seat in a race against Justin Bielinski by just four percentage points.
