Scandal allegations scramble 2 Milwaukee races

JS Online ^ | 2-6-12 | Larry Sandler

[afraidfortherepublic]

Dramatic developments are rocking the campaigns for two of Milwaukee's least dramatic offices: city comptroller and city treasurer.

The comptroller's race effectively ended Thursday, the day that Milwaukee County prosecutors charged Supervisor Johnny Thomas with accepting a bribe. Thomas, who had been the front-runner in the comptroller's race, immediately suspended his campaign, leaving Martin Matson, the city's deputy pension director, as the only active candidate on the April 3 ballot.

In a single day, a promising political career was derailed and a little-known bureaucrat was virtually assured of becoming the chief financial officer of a $1 billion-a-year local government.

The charges stunned local political leaders. The chairman of the Milwaukee County Democratic Party was Thomas' campaign manager in the nonpartisan race, and the freshman supervisor had landed the endorsement of dozens of elected officials, including Mayor Tom Barrett, County Executive Chris Abele and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.).

Also last week, a former aide to state Sen. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee) went public with allegations that other aides had spent taxpayers' time on Coggs' unsuccessful 2010 campaign for lieutenant governor. Coggs, who has denied the claims, is now one of two leading candidates in the four-way treasurer's race.

One of the accused aides, Enis Ragland, swiftly resigned. The state Government Accountability Board has not commented on its investigation into former aide Jana Williams' year-old complaint, but another state agency has dismissed a separate complaint that Coggs discriminated against Williams

[afraidfortherepublic]

Wisconsin Milwaukee Corrupt Government Ping

If you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list, just FReep Mail me.

[afraidfortherepublic]

FTA: No accounting degree Matson calls himself "an accountant by default," because of his work experience, but unlike Morics, he does not have an accounting degree and is not a certified public accountant. Instead, Matson holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. But Matson said his experience was a good fit for the comptroller's job. He and Murphy noted the office has a strong lineup of other accountants on its staff.

[Joe the Pimpernel]

The Chicago Way is now the Milwaukee Way.

[SF_Redux]

Axelrod sure does get around

[mosesdapoet]

Romnellian Charley Sykes did a good job of exposing the exposers disbursing their odeious truck load of deffication over Wisconsin airwaves.

This is they this stuff should be handled

I hope he posts it in his blog for distribution

[arrogantsob]

The last thing you want is an accountant doing an accountant’s job. I think Aaron Rodgers should do it.