Milwaukee County Executive elections: Ryan lost his own community in early returns Tuesday

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | 30 April 2002 | Meg Jones and various

[July 4th]

Ryan lost his own community in early returns Tuesday

Hales Corners Village President Jim Ryan lost his own community as early returns Tuesday night showed Scott Walker leading in the race for Milwaukee County Executive.

Ryan lost Hales Corners by a margin of 50 votes with 47% of eligible voters in the community turning up to vote.

Early results showed Walker, a Republican member of the State Assembly from Wauwatosa, with a nearly 300-vote edge over Ryan. As of 8:30 p.m. River Hills, West Milwaukee and Hales Corners all went for Walker.

With 10 of 463 precincts reporting, Walker had 2,736 votes, or 54%, while Ryan had 2,362, or 46%, according to unofficial returns.

Voter turnout appeared to be at least as strong as in the primary and probably heavier, according to election officials.

Walker and Ryan are vying to replace F. Thomas Ament, who resigned in February amid public outrage over generous pension changes proposed by his administration and approved by the County Board.

The election has been a rapid-fire event - eight weeks from registration to runoff. Walker and Ryan emerged as the top finishers April 2, after a six-person primary that featured 14 major forums. Since then, the two have squared off at least 28 more times, an average of one a day. Though attendance waned at some of the final forums, in the past two months several thousand voters have seen the candidates side by side in person.

On April 2, more than 139,000 people voted, with turnout in Milwaukee at 22%. In the suburbs, turnout was between 30% and 40%. That day, however, there were other races on the ballot that helped draw voters to the polls.

Turnout Tuesday was one measure of the public's interest in county government and the changes that are taking place. Like the executive's race today, upcoming recall votes against county supervisors will take place on days when no other election is on the ballot.

Barring a recount, the new executive likely will be sworn in May 9 or 10, county officials said.

------------------LATEST--------------------

Milwaukee County Executive
REPORTING 86%
Scott WALKER - 96,734 - 58%
Jim RYAN - 71,444 - 42%

[Anoy11_]

Walker is from the Assembly which is strongly Democratic. Who will take his place?

[BraveMan]

Need I mention that everyone's property assessments were sharply UP!

SHARPLY UP is a polite way of putting it. Property assessments (and subsequent tax burdens) rose like a shuttle launch in the city of Milwaukee. Thanks to a tip from the local Fox affiliate, Channel 6, LostThread and I were able to peruse the assessments for the city. Click here for the link to the City of Milwaukee Property Data website.

Pick an address; any address. Marvel and shudder at the increased tax burden in one year the owner of that property is facing.

We found a $13,000.00 assessment increase on a property that was DEMOLISHED!

I'm not going to list any specific addresses here, because I feel it is important that this link not be pulled. But you will find, if you look carefully, that the property assessment of a certain politician in a southeastern Wisconsin city actually went down. Funny how that works, isn't it?

[Anoy11_]

I'm sorry. Is it the senate that's run by the democratS?

[good_ash]

The senate is run by democrats, the assembly by republicans.

Walker is from wauwatosa. A democrat has about as much chance getting his seat as pat buchannan has of winning elected office in madison.

[brewcrew]

Tyrone Dumas has his sights set on Norquist's office. He's going to do whatever he can to maintain high visibility over the next 18 months. You're right - Scott Walker needs to one-up him by publishing the list of accomplishments every 30 days.

Tyrone Dumas. I always frown on name-calling (it's so....3rd grade), and this guy's name is a shining example of why. Sometimes it would just be too easy to take a shot. LOL!

[MotleyGirl70]

Spending $2 million of local tax money (and $1.5 million of federal grant money) to put a suicide magnet on a bridge so steep that most of the bikers who try to use it for its alleged purpose will end up jumping off it.

Touche!

And then so the suicidals can leave a note behind for the family of said nutbar to sue the city for millions. Perfect, just perfect.

Don't think this is a stretch either brother.

[LouD]

43 demonrats in the Assembly, 56 pubbies.

[steveegg]

Hey; I admitted that I saw it as a less-than-1% win for Walker for much the same reasons as Belling (I didn't think that the Empire would be able to come up with quite enough fraud to outshout us, but I didn't see the kind of enthusiasm that would have suggested a clean 10-point win). My beef with Belling is that he seeks to sabotage the efforts of those who actually want to change things instead of calling his show to make them successful topics for him. The way that he would rather have various issues to talk about rather than solved lays bare his liberal past.

[steveegg]

Second time's the charm. Upchuckwalla's merry band of lieberal DemonRAT hacks has a 18-15 advantage in the Senate (which is Latin for "one step away from tyrrany").

[steveegg]

I'm sure that's already been thought of. BTW, patrolling the Hoan for the suicidals will prove to be much more problematic and expensive than patrolling the Golden Gate that has been touted as the "example". The last I checked, you can actually see one end of the Golden Gate from the other (at least when the fog hasn't rolled in), while more than half the Hoan is invisible from either end.

[Faraday]

Walker is from the Assembly which is strongly Democratic. Who will take his place?

At a fund raiser for Walker Leah Vuhkmer (sp?) said she would run for Scott's assembly seat if he won. She has been a commentator on Charlie Sykes program and has been very active in education issues. She would be a good candidate.

[steveegg]

Hmm, Belling is actually making a decent point right now. Back when we had FU Ament on the ropes, only 3 politicos put a potential recall race on their radar screens. All 3 are Republicans (Walker, Jeff Stone and Alberta Darling). Absolutely, positively nobody else stepped up. Even when Ament left, the Empire deemed itself so weak that all but one of their number (an unknown, at that) decided not to even try running. Even though this obviously does not extend to the city of Milwaukee itself or the redrawn 4th Congressional District (sorry, South Milwaukee, Cudahy, St. Francis, West Milwaukee and the eastern part of West Allis), it is encouraging for everyone that there is a decent shot of getting one layer of government off our backs for a while.

[Faraday]

Brew, Dumas has announced that he would not run for the mayor's office in deference to Council President Marvin Pratt. (Can't split the black vote, doncha ya know.) Dumas knows that he's up for a fat paycheck on the public payroll somewhere in Milwaukee County.

[Faraday]

Belling didn't believe the recall effort would be successful. Then he didn't believe Ament would resign. Many of the Dem politicos probably thought the same. With Norquist in a weakened position--unable to play kingmaker--the Demonic sheep had difficulty getting behind a single candidate in the time available. Therefore, only weak candidates emerged--Dumas, Ryan, Nardelli was potentially strong, but was too conservative for most Dems.

[steveegg]

AFAIK, the plan was for her to make it official as soon as Walker left. She would at least seem to be a good choice in Tosa (I sure wish she were in Oak Creek).

[steveegg]

Like I said, he'd rather have the issue to <expletive deleted> about rather than the issue solved, especially if he didn't think of the solution. Because he wasn't able to get in front of the effort to take back county goverment, he really wanted us to fail, then rub it in our faces and still be able to continue to <expletive delted> about the lieberal moves of county government.

[Cincincinati Spiritus]

Milwaukee did go for Ryan but not by much, and Walker's focus was not Milwaukee. The point is that in Milwaukee there is a glimmer of hope.

Milwaukee is still behind the times

I'm not sure what you mean by this or almost anyone for that matter. The far more important question is where are the times taking us. No one that I know really knows the answer to that, few have ever. It is the liberals that are ever eager to get there, though the end is a bit obscure.

[Cincincinati Spiritus]

IOW, it's up to every one of us to discuss these issues with our friends and especially with our children. It's a lifelong commitment. FreeRepublic is a good place to start. There is a wealth of information here.

Discussion, I agree, is good. However, the causes of the apathy run much deeper. It is a symptom that we are no longer a constitutional and self-governing people. De Tocqueville makes some keen comments regarding the need for the adminstration of government to be localized in order to have a well educated and interested citizenry. The power of government is remote and our role continues to diminish. A recipe for tyranny.

[WI Conservative 4 Bush]

I guess I can't really disagree with you too much. In general I support any conservative message that manages to make it out to the populace. Belling's methods and his behind-the-scenes motivations are often mysterious.

I've enjoyed this thread for the simple fact that us Wisconsinites have something to be happy about for a change.

[Anoy11_]

From what I understand Walker's district may be sliced and diced making it a democratic district, or at least leaving the option open that it would be contested. I believe it is in the hands of the courts. I don't know what the decision will be.(it may have been decided alreaddy)