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%

[Cincincinati Spiritus]

I suppose my point of inquiry is whether we are going about reform all the wrong way, whether we ought not start with the local.

It seems we have been spinning our wheels for a long time and only losing ground by trying to reform laws in Washington. Bush is not Reagan and the federal government has grown which means that state, local and self-government have decreased.

I wonder whether we ought not reform the township and the county, the school boards and the county boards first. And then use those as a bulwark against the rages of the state and federal government.

It seems to me that we all work too much as atoms against a Leviathan that simply consumes us. We must first rebuild our cities and only then can we fully regain what powers the federal government has appointed unto itself.

[steveegg]

'Tis a great day. I'm glad my prediction of a 50.5-49.5 Walker win was too pessimistic.

BTW, the final numbers are in, and all the king's horses (there's a couple letters missing <VBG>) and all the king's fraud couldn't stop the tide o' change from rolling on in (sorry, couldn't find anything to rhyme with 'fraud').

With 100% of the precincts reporting:
Scott Walker 99,850 (55%)
Jim (FU Jr.) Ryan 81,208 (45%)
(numbers courtesy Journal Broadcast Group)

[steveegg]

I got myself on record as saying that it would be a less-than-1%-win for Walker, and I looked at most of the same factors as Belling. What I didn't expect was the surburban turnout being so massive as to overwhelm the Empire and any conceivable fraud, even though I'm in one of the hotbeds of reform.

That having been said, the Belling show has run its course. Now that people are actually acting instead of taking it, he just can't adapt.

[steveegg]

I wish I could have heard Ryan's campaign speech, but the few words I did hear on one of the TVs at the Walker victory party (for some reason, Channel 6 didn't come in too well) sounded like more of the same whine he spent the last week doing.

[republicandiva]

I wonder whether we ought not reform the township and the county, the school boards and the county boards first. And then use those as a bulwark against the rages of the state and federal government.

Don't know about your neck of the woods, but in Racine, we just did finish county board and school board races and were successful in replacing a couple key supervisory positions. Our efforts at the Town level (Caledonia) weren't as successful, but we're already searching for candidates for next year.

What I'm saying is...you're absolutely right! Local government, for the most part, has a much greater effect on our everyday lives than the federal. We also have a very active Republican party that came to this realization a long time ago, although we were able to carry Bush in 2000, even though we have historically been a predominantly democratic county. With redistricting, that may change.

With CRG, Milwaukee has a good start at building a base of support from which to challenge some other local seats. You might want to use that base to form "splinter" groups in different suburbs, municipalities, etc. in the area, which it appears may already be happening with the county board recalls.

In any event, keep up the good work.

[Jean S]

Thanks Steve. A 10% win is huge. Belling and the MJS lost too in this fight.

[steveegg]

One more thing, had the vote total been reversed, or even as small a margin as 51.5-48.5, Ryan would have been declared the winner at 8:01.

[republicandiva]

WOW - crow had it right on the money...exactly 10%. I hope Sykes has the tape of that prediction. Maybe we should all buy lottery tickets and let crow pick the numbers! LOL

[republicandiva]

And the ticker tape parade would have started at 8:02 p.m.! BTW, thanks for all your hard work. At least now, Milwaukee has a fighting chance.

[steveegg]

Agreed. Upchuckwalla needs to get upchucked, and that's going to take at least 2 victories. Just be thankful that Mike (Folding Chair) Ellis isn't running the Senate RINOs anymore (outside of Zien, is there any other kind?)

[cpprfld]

I wonder whether we ought not reform the township and the county, the school boards and the county boards
first.

I agree, but how do we reform our communities? I have spoken to many people that don't have a clue about
what is going on in politics, and in their own communities. But, everytime they vote, they usually vote for a
Democratic politican because they always have.

We need a change in this community and in the state, and it needs to happen through informed citizens.
"Knowledge is power," and most people that who are informed are also conservatives I have noticed. But,
we have a liberal media who is more interested in ratings than informing citizens of what is going on. I think that this
problem will only get worse as the news organizations consolidate and form mega-news organizations.

[steveegg]

A couple of media monopolies on the decline. Maybe someone offshore or in Nevada could get a pool going on which one folds first; the Journtinel or the Belling Late Afternoon Program.

[steveegg]

I must slightly disagree with your premise on the media. If they thought that displaying a bias that is far out of kilter of their viewing audience would hurt their ratings, they would change in a New York second. Quite simply, people tune into the "news" for the latest gossip, diet stories, 20 minutes of weather and 10 minutes of Packers news (and 30 seconds of other sports), not for the political coverage.

[steveegg]

I hate to break this to you, but Milwaukee as a whole went for Ryan. Milwaukee is still behind the times.

[steveegg]

To expand on point 2 (the horrid Ryan campaign), he never really adopted a message, even though his one-time campaign managers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, offered several to him. This forced the Journtinel, which has been unusually politically-savvy the last few months, to rethink its strategy of propping up the Ryan campaign at all costs. When Ryan finally adopted a campaign strategy, going negative, dropping obvious lies and sticking to those lies in the face of the light of truth was the single-most-wrong strategy he could have adopted. By the time yesterday rolled around, the Journtinel had done to him what the unions did to Nardelli 4 weeks ago; all-but-abandoned him.

[steveegg]

I seem to have understood Ryan's message perfectly; it was his method of delivery that "evolved" (really, devolved) into the standard DemonRAT playbook. That devolution ruined his "nice guy" image (I went from calling him FU Lite based on the issues to FU Jr. to FU II as he became more negative and untruthful).

I wish I could find an appropriate graphic for the Ament bomb, but I'm too tired. Think mushroom clouds, and you've got it.

[Redleg Duke]

He better stay away from Madison. That place is so communist that his life wouldn't be worth a plug nickel.

[the crow]

WOW - crow had it right on the money...exactly 10%. I hope Sykes has the tape of that prediction. Maybe we should all buy lottery tickets and let crow pick the numbers! LOL

Well,...[blush]...I didn't want to say it, but TOLDYA TOLDYA! LOL

[MotleyGirl70]

Maybe there's hope after all!

Yes, there is! I love it.

[BraveMan]

I'm not sure Ryan quite understood it. He was never consistant on the issues, but his stance seemed to evolve over the race.

Ryan's inconsistency, his 'middle of the road' position on virtually every issue, is what sunk him, IMO. I perceived Ryan's campaign to be more 'business as usual'; that was the LAST thing I was willing to continue to tolerate from Milwaukee County government. I wanted someone as County Executive that would come down like a hammer, smash the status quo to pieces and scatter it to the four winds.

I doubt I will observe from Scott Walker the dismantling of the status quo to the degree I desire, but I sure as Hell knew I wouldn't get that from Ryan.

We've received a little taste of government reform in Milwaukee County with the results of this election; just enough to whet our appetite. I want more!!