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%

[MotleyGirl70]

Told my parents Scott wouldn't win; this county voted 60% for Algore. I said he wouldn't win by a very SMALL margin. Now, I owe them a steak dinner. D'oh! BTW, my dad made this bet for me. LOL.

[MotleyGirl70]

I sure wish Mark would run again for the senate. Fat chance though. He is enjoying the private sector and doing very well. He lost by a narrow margin over Feingold. That night was heartbreaking for me.

[robjna]

I am formerly from Hales Corners and still belong to St. Marys church in Hales Corners. As soon as I heard Ryan was running, I knew his motives were insincere. This is a family that thrives on being able to walk into a room and have people reconize them. This race to them was all about reconigtion and personal glory. He and his wife were in their glory during the campaign because the light was on them. The only reason he ran now because he knew it would get him an extreme amount of face time. His campaign was lousy because he wanted it that way. I don't beleive ,when confronted with the realization that he could win, that he wanted the job. Which explains the unexplainable in his decisions late in the campaign. He and his wife will now bask in the outpouring of sympathy from his friends. So sad , to bad.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

OUCH. You ever noticed how he always calls his first pick of the season a sure thing, and then he promptly loses it and the next three picks as well.

[MotleyGirl70]

Scott won but his work is still cut out for him. The Milwaukee County government is still infested with leftist willing to build "light-rail" and the like, on the taxpayer bill. I love the fact Scott is not willing to add more county benefits (i.e. live-in/same-sex health benefits.)

We received our assessment this week! (much higher than expected.) Lovely. I should start saving NOW to pay next years property taxes.

[Faraday]

I think the Ryan campaign (mis)calculated that the turnout in the general election would be similar to the primary. With that assumption, what he needed to turn out was government employees, teachers, union hacks, and liberal activists. Therefore, he took very liberal positions. The one thing which he felt might upset his applecart was the Nardelli endorsement, which is why he lashed out at that. In the end, his 81K votes would have been more than enough if the primary total (134K) would have held.

[T. P. Pole]

From the Journal article Lust for change upends status quo:

The epicenter of Tuesday's quake was Milwaukee, as state Rep. Scott Walker, a conservative Republican, thumped moderate Jim Ryan in the reputed Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee County.

conservative Republican vs moderate!

Suprised they didn't call him extreme right-wing.

[MotleyGirl70]

I rarely listen to Belling anymore. He's so pessimistic about anything conservative.

I love Belling (95% of the time). That's the beauty of it; he WAS pessimistic about Walker winning. I can't wait until 3:00 to hear him talk his way out it. He is so pro-Milwaukee citizen though. His facts are always right on.

[PfromHoGro]

I hope everyone saw channel 6 at 9. When interviewing Ryan early from the Italian community center (a public money building?-I'm not sure) Ryan spoke of how important turning out the black vote was going to be. A pan of the room showed the only blacks in the room were bussing tables. How classic!

[appleton14]

I agree with you about the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. They are consistently liberal/socialist in their editorials.It wasn't until the local talk shows got onto the band wagon as to Ament and his merry bunch of thieves that the Journal actually sat up and took notice.

In the priest scandal, they've been giving Archbishop Weakland a pass as to what he's done as to transferring these priests around because Weakland is also a liberal/socialist.

[appleton14]

I live in Milwaukee and you cannot possibly imagine what an absolute miracle this election was that Milwaukee County actually elected a conservative Republican over a liberal Democrat. You could not imagine how entrenched the Democrat Party is in Milwaukee and normally if a Republican runs, they might as will give their concession speech right away.

The mindset here is that the Democrats are for the "working people" -- and how the unions tell their members to vote is how they vote. Madison, aka the People's Republic of Madison is the same way. Well, the party of the working people has hiked up taxes so now Wisconsin is 3rd in the nation as to the amount of state income taxes we pay. There is a God, is all I can say about this election.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Lots of normally Dem voters are just fed up.

And as Jeff Wagner pointed out on the radio a little while ago, Milwaukee County sent out reassessment notices that landed in property owners' mailboxes over the weekend. Really bad timing for the tax and spend crowd! Very good timing for Scott Walker.

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

[steveegg]

We've got 2 years to change Neumann's mind, or at least find someone to retire Slimeroad.

[steveegg]

I might have said this before (in fact, I know I did), but since when did "moderate" include the following items:

• Wasting $1 billion on a light-rail system that (a) won't transport anything more than air and (b) won't even transport that 4 months of the year.
• 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.
• Extending health benefits to shackups, something that the very newspaper that labeled Ryan a "moderate" won't do for its own employees.

Even though the Journtinel was astute enough to realize that FU Ament was too much of an embarrassment to keep around, they still don't get it.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Only downside to this...Walker was THE MAIN proponent of voter i.d. in the Assembly, but I'm hoping as County Exec he'll be able to clean up the election process in Milwaukee...that could make a big difference in upcoming elections.

Amen! And if we get Vince Biscupic elected AG, perhaps he'll be willing to prosecute voter fraud!

[afraidfortherepublic]

I think you are talking about Karen Ordinans, Milwaukee County Board President. Let's use their full names and titles when they say or do something stupid. I hope she's recalled.

[afraidfortherepublic]

"We cannot allow this community to remain segregated, both financially and spiritually. I represent the voiceless, those who have never had a voice in government. Every 30 days, we will keep track of what did you do in 30 days."

Isn't the City of Milwaukee the most segregated city in Wisconsin?

Voiceless? Seems to me that there are numerous black supervisors and aldermen in Milwaukee City and County. dumas is also with the schools, and there are numerous representives of school interests at all levels in Milwaukee City and county.

Scott Walker should call this guy's bluff and publish his accompliments every 30 days. Just tick them right off one by one -- sort of like the Contract with America.

[cpprfld]

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.

That is kind of what I meant, the latest gossip, diet stories, and weather, is more important than to informing
to public, because these stories get bigger ratings than actual news. And to tell you the truth I don't believe the
news channels are at fault. I have always felt one of the biggest problems in todays society is apathy, people
don't care about current events and issues that affect them.

[afraidfortherepublic]

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.

Former Secretary of State, George Schultz astutely observed, "Democracy is not a spectator sport." (You can purchase a tie with that timeless quote on it at the Ronald Reagan library.)

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.

[WI Conservative 4 Bush]

Hmmm, not sure what the hubbub is all about regarding Belling. He laid out his reasons for making his prediction. He based it on historical voting patterns (61% for Gore, yikes). He clearly stated he did NOT WANT Ryan to win, he just honestly made a prediction. As he has done before, I'm sure Mark will come out today saying the obvious, that he was wrong.

The people who are trying to pit Sykes/Wagner vs. Belling are missing the point, IMO. All those guys have different personalities and methods, but they are all conservatives. Belling heavily supported Walker. Sykes/Wagner went the extra step by physically going out and drumming up the support for Walker.

At the end of the day, I don't see how people can say Sykes/Wagner are winners and Belling is a loser. We're all winners because of this vote, and Sykes/Wagner have a little more bragging rights due to their efforts.

My $.02