Shepherd Express: The Incredible Disappearing County Executive

Earlier this week the Shepherd Express posted a piece outlining how incredibly low a profile Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has kept as he gears up for a tough reelection campaign against Democratic State Senator Chris Larson.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has certainly been keeping a low profile as he runs for re-election.

Unlike his predecessors, Abele has refused to meet with the county board of supervisors and answer detailed questions from them about his proposed budget. He sent his aides instead and asked to hold 17 private meetings with individual supervisors behind closed doors, shutting out the public from their discussions.

Then, last Thursday, he was a no-show at Milwaukee Inner-City Churches Allied for Hope’s (MICAH) annual public meeting, although he’d accepted their invitation. He apparently canceled a few hours before the event because he didn’t like the questions he would be asked about his plans for taking over public schools in Milwaukee and privatizing them. The tough questions didn’t scare off his opponents next spring, state Sen. Chris Larson and Pirate Party candidate Joe Klein, who clearly answered the questions. Similarly, Abele hasn’t committed to holding public meetings on the appointment of his new school commissioner, which will happen by mid-November.

In contrast to Abele keeping a low profile, Chris Larson has been doing what he does best – retail politics. Larson has been out in the community and has shown he’s unafraid to engage average, everyday citizens of Milwaukee County.

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2 thoughts on “Shepherd Express: The Incredible Disappearing County Executive

  1. I am not so sure that he has disappeared. Although he hasn’t been as high profile, I have seen his video ad three times on YouTube when trying to watch music videos and the same ad popped up on my Facebook timeline as well. So he is running an actual campaign.

    1. Anyone can run ads….ads are safe, but I think the point of the ShepExpress article is that he’s keeping a low profile when it comes to actually engaging people in dialogue.

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