On December 3 incumbent Racine Mayor John Dickert officially launched his 2011 reelection campaign. Dickert is currently serving in his first term as Mayor of Racine, after winning a special election in May 2009 following the resignation of disgraced former Mayor Gary Becker following his arrest for sex crimes. In announcing his reelection campaign, Dickert issued a statement highlighting his accomplishments as Mayor of Racine:
“18 months ago, we faced seemingly insurmountable challenges as a city and a community,” Dickert said at the event. “But through our hard work we are rebuilding Racine, together. We’ve lowered the city’s unemployment rate by five percent, turned drug houses into family homes and partnered with our local police force in tackling gangs. I look forward to working with you to continue moving Racine forward.”
Thus far I haven’t seen anyone announce they’ll be challenging Dickert, but I’d be shocked if he didn’t have any opposition as he seeks his first full term in office.
For more information on John Dickert, you can visit his website or visit the campaign on on Facebook.
There are several high profile folks, including a couple elected and former elected officials who are seriously looking at running. Dickert will have a strong challenger since of his disastrous mismanagement of Racine and the fact he has gone to war with the unions, both public and private. Scott Walker must have been taking notes when he decided to go after AFSCME.
I don’t typically follow Racine politics very closely, but it will be interesting to see how the field shakes out.
Dickert is Republican in Democrat’s clothing. He is anti-union and always manages to pull the plug on new local jobs. He is no friend to city workers, I can tell you that.