I don’t know Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton well enough to know if he would make a good mayor or not. But I think it is a shame that he feels the need to bow out…I think he would provide a new voice in a mayoral race and would help bring new ideas about what we expect the future of Milwaukee to be. But here’s what he had to say:
“I’m not running for mayor, and I am running for re-election,” Hamilton said Thursday morning in a text message.
Hamilton followed that up with a longer statement saying he had hoped to raise the “very real issues around poverty and inequities that shape campaign platforms on public safety, economic development and even education.”
“However, mounting a credible campaign takes resources,” Hamilton said in the statement. “And I have not been able to reach those goals.”
The veteran alderman said he is not endorsing any of the remaining candidates.
I imagine he is being genuine in his issue about raising enough resources to run a credible campaign. And although he hasn’t announced his candidacy, Mayor Tom Barrett is sitting on a considerable war chest.
I really hope that Mr. Hamilton isn’t stepping aside for State Senator Lena Taylor…I have no confidence in here ability to run the city…but:
“Lena forced his hand,” said a City Hall source.
Sources confirmed Hamilton and Taylor did meet “numerous times” to discuss the impact they would have on their chances if both ran for mayor.
But Hamilton allies quickly rejected that talk.
I am looking forward to an active mayoral campaign…but I don’t think the two announced candidates, Sen. Taylor and Alderman Tony Zielinski, are the ones to make it that interesting…in a substantive sort of way.
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