Tag: Bruce Murphy

About a month ago I wondered out loud when we would be able stop saying the first (*) to get elected (*) or the first (*) be become (*)…but I knew at the time that we were a long way from there. So today’s article by Bruce Murphy at Urban…

I thought I was done with the County Executive Race until the April general election. And I know I promised that I wasn’t going to post anything more about signatures or nomination papers…unless…there was some big new news. And…unfortunately, there is! Today Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported…

I have to call out bullshit on this one. Two Republican members of the state legislature in Madison resigned their seats in December to take positions in the Walker administration. The governor has not called for special elections to fill those vacant seats, because it would be too expensive and…

In yet another case of Wisconsin’s Republicans proposing a “solution” to a problem that doesn’t exist, Republican State Sen. Roger Roth and State Rep. Jim Steineke (pictured, left) have proposed drastic changes to Wisconsin’s civil service laws, which were implemented 110 years ago as a way of removing political partisanship…

Earlier this week I highlighted comedian John Oliver’s takedown of the racket that is publicly financed sports stadiums, and yesterday Bruce Murphy of Urban Milwaukee outlined why a fancy entertainment district around the new Bucks arena may end up failing. The bad news is that all of this development is…

I’m going to post this without comment for you all to read, digest, and discuss, because it seems like something worth discussing. Few county officials were more adroit at milking the taxpayers than Tom Zablocki. Zablocki served as county clerk for 20 years, from 1968 to 1988. During his last…

As reported by Bruce Murphy of Urban Milwaukee, a source has indicated an internet/email system was in place in Gov. Walker’s gubernatorial offices to allow his staff to do “off the books” campaign work on government time. Such a system would be remarkably similar (if not identical) to a system…

This is worth a read… If you’re a numbers-crunching fiscal conservative like Abele, one obvious place to look for cuts is the Sheriff’s Department. In the decade prior to Abele’s election, the sheriff’s  budget had risen 61 percent, far faster than any other county department. It was something of a…

On Monday I shared my thoughts about the size of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors in an entry that provoked a lively discussion about the merits and drawbacks of downsizing the County Board from the current number of supervisors (18) to some smaller number. At the time, I noted…

Last week I wrote about Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele’s decision to fire County Parks Director Sue Black, and at the time it seemed more than a little curious that no concrete reason was given for Black’s termination. It’s notable that Black’s termination came only months after she was reappointed…