Henry Maier
Milwaukee Mayor 1960-1988
“While most chief executives of city governments acknowledge at least some responsibility for basic urban problems… Maier has simply declared that as far as he is concerned, they are … not the responsibility of city government. … By defining his office out of existence, Maier has not only made himself uniquely qualified to fill it, but nigh on indispensable.”
– Charlie Sykes, May 1986
“Such pathology … Such paranoiac bitterness … His power has long been essentially negative in nature.”
– Charlie Sykes, February 1985, in a column titled “Mayor Queeg”
“He prefers our system.”
– Visiting Soviet disc jockey Mikhail Taratuta, after meeting with Maier and hearing his complaints about the media, January 1987
“[Tony] Earl said he was never going to get [Maier’s] support for governor. Tony said that if my mouth was on fire, Henry wouldn’t piss in it to put it out.”
– Earl campaign aide Bill Bechtel, September 1987
“One of the first American politicians to call for a reordering of national priorities to confront urban problems.”
– Bruce Murphy, September 1987
“If Maier felt he’d lost control of a reporter, he would harass him mercilessly.”
– Bruce Murphy, September 1987
(Maier died in 1994.)
John Norquist
Milwaukee Mayor 1988-2003
“He has addressed a host of issues that his predecessor, Henry Maier, would have ignored – everything from local schools to transportation problems to arts programming to recreation in the Menomonee Valley.”
– Bruce Murphy, June, 1990
“Most politicians reward their friends and punish their enemies. But the mayor seems to be pushing this maxim to extremes.”
– Bruce Murphy, October 1990
“A lousy politician in the ways Tommy Thompson was a good one. … He had good ideas instead of good friends.”
– Tom Bamberger, October 2003
“It took [Maier] 24 years to become isolated and self-absorbed. John Norquist has done that in half the time.”
– Mary Van de Kamp Nohl, April 2001
“Norquist hadn’t seen urban landscape and architecture as an issue. … But over time, he learned from urban theorists … and helped developers increase Milwaukee’s value.”
– Tom Bamberger, August 2007
Tom Barrett
Milwaukee Mayor 2004-Present
“The lackadaisical Barrett may be ‘present and pleasant,’ but he doesn’t seem fully engaged.
– Mary Van de Kamp Nohl, September 2002
“Barrett’s Mr. Nice Guy persona is his strength and his weakness. He succeeds (where Norquist failed) at bringing rivals to the table but stumbles (where Norquist triumphed) at demanding results from inflexible players.”
–Kurt Chandler, July 2005
Tony Earl
Governor 1982-1986
“His record of restraining the growth of state government spending … [and] his massive income tax cut … would be the envy of any governor.”
– Charlie Sykes, September 1985
“If Ronald Reagan … is the Teflon president, then Tony Earl has become the Velcro governor. Bad news seems to stick to him.”
– Charlie Sykes, November 1985
“Another view held that … The Earl administration had worried too much about minorities, women, gays and big business and not enough about regular people who work and vote.”
– Earl policy advisor Hal Bergan, January 1987
(Earl was a partner with the Quarles & Brady law firm in Madison and is now retired.)
Tommy Thompson
Governor 1986-2001
“Now that he is safely in the governor’s chair, participles will be an endangered species, so often will they go undangled. No metaphor will go unmixed or negative undoubled, and the mind reels at the fate of adverbs.”
– Charlie Sykes, January 1987
“Time and again, his opponents have taken him too lightly. … He has proved an energetic, hard-working governor and enthusiastic state cheerleader.”
– Bruce Murphy, June 1989
“Thompson entered the governor’s mansion in 1987 with the faint air of a rube from Elroy, an arch-conservative who would slash spending. He leaves for Washington D.C. as a tax-loving empire builder, a masterful politician whose breathtakingly activist style might have left FDR weeping for joy.”
– Bruce Murphy, March 2001
(Thompson now serves on the boards of numerous corporations.)
Jim Doyle
Governor 2002-Present
“Bright, well-spoken … [with] a remarkable ability to make government seem as boring as watching paint dry.”
– Erik Gunn, October 2006
“Up close … much more charming than his gray public persona.”
– Mary Van de Kamp Nohl, Sept. 2002
“An old basketball player who has earned a reputation as a brutal, hard-nosed battler.’
– Erik Gunn, October 2006
Howard Fuller
Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent 1991-1995
Now a Marquette University professor, Fuller was also a community activist and held various administrative posts at both the state and county government levels.
“An eloquent orator and accomplished manipulator of the political system.”
– Bruce Murphy and John Pawasarat, September 1986
“Fuller continually has jarred the assumptions of both the black and white communities and made them rethink some of the most important issues facing the city.”
– Tom Bamberger, July 1988
“Fuller is everybody’s savior … whose charisma has become, all by itself, the tangible solution to our forever troubled public schools … [Yet] most citizens probably wouldn’t be able to name one accomplishment of the superintendent.”
– Bruce Murphy, February 1994
Robert Kasten
U.S. Senator 1980-1992
“No American politician has been more prominent in fighting the destruction of the Brazilian rain forest. … No tree-hugging environmentalist could have stated more eloquently … this issue.”
– Louis Barbash, February 1991
“It’s not easy to be as conservative as Kasten. It’s difficult to vote as often as he has for defense spending and yet maintain a reputation for tightfistedness.”
– Bruce Murphy, January 1992
“Even … after a 20-year political career, he says he thinks of himself as a small business man. He is strangely reluctant to admit he chose politics as his career.”
– Bruce Murphy, January 1992
“A tough, savvy campaigner who knew … how to savage an opponent.”
– Bruce Murphy, January 1992
(Kasten now runs Kasten & Company, a public relations, business and banking consultancy in the Washington D.C. area.)
Russ Feingold
U.S. Senator 1992-Present
“A former Rhodes scholar who has a law degree with honors from Harvard … known as the ‘Man with the Golden Resume.’”
– Charlie Sykes, March 1987
“State Sen. Feingold (1982-1992) balanced UW-styled intellectualism with the common touch.”
– Daniel Libit, February 2007
“With his opposition to pay raises for senators, his championing of campaign finance reform and his habit
of tooting his horn as the ‘poorest man in the Senate,’ [Feingold] was seen as a grandstander by some colleagues.”
– Daniel Libit, February 2007
Jim Sensenbrenner
Congressman 1979-Present
“Razor-edged bluntness … Sensenbrenner has fought abortion, gun control laws, the Equal Rights Amendment, trade quotas, the Legal Services Corporation and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.”
– Louis Barbash, April 1988
“An energetic, encyclopedic polymath … No shortage of ego and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.”
– Erik Gunn, April 2006
“Those who dislike Sensenbrenner, however, see a Hyde-like demon who abrasively wields power for extremist ends.”
– Erik Gunn, April 2006
Gwendolynne Moore
Congresswoman 2005-Present
Moorepreviously served as a state legislator, 1988-2005
“A force of nature. She’s loud. She’s funny. She slaps you five and does a little victory dance when she nails some political hypocrisy.”
– Joel McNally, January 1997
“Gwen yearns to be a crank-’em-out legislative technician. But where she’s really shined is as a public advocate for the things she believes in. … That’s not the same thing.”
– Gary George, January 1997.
E. Michael McCann
District Attorney 1968-2004
“McCann should have been turned out of office years ago. Instead, he is essentially politically impregnable [due to] … the virtually unanimous confidence in his integrity.”
– Louis Barbash, March 1990
“In recent years, the halo has begun to disappear from the Democrat’s image. … McCann has done little when citizens are fatally shot by police, he has been less than aggressive about sexual assaults of minors by priests, he failed to go after corrupt activities by prominent Democrats.”
– Bruce Murphy, August 2005
* * *
The Disgraced Politicians
In the span of a year, four Milwaukee politicians went down in disgrace, convicted of felonies and sent to federal prison for public corruption.
First to fall was Ald. Rosa Cameron, followed by her City Hall colleague, Paul Henningsen. Then came Ald. Jeff Pawlinski, who saw his political life flash before his eyes in January 2003 with a phone call from his lawyer, Steve Glynn:
“’They’re going to indict Paul Henningsen today. They’ve got him on some extortion charge … and something with campaign funds.’ Pawlinski went white. ‘Oh, f—, I’m dead,’” he said to himself. He knew he was next,” wrote Kurt Chandler (May 2005).
Later that year, state Sen. Gary Georgewas recalled by voters and indicted for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks. Weeks earlier, media tycoon Jerrel Jones had predicted his fate in an interview with Joel McNally (April 2004): “They’ve got enough shit to put Gary in jail. In fact, they’re gonna have to build a whole new prison around him. Taking that senator label off of him, that’s going to put him out there nekkid.”
All four politicians have served their time and have been released from prison.
* * *
The Image Consultants
“George Bush is the president of the United States and Dennis Frankenberry has become the new guru of negative advertising,” Tom Bamberger wrote in a February 1989 feature, “The 30-Second Campaign.” Two Milwaukeeans, Frankenberry and John Constable, created powerful ads, including the so-called “Willie Horton” ad, which suggested Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis had let criminals – particularly black inmates – go free. “Never before … have television ads sponsored by a major candidate lied so blatantly,” noted campaign analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson would declare. Frankenberry, who’d long had a troubled private life, would later commit suicide.
“Russ, Elvis And Me” (January 1993) told how ad man Steve Eichenbaum created the humorous ads that helped little-known state Sen. Russ Feingold to an upset U.S. Senate victory, first over Congressman Jim Moody and businessman Joe Checota in the Democratic primary, and then over Republican Bob Kasten. “[It] had to be the most whimsical Senate campaign in Wisconsin history,” Stephen Filmanowicz wrote. “No state candidate had ever tried showing up at his opponents’ homes with a video crew or ducking globs of mud-colored mash potatoes or showing a tabloid endorsement by Elvis.”
* * *
Worst Legislators
Charlie Sykes in 1986, Bruce Murphy in 1997, Mary Van de Kamp Nohl in 2003 – you could hardly find three more different writers to rate the best and worst legislators. Yet five current legislators made the 10 worst list at least twice.
Sen. Alan Lasee(R-DePere) did the impossible, getting chosen in all three surveys. “Has probably gotten less done than anyone I’ve ever seen,” a longtime GOP legislator said in 1997.
Sen. Dale Schultz(R-Richland Center), chosen in 1986 (when he was a representative) and 2003 as a senator. “Given to pointless filibusters that serve purposes known only to himself,” Sykes wrote in 1986.
Sen. Roger Breske(D-Eland), chosen in 1997 and 2003. “No one would argue that Roger Breske has an impact on state policy,” Murphy wrote in 1997.
Rep. Leon Young(D-Milwaukee), chosen in 1997 and 2003: “He’s nothing,” said one legislator in 1997. “I don’t think he’s there half the time,” said another.
Rep. Carol Owens(R-Oshkosh), chosen in 1997 and 2003: “Supporters say she likes to ‘meditate’ while the assembly is in session,” Nohl wrote in 2003, “but that doesn’t explain the snoring.”
* * *
Campaign Timeline
1983
Democrat Tony Earl takes office as governor after an easy victory.
“Republicans are now in danger of becoming a political afterthought,” party activist Richard Klein writes, February 1983.
April 1984
Henry Maier re-elected over token opposition, and will step down in 1988 after a record 28 years as Milwaukee Mayor.
November 1986
Earl dubbed “Tony the Taxer,” defeated by Republican Tommy Thompson.
Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Kasten defeats Democratic challenger Ed Garvey, “an unreconstructed, non-neo big-’L’ Liberal, a group that reportedly now shares an office and receptionist with the Flat Earth Society,” Charlie Sykes writes, February 1986.
April 1988
Marty Schreiber defeated by John Norquist in the race for mayor. “[Dennis Conta’s] early withdrawal turns this into a two-man race lasting more than five months,” Bruce Murphy writes in February 1988, “and I don’t think Schreiber … can stand up to the scrutiny of the electorate for half a year.”
November 1988
Democrat William Proxmire retires after 31 years as U.S. Senator. “He has made public parsimony and devotion to duty a sort of private civil religion,” writes Louis Barbash, November 1987.
Businessman Herb Kohl spends $5 million to get elected U.S. Senator. “His positions are as close to the center of the Wisconsin Democratic mainstream as though he’d placed them with a plumb line,” Barbash writes, October 1988.
November 1990
Thompson re-elected over Democratic challenger Tom Loftus. “Loftus may prove more witty or urbane than Thompson, but it won’t matter if he seems to care less about the state,” Murphy writes in August 1990. “There are moments when it seems like he’d rather be glib than governor.”
November 1992
Challenger Russ Feingold defeats U.S. Sen. Bob Kasten.
November 1994
Thompson re-elected and Republicans take over both houses of the legislature. “The party is at its weakest point in decades,” writes Murphy in September 1994, “facing the very real possibility of a Republican takeover of the entire legislature, something that hasn’t happened in 25 years.”
April 1996
Norquist re-elected over his challenger, Sheriff Richard Artison. “Perhaps no political challenger in recent Wisconsin history has campaigned in such a leisurely … fashion as Richard Artison,” Murphy writes in March 1996.
November 1998
Feingold re-elected to the U.S. Senate over challenger Mark Neumann. “Democratic insiders worry that Feingold is vulnerable,” Murphy writes in May 1998, “but I can imagine only one result: Feingold will win handily.”
Gov. Tommy Thompson defeats challenger Ed Garvey. “For many Democratic activists, Thompson continues to look so unbeatable that they’re focusing energies elsewhere,” writes Erik Gunn in September 1998.
April 2000
Norquist re-elected over challenger George Watts. “Watts is … handicapped by the political inexperience he claims as a virtue and hamstrung by his inability to raise sufficient campaign contributions,” writes Mary Van de Kamp Nohl in March 2000.
January 2001
Lt. Gov. Scott McCallum succeeds Gov. Tommy Thompson, who steps down to take a position in the cabinet of President George W. Bush.
April 2002
After being accused of sexual harassment by his former aide, Marilyn Figueroa, Norquist settles the case, agreeing to pay her $375,000. “[It] could conceivably put Norquist on Court TV to discuss his taste for apples and office sex,” writes Nohl, April 2001.
November 2002
Democrat Jim Doyle defeats Republican Gov. McCallum. “A McCallum victory,” writes Ken Lamke in September 2002, “[is] an improbable prospect.”
2003
Norquist resigns as Milwaukee mayor to take a job in Chicago with the Congress for the New Urbanism.
2004
Tom Barrett elected over Marvin Pratt, the city’s first African-American mayor.
2006
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle defeats Republican Congressman Mark Green.
U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl re-elected for the third time over weak opposition.
