No Fighting Allowed

On April 6, voters could change the shape of their local governments. They will elect mayors in Waukesha, Brookfield, Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Mequon, Pewaukee, Oconomowoc, Delafield and Hartford. Voters also will choose eight Circuit Court judges in Milwaukee County and every supervisor on the Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha county boards, some 86 candidates in all.

But as with all spring elections, turnout will be embarrassingly low and media coverage negligible. In April 2008, a dismal 27 percent of registered voters in Milwaukee cast ballots for mayor and Common Council, county executive and county board. By comparison, there was an 80 percent turnout in the fall 2008 election.

True, fall elections usually have higher-profile races – for governor, senator or even president. But they are also partisan contests, pitting Republican against Democrat. Spring elections are all nonpartisan, which makes them grayer and less grabby.

Wisconsin elections didn’t always work this way. The change came after the historic partisan election of 1910, when Milwaukee elected Socialist Emil Seidel mayor and picked Socialists for the majority of seats on the Common Council and county board. An upstart third party, the Socialists crushed the two major parties.

In reaction, the Republican and Democratic parties backed “fusion” candidate Gerhard Bading, who unseated Seidel in 1912. To further marginalize the Socialists, the two-party elite passed a law turning spring elections statewide into nonpartisan contests, a deliberate move to leave voters less informed about the candidates and the causes at issue.

Nearly 100 years later, spring elections are still ruled by this arcane law. They remain nonpartisan – and far less interesting.

It needn’t be that way. Voters do care about their local representatives. Races for governor or senator may be more glamorous, but a race for alderperson or mayor is far more immediate. Typically, citizens call their local officials first, even about issues that really relate to state or federal government.

But the absence of party labels makes local elections more confusing to voters, says Mordecai Lee, professor of governmental affairs at UW-Milwaukee. “The problem with nonpartisan elections is, you can’t tell who’s in charge,” he says. “I want to know if my alderman is part of the ruling coalition or opposition. … If, say, I’m unhappy with the record of the Democrats, I will vote for the Republican candidate for that office next time. That’s accountability at its most basic.”

Even at the local level, Democrats and Republicans have sharply different views on the role of government and taxation. Nonpartisan races obscure these distinctions.

Nonpartisan elections also tend to produce a smaller, more lackluster pool of candidates. A lack of strong challengers helped create the long incumbencies of Milwaukee mayors (Frank Zeidler, 12 years; Henry Maier, 28 years; John Norquist, 16 years) and Milwaukee County executives (John Doyne, 16 years; Bill O’Donnell, 12 years, Tom Ament, 10 years). With the potential backing of a party, more challengers will be emboldened to run.

Not every state follows Wisconsin’s model. A 2001 survey by the National League of Cities found 23 percent of the nation’s largest cities have partisan elections, while 77 percent are nonpartisan.

“But it’s nonpartisan often in name only,” says Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa who’s written about municipal elections. Increasingly, “the parties have stepped into the nonpartisan waters.”

In Milwaukee County, leaders of both parties say they’ve been more active in this spring’s contests. “That’s been a pattern across the country,” MacManus says.
Sachin Chheda was named chairman of Milwaukee County’s Democratic Party last fall after pledging more party involvement in local races. This spring, his party is campaigning door-to-door, doing mailings and endorsing candidates in most races. “This is new for us,” Chheda says. “A vast majority of voters do choose one party the vast majority of the time. It’s a shorthand that voters do use.”

Still, many voters may remain unaware of this behind-the-scenes partisanship. Why not bring it out in the open?

Some oppose this idea. Larry Nelson was a surprise winner in the race for Waukesha mayor four years ago, despite making no secret he was a Democrat in a city where 54 percent of voters went for Republican John McCain in 2008. Now Nelson, facing re-election, has changed his tune and is downplaying party affiliation. “I feel strongly that local races should continue to be nonpartisan,” he says. “It forces voters to look at who the [candidates] are, their involvement in the community, what their stands are on issues.”

Don Taylor, chairman of Waukesha County’s Republican Party since 1979, doesn’t want change, either. “It just adds to the divisiveness,” he says. “Partisan races tend to become highly excitable.”

But maybe our elections need to be a little more excitable. It’s a brand-new century. The Socialists are long gone. Maybe, after 100 years of spring slumbers, we can risk a little change.