Because of the abbreviated amount of time left by Chris Abele when he suddenly abandoned his bid for reelection, the people who decided to throw their hats in the ring really needed to scramble to develop a base, raise money, get nomination signatures, etc.
The candidates also had to immediately try to differentiate themselves from the others and grab people's attention and their support. This led to a flurry of press releases and statements that each candidate was the only one to do this, the only candidate to be that, the only candidate that could rub their belly and pat their head at the same time, etc. Most of these "only I" statements were exaggerations, irrelevant to the job they were applying for or just plain false, meaning that they were indeed not the only one to fit whatever given boast.
But one candidate, Chris Larson, stands out because he is the "only one" in many regards.
Larson is the only one to have both experience in Milwaukee County as a county board supervisor and in the state as a state senator. That is a valuable amount of knowledge on how both governments work and how to bridge the great divide between Milwaukee and Madison.
Larson is the only one to consistently take on Scott Walker and his mini-me, Chris Abele. Larson fought to stop or at least minimize the damage done by Walker both as county executive and as governor. Not the least of these was leading thirteen other state senators, the Fab 14, out of the state to give the people the chance to understand what Walker wanted to do with Act 10 and to organize and fight back. Larson has also been a strong and consistent advocate for a living wage and workers right. Recently, he held a press conference announcing the introduction of restoring workers rights lost under Act 10. Granted, nothing will probably come from it now, but at least someone was willing to get the conversation started.
Likewise, Larson was the only one willing to stand up to Boss Abele in 2016 and challenge him because Abele was only trying to finish the job Walker started in destroying Milwaukee County and giving it away to the rich. In fact, Larson beat Abele in the primary, even though Abele spent $42 per vote against Larson's $2 per vote.
Abele only won the general election that year after dropping a multimillion dollar money bomb on his campaign and getting a lot of help from the Republicans.
Larson is the only candidate to have viable, doable plans to address some of Milwaukee County's greatest woes, including the lack of dedicated funding for our transit system and parks system, addressing the needs of our senior citizens, our homeless and our mentally ill. He does not offer just general, vague statements on what he is going to do but is ready to implement these plans. He is also not offering any pie in the sky nonsense, such as "we'll just ask the Republicans for more money." He understands full well the animosity the Republicans have towards Milwaukee, a lot of which has to do with their racism and the fact that Milwaukee is home to the largest African American community in the state.
These are just some of the reasons that Larson is the only candidate to earn more endorsements than all of the other candidates combined, including all of the unions.
Well, he can add one more endorsement to that list - mine.
I am happy and proud to stand with Larson, just as I did in 2016, and just as he has stood with us for all these years.
Please join me in supporting Chris Larson for County Executive, donate what you can and most importantly, join me in casting a vote for Larson tomorrow and again in April.
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