Tuesday's Biggest Loser Wasn't Even A Candidate

Tuesday's primary is finally over and the people have chosen their champions that they want to represent them in November's general election.  Some of the primary races ended up in routs while others were painfully close.

But the biggest loser on Tuesday wasn't even a candidate.

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris "Boss" Abele wanted to expand his "sphere of influence" by running a couple of hand-picked candidates and investing heavily into another.  But instead of gaining more power like he wanted, Abele went 0 for 3.

In Assembly District 19, Abele chose Dan Adams to be his representative of the Abele Party.  For whatever reason, Abele and Adams thought it would be a good idea to run an anti-union, pro-poverty campaign in a very progressive district.  To make matters worse, they also thought it would be a good idea to launch a series of highly negative and immature attacks against the two favored candidates, Marina Dimitrijevic and Jonathan Brostoff.

Brostoff managed to eke a victory over Dimitrijevic, winning by a couple of hundred votes.  Adams came in a distant third.

Likewise, in Assembly District 10, Abele chose to run his own staffer turned campaign manager, Tia Torhorst against Milwaukee County Supervisor David Bowen.  Torhorst wasn't much better than Adams, getting caught in lies and boasting of her support for her support for Act 14, which reduced the amount of representative government in Milwaukee County.

Torhorst came in second in this race, but got less than half the votes that Bowen did.

As bad as it was that Abele tried to buy these two elections - and failing miserably - that wasn't the worst of it.

Abele, who has had a longstanding feud with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, decided to intervene in this race by dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Clarke's opponent, Chris Moews.  Abele had the local airwaves flooded with ads filled with flimsy talking points and misleading attacks.

Instead of helping Moews, all he did was rile up Clarke's base so much that numerous Republicans chose to cross over and vote on the Democratic side in order to support Clarke.

Moews ended up losing by about 4,000 votes, sticking Milwaukee County with another four years of a loud-mouthed, ineffective and incompetent fool for a sheriff.

Abele's problems don't end with losing three races that he had invested in so heavily..

In his power grab attempt, Abele has burned a lot of bridges behind him.

Not only has Abele attacked fellow Democrats, but he has gone as far as supporting some of the most rabid Teapublicans over good Democrats, just in an effort to get his way.  As one might expect, this has made a lot of people angry and leery of him.  And this doesn't mention the other groups that he has alienated over the course of the last year or two, including veterans, park lovers, art lovers and the unions, to name just a few.

Abele has painted himself into a corner that he doesn't want to be in with his own reelection coming up in a year and a half.

That said, it's nice to see Abele screwing himself instead of everyone else for a change.  And he's doing it like a boss.

Dan Adams Embraces His Inner Republican

A picture really does say a thousand words.

Dan Adams, the hand-picked candidate for the Abele Party in the AD 19 race, has been complaining that people keep asking if he was really a Democrat and not just a Republican in disguise, like Sheriff David Clarke.

I totally get where he is coming from.  Just because he supports school choice, is anti-union and has meet and greets hosted by Republicans, there is no reason to think he is a Republican.

Well, on the day before the primary election, it seems Adams has chosen to embrace his inner Republican.

On Monday morning, he was running an ad on WTMJ radio, boasting that he is the "only fiscal conservative" (read plutocratic pawn) and was proud to support the diminishing of representative government in Milwaukee County.

On Monday afternoon, he was running ads on Mark Belling's show on WISN, saying that since there is no Republican in the race, conservatives should just vote for him.

Apparently he is hoping to cash in on all the Republicans that are going to cross over to vote for David Clarke.  It's too bad that Republicans make up less than 15% of the entire district.  Even if all of them crossed over and voted for him, it wouldn't be enough to help him.

I just wonder how his boss, Boss Abele, feels about his hand-picked candidate schmoozing up to David Clarke, whom Abele hates most of all - after Marina Dimitrijevic, that is.

Methinks that Adams is about to find out the hard way what a Boss Abele tantrum looks like.

Dan Adams Just Doesn't Want To Win

A week ago, I reported that Dan Adams, Boss Abele's hand-picked candidate for Assembly District 19 had given up on trying to win the election and took on a spoiler role.  To help him do that, Boss Abele and his friends in the Greater Milwaukee Committee had their badly misnamed front group, Forward Milwaukee County, send out an amateurish flier attacking both Marina Dimitrijevic and Jonathan Brostoff.

This past weekend, the Abele struck again with another sophomoric flier.  This time, it portrayed Dimitrijevic

Boss Abele from
Dan Adams point of view

and Brostoff as two thirds of the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys.

It was enough to finally get the attention of the local corporate media, who did their usual spin of false equivalency to minimize the way these stunts make Abele and Adams come off as the buffoons they really are.

But that wasn't apparently enough for Adams.  When the paper contacted him, he actually had the nerve to say this:

The Milwaukee Police Association, a labor group, endorsed Adams, who has spoken out against unions. Abele endorsed him and gave him $500, the maximum you can give to an Assembly candidate.

"Time after time, Big Labor creates their own circular firing squad," Adams said. "With these large shadow money expenditures for Geenen and Dimitrijevic, the union bosses are showing their feeling of entitlement to purchasing the 19th District."

Alrighty then!

Again, I must point out that Abele has done much more than given Adams $500. Boss Abele has held at least four fundraisers for Adams. Boss Abele has also shared office space and staff.

If there is a candidate that is being propped up by special interests looking to buy this election, that person would be Adams.

Heck, Adams has even told people that Abele wanted him to run for the sole purpose of expanding his "sphere of influence."

What is as equally eye-popping is just how out of touch the Abele/Adams campaign is with that district.  AD 19 is one of the most progressive districts in the state.  They are not going to support a candidate that is nothing more than a moderate Republican working at the whim of a power-hungry plutocrat.

Is Dan Adams Really A Republican?

People have been asking Dan Abele Adams, the Abele Party candidate for Assembly District 19, is really a Democrat or if he is a Republican pretending he's a Democrat.  The confusion is understandable, considering that Adams has repeatedly come out for Republican issues such as school choice, anti-worker rights, anti-representative government and pro-privatization of public services.

Of course, Adams has been denying any relationship with the Republicans.

But then perhaps Adams might want to explain this letter:

For those that might not remember, Betty Jo Nelsen was the Republican Assemblywoman from the Shorewood area until Alberta Darling took the seat.  Nelsen was no do nothing Republican but also served as the Assembly Minority Leader for a number of years as well.

Likewise, Polly Beal is a former Republican Assemblywoman until she lost to the Democrat Sheldon Wasserman.

To paraphrase the old saw, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and hangs around with other ducks, it's probably a duck.  

If Adams is wondering why people wonder if he is like David Clarke or Chris Abele - a Republican running as a Democrat - he might want to take a hard, honest look at himself.

Dan Adams Makes Last Minute Change To Campaign Strategy

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele convinced Dan Adams (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abele Party) to run for the Assembly District 19 seat, which was opened up when Jon Richards chose to run for Attorney General.  Abele wanted to increase his "sphere of influence" in Madison, because the Teapublicans he was paying off just wasn't enough.

Adams and Abele
So happy smearing together

Adams started running his campaign with a platform of being against potholes and for buy-partisanship.
 Predictably, that agenda did not go over well in one of the most progressive areas of the state.

So the Abele/Adams campaign decided to change their strategy from winning the race to running a "anyone but Marina Dimitrijevic" smear job.

It started a couple of weeks ago when a "concerned citizen" supposedly did an open records request and found that Dimitrijevic didn't use the courthouse parking lot very much.  This "concerned citizen" then leaked this information to members of the corporate media, like Dan Bice and Charlie Sykes, who exclaimed that this showed she wasn't working hard enough!

Of course, this was nonsense. Being a county supervisor is hardly a 9-5 office job.  Dimitrijevic is well known for being in the community a lot, holding hundreds of town hall meetings and attending numerous events.  Also, Dimitrijevic is known for being a big supporter of the transit system and often rides the bus.  For people to jump to such silly conclusions without doing basic research is simply irresponsible.

But there's more.  There's always more.

It turns out that the "concerned citizen," Joe Trawitzki, didn't actually do the open records request.  That was done by Attorney Sam Hall, who is a supporter of Adams.

So not only Adams tried to smear Dimitrijevic, he also tried to cover up his role in the dirty deed.

A few days later, Bruce Murphy of the blog Urban Milwaukee, who has been a long time fan of all things Abele, launched a screed against Dimitrijevic, accusing her of "sheer ambition."  Although it's hard to tell what Murphy is angry about, it appears that he is upset because she would leave her job as a county supervisor if she wins the election.  Murphy apparently wasn't aware of this and took away one of his attack points, although he sure tried to use it anyway.

I must add that I am disappointed in Murphy's choice of words.  All too often, when a woman politician seeks higher office, people use words like "sheer ambition," which they never would use for a man doing the same thing.  Then again, this isn't the first time that Team Abele has shown misogyny towards Dimitrijevic.  His mouthpiece, Brendan Conway, referred to Dimitrijevic as a "mean girl," something for which Abele's office still needs to apologize.  Abele also attacked Dimitrijevic, saying she was only concerned about not getting paid as much.  He did this on Equal Pay Day, an event to draw attention to the fact that women don't get paid as much as men.

The Abele Party's attack on Dimitrijevic when used the Greater Milwaukee Committee's PAC, Forward Milwaukee County, to send out this ridiculous flier:

There is so much wrong with this flier, it's hard to know where to begin.  Heck, it's difficult to just get past the immaturity and poor quality of the flier.

They obviously are so desperate to keep Dimitrijevic and couldn't find suitable headlines to support their baseless attacks that they had to make up their own headlines and cherry pick the quotes used.

I have no clue as to why they chose to add Jonathan Brostoff to be a victim of their pettiness.  Brostoff hasn't been with the county for years and even when he was a county worker, he was a legislative aide to Chris Larson, and never an elected official.

I should also note that Forward Milwaukee County has had done Abele's bidding before, even if it meant breaking the law and sending emails to county workers and officials at their county email addresses, telling them out to vote on the red herring referendum last spring.

All of this negativity, immaturity, misogyny and out right lying show that neither Adams nor Abele or really fit for public office.

That said, I also want to congratulate Dimitrijevic and her two other opponents, Brostoff and Sara Geenen, for running positive campaigns focused on their own qualifications and agendas and not responding to the mud being flung by the Abele/Adams campaign.

At least Abele has dropped the fallacious line about this not being personal.  It's obviously very personal for him.

That is why, while I am supporting Dimitrijevic in this race, I won't be disappointed if either Brostoff or Geenen would win.

Abele Takes A (Web)Page From Walker's Play Book

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele wants to expand his "sphere of influence." To do so, he has been buying off what politicians he can and if one is not for sale, he is running his own hand-picked candidates like Dan Abele Adams,  

However, Abele wants Adams to win not just to gain another sockpuppet in Madison but also to keep Milwaukee County Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic out (but remember, it's not personal).  Unfortunately for the Abele Party, Adams isn't doing very well.  He isn't performing well in the debates.  To add to their woes, polling done by the conservative/Greater Milwaukee Committee/Abele Party front group, Forward Milwaukee County, must not have produced the numbers they were looking for.

Abele, realizing just how bad his numbers are, and with two years to go before he is up for reelection, has taken a page out of Scott Walker's playbook - namely, using county property for political purposes.

Abele recently had his county emperor web page updated.  The new web page doesn't have a simple mission statement or helpful information like most county executive web pages do.  Instead, Abele's county web page reads more like the bio page of a political campaign site.

Not only is Abele's web page highly politicized, it is chock full of factual errors and a few grammatical mistakes as well.

As an example of how politicized the page is, looked at this line:

As a lifelong Democrat, Abele is proud to support Democrats across the state and country, but he is also proud to reach beyond political labels and across the aisle to achieve the outcomes that serve the people of Milwaukee County. As County Executive, he’s used his platform to try and bring civility back to politics by asking decision makers to set their differences aside and focus on getting things done.

Also note the irony of that paragraph.  Apparently, he considers trying to frame county supervisors and running smear attacks against the board in general and some members in specific as being "civil."

Abele then uses his county campaign page to promote what he considers to be his two greatest "accomplishments."

One is the privatization of the mental health system.  He boasts that he has taken politics out of the system while omitting the fact that the board consists of his own political appointees who were fired from the county in disgrace.

What Abele did take out of the mental health system is the public.  Although the newly created board of political appointees overseeing the privatization of the system has public meetings, the public is not allowed to have any input into it. 

We'll see how long that lasts.

The other thing that Abele thinks is a great selling point for himself is Act 14, the law he had drafted by a silk stocking law firm and rammed through by State Representative Joe Sanfelippo, in order to eviscerate the county board and concentrate power in Abele's hands.  This way, he didn't have to worry about the will of the people getting in the way because of the quaint idea of representative government.

It must have been a shock to his system when he finally realized that the people weren't welcoming as Dear Leader and were willing to give up to their independence to his obvious superiority.  Obviously he was the Wise One because he had all that money that his daddy gave him.  Even if Abele didn't live up to his father's expectations, he was still better than a mere lay person.

Perhaps if Abele corrected the errata in this piece and put it on his campaign page where it belongs, he might be able to convince one or two people that he is a good guy.  But as it is, it is only a confusing and misleading bit of propaganda at a place it does not belong and not helpful to anyone, even himself.

Endorsement: Marina Dimitrijevic For Assembly District 19

It was apparent from the beginning that the race for Assembly District 19, which became an open seat as Jon Richards set off to run for Attorney General, would be a most interesting race.  There are four Democrats, three of which would make wonderful representatives for that district.

During the past several weeks, I have been tracking the race and watching how the candidates fared.

Marina Dimitrijevic

By and far, Dimitrijevic was the candidate to beat throughout the race.  She entered the race early with an established campaign machine and was easily the most recognizable name due to her ten years on the Milwaukee County Board and currently the Chairwoman of that entity.  I did an interview with her at the end of last year, which you can read here.

Marina Dimitrijevic

She also started out with a very impressive list of endorsements.  On the political side, she was quickly endorsed by U.S. Representative Gwen Moore, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Former Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton and Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski, to name just a few.  Likewise, Dimitrijevic also picked up the endorsements of most of the major unions including AFSCME, SEIU, the nurses' union, the sheriff's deputies, AFT, ATU and a number of others.

Recently, Dimitrijevic has also earned the support of Clean Wisconsin Action, Wisconsin Progress and the Wisconsin Gazette.

Dimitrijevic has run a good solid campaign, doing a lot of doors and a lot of phone banking.  Most notably, she has ran a positive campaign, focusing on her own achievements and what she brings to the table when she is elected.

Jonathan Brostoff

I also did an interview with Jonathan Brostoff at the end of last year.  Brostoff is the candidate that presents the largest challenge to Dimitrijevic.  He is an experienced campaigner, although this is his first go at it as the candidate.

Brostoff has many political connections, which reflects in his list of endorsements.  The politicians that are supporting Brostoff aren't quite the heavy hitters that Dimitrijevic has behind her, but are not to be taken lightly either.  That said, I do have to wonder how many of those endorsements have to do with the fact that Brostoff's boss is State Senator Chris Larson, who is also the minority leader of the Senate.  One thing missing from Brostoff's list of endorsements is any from unions or community groups.

Brostoff has been busting his tail, and probably more than a few pairs of shoes, doing doors in all sorts of weather.  Brostoff has also been very creative in his fundraising events, which have ranged from a "salsa social" to a karaoke event to laser tag.

Sadly, Brostoff, who had been running a positive campaign, has gone negative against Dimitrijevic, accusing her of supporting the whackadoodle Sheriff David Clarke.  What he is referencing is the Milwaukee County Board's action of restoring scores of deputy sheriff positions which Chris Abele had cut in this year's budget, thereby restoring good paying jobs for some of the county's finest men and women and maintaining public safety.

Sara Geenen

Sara Geenen was the first to announce her candidacy for this race.  Geenen is a labor lawyer for the Previant Law Firm and volunteers with the Milwaukee Public School System. I also had the opportunity to interview her at the end of last year, which can be read here.

Geenen is a very intelligent woman and would be a great asset to the fight against the many repressive and oppressive measures that have been and will be introduced by the Republicans.  Unfortunately for her, Geenen does not have the money or name recognition of Dimitrijevic or Brostoff.  She has not gained any political endorsements but does have the support of some private sector unions which are very passionate about her candidacy.

While I don't think Geenen will win this race, I hope she continues to stay in politics and runs again for another seat in the future.

Dan Adams

Dan Abele Adams is not as much as Democratic candidate as he is one for the Abele Party.  I have noted before that Adams and Chris Abele are very close.  Abele has held no less than four fundraisers for Adams and has given Adams a lot of support, both directly and indirectly.

Outside of Abele, Adams has not gained any significant endorsements and for good reason.

Adams has come out in favor of voucher schools and stated that he supports parts of Act 10.  Based on the two videos that he was able to produce, thanks to Abele's largesse, we do know that he is strongly opposed to potholes.and very much in favor of buy-partisanship.  He has shown himself to be the true plutocratic sock puppet by endorsing anything and everything that benefits the one 1% as well as things that would harm our most vulnerable citizens.

Judging from the word on the street, I don't want to say that Adams is doing poorly in this race, but if it weren't for Abele's money, he would have already given his concession speech.

Endorsement

As I had noted in the interviews that I had done last year, I was not sure who I would endorse in this race or if I would even endorse anyone.  Even now, I feel that Dimitrijevic, Brostoff and Geenen would make a good representative for the people in AD 19.

That said, it is undeniable that Dimitrijevic's long history of supporting unions, marriage equality, women's rights, voter's rights, accessible health care for all, the environment and sustainable energy gives her a hand up on the other candidates.  Add to that the fact that she is very familiar with how the likes of Scott Walker operates and has a proven track record on countering his malfeasance and has run a very positive campaign also gives her the edge of being the best candidate for the people of AD 19.

It is for these reasons, and many others, that I have proud to endorse Marina Dimitrijevic.

To learn more about Dimitrijevic, please visit her website and her Facebook page.  And if you are able to donate, please do so, because even though she is the best candidate, she still has to deal with all of the money that Abele is pouring into this race and attacking her on multiple levels.

QOTD: AD 19

Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express has written an overview of the primary races coming up in August.  Her recap of the primary for Assembly District 19 is just about perfect:

Assembly District 19 runs along the East Side from UW-Milwaukee to Bay View and has been represented by Jon Richards for the past 16 years. He is now running for attorney general, so this seat is wide open. Four Democratic candidates are on the ballot: Dan Adams, Jonathan Brostoff, Milwaukee County Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic and Sara Geenen. Adams is backed by Abele, while the others are viewed as the progressives in this campaign. Look for tons of money to flood this race from labor, voucher supporters, business, the 1% and women’s groups. No Republican is on this ballot; the winner will face Joseph T. Klein of the Wisconsin Pirate Party in November.

No matter how much Abele and his supporters stomp their feet and come up with little labels for themselves like "pragmatic progressive," the fact is that they are anything but pragmatic or progressive.  Candidates like Adams or Tia Torhorst in the AD 10 race are nothing more than sockpuppets for the 1%.

The Curious Campaign Of Dan Adams Gets Curiouser

Dan Adams and Chris Abele

About a month ago, I wrote about the curious campaign of Dan Adams, Chris Abele's hand-picked
candidate for Assembly District 19.  I noted that Abele was not about to support County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, who he has a strong personal animosity towards.  Abele wasn't about to support Jonathan Brostoff because of Brostoff's close ties to State Senator Chris Larson, whom Abele also dislikes.

Things got weird when Abele hosted a fundraiser for Adams, but in his announcement, it was 90% Abele praising himself and condemning the county board.  The actual fundraiser was listed as an afterthought.

The fundraiser was on the small side and filled either with candidates from other races or Abele's people.  And at the fundraiser, neither Adams or Abele hid their mutual adoration:

Abele praised what he called the “real world experience” of the former assistant District Attorney who is now in private practice at Adams, Urfer, LLC. “It’s not about who sucks up to him,” Abele added.

Abele stresses that he doesn’t “care what letter is behind your name,” when it comes to “D” or “R” politicians, but whether the officials can work across the aisle. “Dan’s the right guy and I will do everything I can to help him win.”

Adams returned the favor by calling Abele “the epitome of a public servant.” He thanked the attendees for braving the chilly weather to show up at the Belmont for his event, which featured a cash bar and a bunch of bags of chips that remained largely untouched. “Its so cold even downtown lawyers have their hands in their own pockets. Now I have my hands in the lawyers pockets,” he joked as he made an appeal for funds.

I also noted that most of his campaign contributions came from outside of Milwaukee County and outside of the state.

Since then, I have heard various accounts that Abele has pulled all the stops in his support of Adams. Word is that he is lending some of his minions to help Adams out with his campaign, from things like having operatives helping with the management of the campaign to doing opposition research.

(This isn't surprising since Abele has often been heard to brag about how he's building his "sphere of influence" in the state capitol.  He obviously needs it since he is always running to Madison to get his Teapublican friends to pass laws every time he doesn't get his way.)

Now, this in itself might mean nothing, but Adams doesn't have any expenditures or in-kind donations on his campaign finance report except for a payment to his wife for his website and payments to Act Blue and to Office Depot.  It might be that if Adams is indeed getting some help from Abele's camp, but those arrangements weren't made official until after the new year, so wouldn't show up on this report.

However, when I heard of this "assistance," I couldn't help but remember the peculiar news story how Abele dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into his campaign fund- the only money he got for that period.  It was peculiar because there are two years before the next election so Abele had no real need to do that, especially while he was sitting with $70,000 in it already.  What also was peculiar was this (emphasis mine):

Chris Abele has only begun to tap his replenished campaign fund, spending more than $64,000 over the last few months of 2013 for an eclectic array of campaign advice. That includes about $14,000 over three months to Tia Torhorst, his political director and a former county adviser.

She operates his downtown Milwaukee campaign office at 229 E. Wisconsin Ave.

Abele also shelled out more than $28,000 to Thomas Keeley, a media consultant with a roster of Republican clients, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. Keeley handled social media during Johnson's successful defeat of Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

Abele paid another local campaign consultant, Brandon Savage, nearly $10,000 late last year. Abele also paid Graeme Zielinski, a former state Democratic Party spokesman, $10,000 in late July for unspecified research. Zielinski was dropped from his party spokesman role last March, after a dust up over a tweet he sent out comparing Gov. Scott Walker to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Despite the hefty replenishment of his campaign account, Abele said he's not gearing up for a race for another office.

"I'm in the 1% of politicians who really mean it" when they say they aren't angling for another office, Abele said. "I love being here. I love what we're able to do.

"I am not thinking at all about any other office."

He's maintaining the campaign office in part "to help support other people who share my ideas about moving the country forward," Abele said.

Well, that would explain the rumors of Torhorst working for Adams and that Adams campaign headquarters happens to be the same as Abele's.  It doesn't explain why there was nothing on Adam's campaign finance report.

As I said, this might be all above board and legitimate.  We will have to see when the next campaign report comes out.

What is really curious though is that people in that district have told me that when they have spoken to Adams, he has really downplayed his relationship with Abele.  Some people were even surprised to learn of their close relationship.

Now why would Adams do that?  After all, he echoes Abele's positions on almost everything and owes him so much for his support. And as noted above, he thought Abele to be "the epitome of a public servant."  But when it comes to interactions with actual voters, it's a whole other story.

Addendum: For what it's worth, I did try to speak to Adams about all this.  He declined to talk to me at the time and hasn't called back.

The Curious Campaign Of Dan Adams

As I have reported before, the race for Assembly District 19 is one of the more interesting races to watch.

AD 19 is currently represented by Representative Jon Richards, but Richards is stepping down from that seat in order to run for Attorney General.  This leaves this as an open seat in a strongly Democratic district.  As a result, no less than five people - four Democrats and one member of the Pirate Party - have put their names in the ring.

The two top contenders in the race are Milwaukee Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and Jonathan Brostoff, former legislative aide to Senator Chris Larson.

This made Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele very upset.

Chris Abele

Despite all of his claims to the contrary, his feud with Dimitrijevic is indeed very personal.  There was no way he would support her.  Abele feels that Dimitrijevic should be punished for daring to oppose him on anything and to tell him no.

Likewise, he doesn't like Larson who refused to support his power grab and also had taken Abele's personal state senator, Lena "Sellout" Taylor, off of the powerful Joint Finance Committee. Being the petty little man that he is, Abele was not about to support Brostoff either because of his connection to Larson.

So Abele did what comes naturally to a plutocrat such as he and went out and got his own hand-picked

candidate - Dan Adams.  No, nothing personal about that at all.

And then things got really weird.

Last week, Abele sent out this email blast via his campaign:

Happy New Year! There are many things happening in Milwaukee County and I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss a few important issues facing Milwaukee County.
In 2012, Milwaukee County sought ideas for the redevelopment of the Milwaukee County Transit Center. After reviewing several proposals, I recommended Rick Barrett’s development, the Couture, as what I believe is the best use for this valuable space. This $180 million investment in Milwaukee will add over $10 million to the local tax base and create 2,600 direct construction jobs as well as hundreds non-construction jobs.

This is an exciting time for all of us who enjoy Milwaukee’s lakefront. The State Legislature is currently considering a bill that provides clarity on the boundary that development is permitted based on the shoreline that was created by a 1913 agreement between the City of Milwaukee and the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. This boundary definition is critical for this project to proceed. Please call or email your Representatives or Senators and urge them to support the bill (co-authored by Representative Sanfelippo and Senator Vukmir) and help this project move forward. 

I also wanted to make sure you were aware of a potential threat to necessary services for our most vulnerable citizens.

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors recently considered mandating a raise in the minimum wage for county employees and employees of companies with contracts with the County. While the proposal may sound good in theory, in practice it will have a devastating effect on Milwaukee County. I appreciate the Board’s motives, but research shows proposals such as this create an island in which it is more difficult to provide the necessary services.

I am committed to a different approach — one that will improve the lives of the working poor throughout our state and country. I have been working diligently on this issue on the federal level with advisors to the President, Senators and Representatives to address income inequality by supporting a raise in the federal minimum wage. I introduced a resolution for consideration by the County Board to support state and federal legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10. Please contact your County Supervisor and encouraging the passage of this broader initiative. 

Over the last three years I have realized the importance of working with partners who share a vision of enhancing our community. Two such people who have committed to serving the public are Dan Adams, who is running for the State Assembly, and Chris Moews, who is running for Milwaukee County Sheriff.

I’ll be sharing more information on both of them in the future but if you are free tonight, January 22, at 5:00pm I’d love to see you at Dan Adams campaign kick-off at Belmont Tavern, 784 North Jefferson Street.

As always, please share your thoughts with me on these issues or anything else on your mind.

Sincerely,

Chris

What basically Abele is saying is that it's wonderful that he is teaming up with rabid Teapublicans and ALEC leaders to change state law in order to benefit his fellow plutocrats; it's horrible that the County Board wants people to get paid a living wage; and, hey, by the way, come out and support my hand-picked candidate to show that uppity Dimitrijevic and Larson who's emperor around here!

Not exactly a great way to support your candidate, in my humble opinion. Brag about helping the wealthy, screwing the poor and then adding the fundraiser as an afterthought.

Yes, apparently Abele's ego is that damn big.

Anyway, Michael Horne of Urban Milwaukee covered that fundraiser. Judging from Horne's report, it was not much more than a mutual admiration session between Abele and Adams:

Dan Adams

Abele praised what he called the “real world experience” of the former assistant District Attorney who is now in private practice at Adams, Urfer, LLC. “It’s not about who sucks up to him,” Abele added.

Abele stresses that he doesn’t “care what letter is behind your name,” when it comes to “D” or “R” politicians, but whether the officials can work across the aisle. “Dan’s the right guy and I will do everything I can to help him win.”

Adams returned the favor by calling Abele “the epitome of a public servant.” He thanked the attendees for braving the chilly weather to show up at the Belmont for his event, which featured a cash bar and a bunch of bags of chips that remained largely untouched. “Its so cold even downtown lawyers have their hands in their own pockets. Now I have my hands in the lawyers pockets,” he joked as he made an appeal for funds.

Also of interest was that Abele's personal county supervisor, Deanna Alexander - another rabid Teapublican who doesn't even live in that district - was present. (She did not donate any money to Adams however. She must have been there hoping to see a purple unicorn and eat Chick Fil A sammiches.)

But there is more.  There is always more.

Political wonks know that campaign finance reports are due this Friday, January 31.  But Adams is apparently a Johnny-on-the-spot guy and has already filed his report.  In the short time since he announced - or to be more accurate, since Abele announced Adams' candidacy, he has raised a fairly impressive $14,000.

But what is interesting is where that money came from.

Of course, Abele put in his $500 and Adams put in another $500.

But out of the 76 donations listed, only 19 of them came from with Milwaukee County.  And a handful of those came from outside of his district.  Twenty-one donations came from other parts of the state and a whopping 36 donations - nearly half - came from outside of Wisconsin.

Just who is Adams planning on representing?  It sure doesn't seem to be the people of AD 19.

Fortunately, the people in AD 19 can and will do better than go along with the candidate of the special interests.