Tracey Corder: The Clear Choice For County Supervisor

In Milwaukee County's 18th Supervisory District, the race to replace the disgraced Johnny Thomas is between Tracey Corder and Deanna Alexander.  And that choice couldn't be any simpler to make.

Early in the year, I did an interview with Corder and came away very impressed.  Corder has definite and positive plans on how to restore her district by rebuilding the transit system so that people can get to jobs and rebuilding the Northridge area to make it a place that businesses and people are drawn to instead of fleeing from.

In comparison, Alexander doesn't even hold her campaign parties in Milwaukee County, much less in the district she wants to represent.

Because of her positive campaign and definitive plan to improve her district, Corder has earned the endorsement and support of  many groups, politicians and papers.

Meanwhile, Alexander boasts of receiving the endorsement of Wisconsin Family Action PAC, an extremist right wing group that has been tied in with the Koch Brothers front group Americans for Prosperity in mailing fake absentee ballots to people.  AFP sent out form letters that looked like absentee ballots, but the return address was really for the Wisconsin Family Action PAC.  

Yeah, not exactly a group I would want to be tied to, much less brag about being endorsed by.

Alexander also has a transparency issue and has been less than completely forthcoming to the voters.  Zach Wisnewski at Blogging Blue noted that Alexander is also a big supporter of Scott Walker and his attack on the workers and ruining the state's economy.  Most ironically, Wisnewski quotes her as saying:

“I think the most important thing to recognize here is that the government is not in the business of employing people, nor should it be.”

Remember, this is a Milwaukee County employee seeking to be a Milwaukee County supervisor saying the government isn't in the job of employing people.

To add to the strangeness of it all, after Wisnewski wrote his report, Alexander deleted it all from her site.  What would she do as a supervisor? It's illegal to delete communication records.

Alexander has also followed the other right wing candidates, like Bill Buresh and Jan Pierce in avoiding the issues and going for the negative, personal attacks.  She attacked Corder because she has many supporters.  Alexander boasts that she doesn't get any money from organizations or committees.  From the looks of her campaign finance report, it doesn't look like Alexander has been receiving much support except from herself.

Alexander really crossed the line when she sent out this mailer to people:

Being a social worker myself, I would like to know why Alexander thinks that's a bad thing.  Or is she just using her career as a bureaucrat in order to be elitist?

With the reference to the "four convictions" against Corder, she is being downright dishonest and deceitful.  There are four cases involving Corder listed on CCAP.  But two of them are small claims court involving the time when she lived with her brother and the other two are traffic violations.  Not exactly the hardened criminal that Alexander is trying to portray her as.

So you see, the good people of District 18 have a very simple choice.

They can vote for the popular, likable and personable Tracey Corder and her positive plan to restore businesses and jobs to her community through economic development and collaboration with her constituents.

Or they can vote for the negative, elitist, hypocritical Deanna Alexander who doesn't support her district or the working people in it and is supported by shady hate groups that tamper with and try to rig elections.

Again, I endorse Tracey Corder.  Milwaukee County and the 18th District would do well to elect the person who wants to rebuild the area, work with her constituents and respects them enough to be up front with them.

Would Be Milwaukee County Supervisor Doesn't Represent Well

In the Milwaukee County 18th Supervisory District, the primary elections has winnowed it down to two candidates.  One is Tracey Corder, who I introduced to the gentle reader in January.

Her opponent in the upcoming general election is a woman named Deanna Alexander.  Alexander is a dyed in the wool supporter of Scott Walker and his maleficent agenda.

But that's not all.

Apparently Ms. Alexander, who wants to be representative of the people of the 18th Supervisory District in the northwestern corner of Milwaukee County doesn't support that district or even Milwaukee County.

When I looked at her Twitter feed, I noted that she was having her election party at a place called the Buford Inn on 124th and Hampton:

However, I could find no such place using Google or even the old-fashioned Yellow Pages phonebook.

ADDENDUM: An observant reader has pointed out that Alexander has deleted the "Buford Inn" tweet.  Typical Republican - never admitting to making mistakes and trying to cover it up instead.

In hopes for clarification, I scrolled down further and found out that she had mistaken where she was (too much celebrating perhaps?) and really meant she was having her party at the Butler Inn:

That place I've heard of!

But Alexander still has a problem.

Butler Inn is located in Butler, WI, which is in Waukesha County.

So now the voters have a choice between Tracey Corder, someone who wants to rebuild their community and bring businesses back to the underutilized Northridge area, and Alexander, who can't even be bothered to hold her parties in Milwaukee County, much less the 18th District.  Maybe that's what Alexander means when she says she wants to "rebrand Milwaukee County."

The choice couldn't be clearer.  My first endorsement for the spring elections goes to Tracey Corder.

Tracey Corder: "The People Will Be My Boss"

Tracey Corder

Tracey Corder is a candidate for the 18th District seat on the Milwaukee County Board. That seat is currently held by Supervisor John Thomas, who has decided to join the throng of people running for City of Milwaukee Comptroller.

On Sunday morning, Ms. Corder and her campaign manager, John Heflin, took some time out of their busy campaign schedule to meet with me.

I asked Ms. Corder what she thought were the main issue or issues the county is facing and what would she do to address them.

She responded with three things that she has been hearing a lot from the people she's been talking to as she's been knocking on people's doors: Transit, economic development of the Northridge area and the poor reputation of the County Board.

In regards to transit, she said that the northwest corner of the county has been getting their bus services cut very deeply and people aren't able to get to the jobs that are available.  She would like to see services restored with expanded routes and more frequent services.  

I asked how she would fund this, especially with the county being strapped for cash and she said that she would push for a dedicated funding source for the transit system.  As she put it, "You can't say you're serious about jobs if you're not serious about getting people to the jobs."

In regards to the Northridge area, Ms. Corder said that she would like to see the county put forth some effort in economic development in that area.  She said that many of the people that live in that district do their shopping in Menominee Falls and Germantown.  She said that this is a problem because that is Milwaukee County money being spent in neighboring counties.  If they developed the Northridge area up and attract the stores that people want to shop at, the people she's spoken to said they would rather shop there rather than go to those other communities.

She also told me that a lot of people have a negative impression of the County Board and that they see the board as a group of do-nothings.  She said that she would work to change that impression, at least in her district, by having monthly town hall meetings.  She also plans on being very active in her community and attend meetings with various groups and make herself as available as possible to the people in her district.

She said that she needs to hear from all the people in her district, whether they are people that vote for her, vote against her or just don't vote at all.  She said, "I can't put policy in front of the County  Board unless I know what they people want, how they feel."

I asked her if she had any statement regarding the word that one of her more prominent opponents, Lamar "Penny" Sikora apparently failed to get his name on the petition.  She told me that she wasn't focused on that or on any of her other opponents.  She said she was only going to worry about her own campaign and how she conducts it.  

I also asked her about the kerfuffle regarding her former campaign manager, Nicholas Reindl, who has been accused of sending out emails attacking Sikora under a false name.  She admitted that she wasn't clear on what the whole issue was between Mr. Reindl and Mr. Guerrero, who had made the accusations against him.  But she did know she did not want to take the focus away from her campaign to deal with that negativity.

She said that she was proud to have the endorsements of State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa, Milwaukee Public Schools Board Director Annie Woodward, Judge Pedro Colon and County Supervisor Eyon Biddle.

When I asked her if there was anything else she wanted me to know, she said that she wanted to give credit to Emerge Wisconsin*.  She is currently taking their training and said that the program, as well as her classmates, is what gave her the confidence and the skill to run for his seat.  

After having met Ms. Corder and speaking with her, the people in the 18th District would be well served if they elected her to represent them.  During the entire conversation, she kept a positive and upbeat approach, even when discussing the most challenging issues.  She exuded confidence that while these issues were difficult challenges, they could and would be overcome.

I think that one of the things that impressed me the most is that she repeatedly emphasized that "the people would be [her] boss."

You can learn more about Ms. Corder at the her website.  You can also follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I volunteer for Emerge Wisconsin, doing their social media work. However, this was the first time I met Ms. Corder and that commonality had no influence on my opinion of her.