Joe Davis Receives Hot Endorsement
The firefighters endorse Davis, not Donovan, and Joe is "pumped up!"
Joe Davis, Sr. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
“The Davis camp today is pumped up!” exclaimed alderman and mayoral candidate Joe Davis, Sr. Davis held a press event this morning to announce the endorsement of the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Association – Local 215. This comes on the heels of Alderman Bob Donovan receiving an endorsement from the Milwaukee Police Association last week. So now two challengers to incumbent Mayor Tom Barrett have picked up major endorsements.
But Davis had more news than just the endorsement to share. He was proud to report his campaign had turned in 3,000 nomination signatures and would be listed first on the ballot in February. The latter, he declared, is “very important for this race.” And not so good for Donovan.
Davis offered remarks on why he’s running that centered around public safety and economic development. He noted the need to end furloughs of police and firefighters (all city employees have been furloughed at times to save on the budget) something that surely endeared him to his new-found supporters. As to economic development, Davis charged that “we have had over extensive condo development in downtown,” a curious complaint given that condo development has been mostly dead — and supplanted by apartments — since the onset of the Great Recession. Davis went on to lament the city’s reliance on downtown development.
Donovan, who has centered his campaign around public safety, had actually congratulated Davis on winning the endorsement via social media way back on December 15th, so this news conference seems to have come a tad late. Still, it was a coup for Davis and must sting for Donovan, who was close enough to the union that it helped him with a fundraiser: he reimbursed the firefighters’ union for some $1,300 in late April and early May for a “fundraiser mailing.”
According to the local 215 president Dave Seager, the union endorsed Davis following a series of interviews. Seager noted that Davis was the only candidate to go “beyond the high homicide rate” and offer a economic development plan, suggesting Donovan would only talk about crime. Seager also noted that Barrett ignored their invitation to meet, something that won’t surprise long-term City Hall observers given the relationship between Barrett and the fire department. Barrett has cut back the number of fire stations and employees during his tenure.
Donovan chose to make his announcement at the offices of the Milwaukee Police Association (6310 W. Bluemound Rd.), and likely has another annoucement on the way. According to his July campaign finance filing, he’s paying rent to the Milwaukee Police Supervisor’s Organization at 2900 W. Forest Home Ave. for office space, suggesting a close relationship and possible endorsement by that group.
The fourth and perhaps loneliest candidate in the race, James Methu, has yet to make any major endorsement announcements.
At the end of the event, perhaps stealing a page from the playbook of Donovan, a veritable press release machine, Davis promised his PR manager April Hall would henceforth be very active issuing press releases. Bring ’em on, and we’ll publish them. (Check our extensive collection of press releases).
The non-partisan primary is February 16th, with the general election being held April 5th.
Photos from the Event
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Question is who can save Milwaukee from the white, liberal, male, racists that have run it into ground?
WCD’s answer is a white, conservative male racist who hates all minorities and would throw them all in jail if he could (aka Bathroom Bob Donovan).
Not my answer, I do not know Joe. I like Clarke but he said thatt he city is such a poorly run mess, bad Council, no money that it is disaster.
So your answer is a clinically insane black male racist who had to be removed from taking care of the prison system because he was so incompetent. Really gives you good vibes for a successful mayor!
Gee, how come 80% of the people in Milwaukee county voted for him??? Fact is that Walker had him take over House of Correction, he fixed it but Abele hates him so he took that away, not cause it was poorly run. Clarke got awards for running it.
As a regular reader, I have noticed who WCD cherry picks which articles to respond too. Anything putting a positive light on Milwaukee he avoids.
If he ran with an (R) next to his name he would lose a lot of that support. It’s also Milwaukee County, if it was just in the city he would be toast. Aka who he would need to vote for him to become Mayor.
I dunno, but I think the Milwaukee Area Labor Council endorsing Tom Barrett would be considered bigger news. But that’s just me.
If the Labor Council or Barrett has an event, or sends out a press release, we’ll cover it.
Sigh. Well, since you won’t inform your readers, here are all of the Labor Council endorsements:
Hmm, your HTML tags aren’t working. http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2016/01/larson-earns-labor-council-endorsement.html
Thanks Capper.
You can suggest to the rest of the executive board at the labor council that they’re welcome to send us press releases and announcements at release@urbanmilwaukee.com.
-Jeramey-
He’s concerned about all the development downtown? Isn’t he running to be the mayor of the whole city, not just the near northside? Perhaps he can start by improving his district or at least the facilities he’s in if not the neighborhood.
Raising tides lift all boats.
Why oh why do I need to choose between candidates that either don’t do enough to tackle the city’s major issues or ones who want to tackle the biggest issues but don’t recognize the importance of a strong/vibrant urban core downtown?? Can’t we have a candidate that does both?
What about the Pirate Party guy? Or is he running for County Executive? I can’t remember.
@Vincent Joe Klein is running for County Executive.
Oh OK. Thanks.
Dave Reid for Mayor!