Langley Has Raised Just $2,500

Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley filed a campaign finance report on Tuesday showing he has raised just $2,500, with only three donors contributing. The filing also reported he had $2,282 on hand from past campaigns, giving him a grand total of $4,782 to spend on his reelection campaign, with the primary election on February 18, just five weeks from now. 

That total puts him far behind his challengers, attorney Tearman Spencer, who had raised $103,000 by July, and former Milwaukee Municipal Judge Vince Bobot, who said last month he had raised $90,000. Neither has filed their report for this month. 

The campaign finance report was not due until January 15, so it’s unclear why the haste by Langley to file it. Another week might have given him more time to increase that tiny total of donations. Adding another oddity to the filing, the address for the campaign was a box office in Menomonee Falls, far outside the city he serves. 

Langley has been a formidable candidate since he first won office in 1984, winning easily whether facing an opponent or not in eight straight reelection campaigns. But the fact that he had raised no money for 2020 left many concluding he intended to retire and Langley himself sounded iffy about the race, telling Urban Milwaukee last June he was still deciding whether to run, but would soon announce a decision.

That decision wasn’t made until nearly six months later, when Langley told Urban Milwaukee he had decided to run. “I really have very little in my campaign account,” he said then. But he added, “I’m prepared to raise whatever is necessary to win.”

Meanwhile Bobot and Spencer have been piling up endorsements from political officials. Bobot has been endorsed by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, Sheriff Earnell Lucas, former governor Marty Schreiber and former alderman and acting mayor Marvin Pratt. And Spencer has been endorsed by Congresswoman Gwen Moore, alderwomen Milele A. Coggs and Chantia Lewis and County Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde.

Presumably the two candidates will be filing January campaign finance reports. It will be very interesting to see the totals for each.