Johnson, Donovan Spar Over City’s Future

Mayoral candidates Cavalier Johnson and Robert Donovan will be spending plenty of time together in the lead-up to the April 5 election. And when you see them, you won’t have a hard time telling them apart. Johnson is Black, Donovan is white. Johnson is 35, Donovan is 65.

But they have many similarities, even as each tries to position himself as the best person for the job. Both are lifelong Milwaukeeans who served on the Common Council and say their calling is public service. They’ve each identified public safety as the key issue in their campaign and agree on the need to use a $394 million federal grant to plug budget holes. Both agree that Milwaukee needs help from the Republican-controlled Legislature to move forward.

At a joint appearance Monday before the Wisconsin Policy Forum and Greater Milwaukee Committee, both said multiple times that they agreed with what the other candidate just said. Someone who was paying more attention to their Italian Community Center chicken plate instead of the candidates could have easily left with the impression that Donovan was voting for Johnson and vice versa. But beyond all the agreements were some stark differences in their vision for Milwaukee’s future.

Fiscal Issues, Friends in Madison and A Potential Solution

Moderated by WPF president Rob Henken, the discussion almost immediately dived into the city’s fiscal issues: rapidly growing pension liabilities, state limits on almost every revenue source and a decline in state shared revenue.

“It’s going to be incumbent on this next mayor to have a cot in the Capitol and that’s what I’ll have,” said Johnson. He said he would work to rebuild relationships with the Legislature that have waned in the past decade and has already begun meeting with Republican leaders.

“I don’t pretend to be an expert in municipal finance,” said Donovan. “As mayor, I would insist that an audit be conducted of every single city department to ensure every penny is being spent wisely and I would ask the private sector to pay for that.” He said the private sector has a vested interest in ensuring that the government is run efficiently.

The former alderman stressed the need for relationships with the Legislature to make a partnership with the city work. “If you want something done, you have got to work with the people in charge,” said Donovan.

“Alderman Donovan had been in office for 20 years, and the problems we have had financially as a city have been going on for almost that same amount of time,” said Johnson. “If there are relationships in Madison that could be utilized to help fix the situation  I would have hoped before we got to this dire point in our city’s history that those opportunities for better relationships would have been explored.”

“Anyone that compares the authority and the clout of one single alderman with the authority and clout of the mayor doesn’t understand local government,” said Donovan, as strong a jab as the two would throw at each other. “For years I did my absolute best to point out the deficiencies as I saw them.”

Donovan said the Legislature has no confidence in Milwaukee leadership and the city was on the losing side of a partisan divide.

“I’m not afraid or ashamed to raise my hand and say ‘Yes, I’m a Democrat,'” said Johnson. But he added that he was also a political realist willing to work with Republicans. “It’s going to take a partnership with the state to solve the fiscal issues that we have.”

Johnson publicly endorsed one strategy considered by a city pension committee: have new employees become members of the state’s less-generous pension system and slowly close the city system. The City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are the only two entities with their own standalone pension system. The city’s pension is required to be fully funded, which is driving the budget crunch.

“I would agree with my opponent, absolutely we need to work closely with the state of Wisconsin,” said Donovan.

Defunding the Police

Johnson and Donovan clearly disagree on one thing: who is supporting the police.

“My opponent has, every year he’s been alderman, voted to cut police manpower,” said Donovan, a long-time champion of rank-and-file officers.

“I voted to support the police budgets,” said Johnson. “He voted no on the police budgets.”

Donovan routinely voted no on the annual city budget, one of the few members to do so. Then-Mayor Tom Barrett, in the latter years of his tenure, proposed to hold the department’s funding steady, but cut the number of officers because of rising salaries and benefits.

Johnson had a simple way of summarizing things: “Bob, you voted to defund the police.”

“I can’t wait to see that commercial,” said Donovan with a laugh. He said the Legislature was willing to help the city fund its police department and said he personally backed paying police officers more. “Our police currently cannot keep up with the calls for help coming from our constituents.”

“I think the record speaks for itself,” said Johnson, who touted his work to accept the COPS grant in 2021.

On The Streetcar

“My cardiologist advised me not to discuss the streetcar,” said Donovan to laughter from the room. His 2016 campaign against Barrett, which he lost 70-30, was largely centered on his opposition to the transit line.

“I just felt it was a solution in search of a problem,” said Donovan. “I would certainly insist that if there is any expansion of the current streetcar that a referendum take place.”

Johnson endorsed expanding the system, part of his vision of boosting the population to one million.

“I have a desire to grow the city. I want to see more population. I want to see more business. I want to see more development and the streetcar is a economic development tool that will help us get there,” he said. The acting mayor, who wasn’t on the council at the time of most of the streetcar votes, said the idea to start Downtown made sense to attract the most riders and makes sense for future extensions. He said the construction jobs at The Couture, with a streetcar extension planned for its base, are an example of how the project is helping the whole city.

“Yes, I want to see it expanded. It should go up north on [Martin Luther King Jr. Drive] to Bronzeville. It should go south to the south side as well so we can gain more growth and more development and an amenity that other cities are seeing to attract and retain talent,” said Johnson.

“I am not opposed to public transportation in the least, but this fixed rail is 19th-century technology,” said Donovan.

“So are cars, but all of us got here in a car,” said Johnson.

Surprise Endorsements

The campaign trail has been quieter than the lead up to the Feb. 15 primary election, in part because of Johnson’s perceived lead.

“I know without a doubt I’m an underdog, but they don’t call us the fighting Irish for nothing,” said Donovan, who served as parade marshal at Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.

But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been surprises in the race.

Last week Alderman Ashanti Hamilton, who previously considered a run for mayor in 2018, endorsed Donovan. “He has done this work and knows what the job is,” said Hamilton at an event at McKiernan’s Irish Pub. The two served together from 2004 until Donovan’s 2020 retirement.

The endorsement was a side effect of the Common Council’s game of thrones to select its president.

Hamilton, who is Black, formed an unusual coalition in 2016 of Black council members and conservative-leaning, white, southside alderman to upset Michael Murphy and claim the job. But Johnson maneuvered quietly, knowing Donovan and Tony Zielinski were leaving the council, to form a new coalition and in 2020 was elected president by a single vote. He didn’t receive a single Black vote, other than his own. Hamilton chastised Johnson after voting, but Johnson attempted to mend fences by awarding Hamilton a committee chair.

In an alternate universe, Hamilton would have kept his presidency, becoming acting mayor and facing Donovan in a general election, rather than endorsing him at a southside tavern.