Bob Donovan vs The Clown

Robert Donovan got more than coffee this morning at Zebb’s Family Restaurant, 2701 W. Morgan Ave.

While sitting at the counter, the mayoral candidate was greeted by Ken Kraucunas, dressed in orange as a clown.

The interaction resulted in Donovan pushing Kraucunas’s phone and the clown being asked to leave the restaurant.

“I just want to get you on here that you go for ‘all lives matter,'” said Kraucunas, while streaming the interaction live on Facebook.

“Yeah,” responded Donovan while looking at his phone. The slogan has been used as a criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Kraucunas then began to levy insults against the Milwaukee Police Department. “These guys are a joke,” said Kraucunas, who in 2012 was tackled and arrested by an officer outside Milwaukee City Hall and, in 2021, was arrested while standing in the median at S. 27th St. and W. Oklahoma Ave.

An outspoken backer of rank-and-file officers, Donovan disagreed with Kraucunas’s negative claims about the police and said he previously told Kraucunas he should file a complaint with the Fire & Police Commission. But Kraucunas continued, with Donovan now laughing. He asked if Donovan wanted to wager on a lawsuit Kraucunas would file and if the former alderman would serve as a witness.

Suddenly Donovan pushed Kraucunas’s phone away with an open hand and stood up.

“Now listen here, you get out of my hair. You get out of here now,” said Donovan. “What the hell is wrong with you? You’re crazy, a nutcase.”

“Look who’s crazy. This old guy is coming after me,” said Kraucunas.

An employee then asked Kraucunas to leave, to which he complied.

“That tells you a little about Bob. How truthful he is. Just a stinking politician,” said Kraucunas while standing outside narrating his video. “Not that the Black guy’s any better. He’s a Black pawn. He’s being used by [Barrett]… that’s all he’s ever going to be.”

Donovan has a different version of events.

“Oh for cripes sake, that goofball,” said Donovan Tuesday afternoon when Urban Milwaukee asked the former alderman about the interaction. He said Kraucunas initially asked him for a cup of coffee, something Kraucunas alludes to in his opening monologue delivered from the Zebb’s bathroom.

The candidate’s summary of Kraucunas’s comments then matches what is depicted in the Facebook video, but Donovan added something else in his defense that isn’t visible in the video.

“Then he’s poking me with his key and I went back like that (Donovan demonstrates a brush away move) to get him the hell away from me,” said the candidate. “Yes, he was poking me and I go ‘get the hell away from me asshole.’ That’s my approach anyway.”

This isn’t the only time Kraucunas has been dressed as a clown trying to get a reaction from people. He’s appeared in court to defend himself as a clown. Lately, he can be found at the intersection of S. 27th St. and W. Oklahoma Ave., near his southside home, dressed as a clown and campaigning as a write-in candidate for mayor.

“I’m a cartoonist, and a clown, a good clown,” said Kraucunas in a March 17 video. He’s also used his social media accounts to express his Christian faith, oppose COVID-19 restrictions and call supporters of Black Lives Matters communists.

Donovan isn’t the only politician he’s focused on. “I want to see the sheriff, the police chief, the mayor and the district attorney. Yeah, I want to see you behind bars you piece of crap,” said Kraucunas, singling out John Chisholm. “They’re all part of the mob.”

UPDATE: On March 24, two days after initial publication, Kraucunas denied that he poked Donovan with a key.