Goyke Will Challenge Spencer for City Attorney

State Representative Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee) is soon to announce his candidacy for the position of Milwaukee City Attorney, numerous sources within the campaign confirmed over the weekend. Goyke, 40, born in Neenah, grew up in the Madison area and is a 2009 graduate of Marquette University Law School. He has represented a district on the West Side of Milwaukee in the Wisconsin State Assembly since 2012, successfully running unopposed every two years since and serves on the powerful Joint Committee on Finance.

He is expected to announce his decision within 48 hours and would be the first to announce a bid for the seat held by embattled City Attorney Tearman Spencer.

In 2020, Spencer, 65, with the early support of Rep. Gwen Moore, defeated incumbent Grant Langley, who had served in the office since 1984. Since he assumed the position, Spencer has been embroiled in controversy from many fronts, including accusations of retaliation, sexual harassment, sexual discrimination and the creation of a hostile work environment. An internal harassment investigation into his conduct only ended when the Department of Employee Relations determined the city’s anti-harassment policy didn’t apply to elected officials, but Spencer now faces new claims of employment discrimination that the city has hired outside attorneys to defend itself against.

The City Attorney’s Office, with funding for approximately three-dozen attorneys, has been subject to sustained turnover since Spencer took over. That turnover encompasses employees at every level, including Langley’s deputy Mary Schanning, who found refuge in the Department of City Development before decamping to become the legal counsel and chief administrative officer for Milwaukee World Festival, the parent of Summerfest. Informed of the likely candidacy of Goyke, Schanning responded in writing, “There’s probably about 10+ of us who’ve encouraged him to run!”

The election will be held in April 2024, with a February primary if more than two candidates vie for the position. Should Goyke not advance, he would retain his Assembly seat until the fall partisan elections. His Assembly campaign committee has a balance of about $50,000 as of October. As of February 2022, Spencer showed a cash balance of about $1,300 in his campaign account, to which he had lent $100,000 of his own money. Goyke shows no loans or other encumbrances.

Goyke is currently the ranking Democratic Assembly member of the powerful Joint Committee on Finance, although his expertise as a former State Public Defender can be seen in his service on the Joint Review Committee on Criminal Penalties and the Committee on Corrections. He is the son of former state Sen. Gary Goyke, who remains active in Democratic circles. His wife, Gabriela Leija, likewise a Marquette University Law School graduate, is a public defender in the Federal Criminal Courts system. They live with their 15-month-old son Miguel in a Concordia neighborhood home featured in a 2017 Urban Milwaukee House Confidential, “Evan Goyke’s Fixer-Upper.”

Goyke’s decision to run for a city office, like that of his former assembly colleague, Jonathan Brostoff, now a Milwaukee alderman, and the father of three young children, may also reflect the strains of a commute to Madison for a family man. The potential salary would be another inducement. Representatives to the Assembly are paid $52,999 per year, plus a per diem for days spent in the state capital. The City Attorney is paid just over $147,000 per year.

Jeramey Jannene contributed to this report