Wasserman Has Challenger For Board Seat

Sup. Sheldon Wasserman and Alexander Kostal.

Incumbent County Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman will face a reelection challenge.

Assistant state public defender Alexander Kostal has filed to run against Wasserman, who has represented the district since 2016. Supervisors regularly run unopposed, and 2024 will be only Wasserman’s second competitive election out of five.

Wasserman confirmed that he will seek re-election and told Urban Milwaukee that he’s proud of his record on the board and he still has much he wants to accomplish. Prior to serving on the board, Wasserman was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1995 to 2009.

The primary election isn’t until February, and if Kostal and Wasserman are the only candidates they won’t appear on the ballot until the general election in April.

This is Kostal’s first run for public office. He was a Democratic National Convention delegate in 2022 for Sen. Bernie Sanders. A native of Milwaukee’s East Side, Kostal graduated from Riverside High School, UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University Law School. The district is “very near and dear to my heart,” Kostal told Urban Milwaukee.

Kostal said his work as a public defender has also informed his decision to run for office. “I’ve spent the last six years ever since I graduated from law school, kind of like experiencing the carnage of the criminal justice system,” he said.

As a public defender, he is often assisting people on an individual level after they have been failed by entire systems, Kostal said. This motivated him “to try to make changes in my community from a broader perspective,” he said.

One of those failing systems Kostal wants to work on is the Milwaukee County Jail. “We have just a humanitarian disaster going on in the county jail,” he said.

“But it’s not the only issue, right,” he said. “We have a transit system that’s constantly on the brink of major cuts; we have a large number of unhoused folks in the community.”

Kostal is a member of the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and received an endorsement from the organization in August. He did, however, break from the group on the 0.4% countywide sales tax approved by the board in July. “If I was on the board at the time, I would have voted to support the tax increase,” he said.

He called the sales tax question a “catch-22,” noting that the choice was between a regressive sales tax or drastic cuts to government services.

Wasserman’s last challenger, Eric Rorholm, was also a DSA member.

Kostal is active in local civic associations. He was president of the Brady Street Neighborhood Association and remains a board member. He’s also on the board of the Cambridge Woods Neighborhood Association. County Executive David Crowley appointed him to the Milwaukee County Human Rights Commission in 2020.

County supervisors are elected to a two-year term. The part-time, non-partisan position pays $25,924 annually. The county board is the legislative arm of Milwaukee County government.