Rematch Set For Southside County Board Seat

County Board candidates Angel Sanchez and Caroline Gómez-Tom.

The election for Milwaukee County Board’s District 14 seat will be a rematch of a special election from less than a year ago.

Last April, a special election was held to fill the seat following the resignation of former supervisor Dyango Zerpa.

Sup. Caroline Gómez-Tom won the prior election, carrying approximately 66% of the vote. She defeated Angel C. Sanchez a construction contractor and one-time City of Milwaukee alderman.

Gómez-Tom is running for reelection, and Sanchez has once again filed to run. The race will appear on ballots in District 14 during the spring general election on Tuesday, April 2.

District 14 is one of two districts with a Hispanic-majority population created during redistricting in 2021. The district includes south side neighborhoods such as Walker’s Point and Lincoln Village. The district’s western boundary largely runs along S. 20th Street. The majority of its eastern edge is drawn along I-94, the Kinnickinnic River and S. 1st Street. It’s northern boundary is W. Virginia Street in Walker’s Point and, in the south, W. Howard Avenue.

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 branch of county government.

In an interview Thursday, Gómez-Tom told Urban Milwaukee that she is running for reelection to continue some of the work she began during her abbreviated first term and that her reasons for public service remain as they were when she ran less than a year ago.

“My background is in social work and public health,” she said. “That’s the experience that I was bringing to this role to begin with, and I continue to bring to my reelection.”

The supervisor is the president of the City of Milwaukee Board of Health and a community healthcare navigator working for Covering Wisconsin.

Gómez-Tom said public health remains one of the primary challenges for the county. “Public health is everything, right?” she said. “It’s where you live, work and play, and making sure you have those things that you need to be able to live, work and play well, to be able to be healthy and well.”

In September, Gómez-Tom secured passage of a resolution that has county officials studying ways they can make all government resources, information and services available in multiple languages. Later, during budget deliberations, she managed to have $100,000 set aside so that county officials can begin implementing a multilingual initiative immediately in 2024 once the results of the study are in.

“I have only shown my community that I’m willing to work for them and very hard for them because I want to make sure that they have a voice at the table,” Gómez-Tom said. “I didn’t go in to like to do this for me. I really wanted to do it for them.”

Sanchez, who has run as a Republican in other races, is becoming a perennial candidate. He served on the Milwaukee Common Council from 2000 to 2004 after defeating then-incumbent alderman Jim Witkowiak. Then lost to Witkowiak after serving one term. Sanchez has run for office several times since.

He did not respond to a request for comment.