County Treasurer Cullen Withstands Chisholm’s Challenge

David Cullen. Photo from Milwaukee County.

David Cullen won reelection as Milwaukee County Treasurer, defeating Ted Chisholm fairly easily in Tuesday’s Partisan Primary.

With 100% of wards reported, Cullen won 66.8% (67,908) of the vote to Chisholm’s 32.9% (33,442).

The county treasurer’s primary duties involve managing the county’s investments and signing off on the daily cash flow needs of county government. With no Republican candidate running for the seat, Cullen has effectively won re-election with his victory in the Democratic primary.

Cullen is a longtime politician who began his political career in the 1980s on the Milwaukee School Board. In the 1990s he won election to the state Assembly and served there for two decades. After legislative redistricting in 2011 chopped up Cullen’s Assembly seat he ran for the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, serving one term before running for Milwaukee County Treasurer.

Chisholm is a political novice, relative to the veteran Cullen, but still has incredible experience for a candidate his age. After working on a few political campaigns as a college student, including running the winning campaign of Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas, Chisholm dropped out during his junior year at Macalester College to become chief of staff for Lucas. He then worked as a senior staffer for Clerk of Circuit Court Anna Maria Hodges. He left the job to focus on his campaign for treasurer.

The race for the sleepy office of county treasurer was marked by political attacks, from both sides, from the beginning.

Cullen sought to paint his opponent as inexperienced and riding on the coattails of his father, longtime Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. Following Chisholm’s campaign announcement in January, Cullen told Urban Milwaukee, “I really think this office needs someone with more experience and credentials than being a political operative without a college degree.”

Meanwhile, Chisholm promised to reform the office to achieve more cost efficiency and seized on two recent political controversies involving Cullen.

Cullen participated in an attempt to lobby the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors for an exorbitant 36% raise ($33,000) for himself and the county’s two other partisan constitutional officers: the Register of Deeds and County Clerk. After County Executive David Crowley vetoed the pay raise, the board walked it down to 11.5%. Chisholm made a campaign promise to return the pay raise.

Chisholm also attacked Cullen for a mailer he sent out from the the treasurer’s office that resembled political campaign literature, and was paid for with taxpayer dollars. Local attorney Daniel M. Adams later discovered that Cullen used voting records from recent low-turnout elections to target the mailer.

Both candidates found significant support among traditional Democratic Party backers in Milwaukee County, with each boasting endorsements from a long list of elected officials and labor unions.

The salary for Milwaukee County Treasurer will be $102,004 at the start of the next term, up from $91,483 thanks to the raise granted by the county board earlier this year.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article gave the wrong name of Chisholm’s college and end date for his employment with Lucas.