County Board Chair Spends Donor Cash on Meals, Travel, Candy, Wine Bars

Marcelia Nicholson. Photo from Milwaukee County.

Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson almost never stops campaigning.

She travels constantly, frequently holding strategy sessions at expensive restaurants or wine bars, or over gourmet desserts, and all on her donors’ dime, according to her campaign finance reports.

Nicholson has not faced an opponent since she first ran for the county board in 2016. During redistricting in 2021, her colleagues drew a legislative district specifically for her so she would not have to run against another incumbent on the board.

Despite all this, Nicholson is frequently campaigning all over Milwaukee, the state and the country, according to her campaign finance records, dining at expensive steakhouses and seafood restaurants, and spending thousands on travel in Milwaukee and cities around the country.

Neither her colleagues on the board, nor County Executive David Crowley, have campaign finance reports that resemble the chairwoman’s. Most expenses reported by county officials and candidates for office are for digital services used to run a campaign, for printed materials and for campaign consulting.

Nicholson’s campaign spending patterns were first reported by reporter Vanessa Swales on Monday. In July this year, Nicholson amended most of her campaign finance reports going back 2019.

Between Jan. 1 and June 30 this year, a non-election year for county supervisors, Nicholson spent more than $4,000 in donor funds on travel, meals, local bars and expensive fundraising galas: $1,250 for tickets to an Aurora Healthcare Foundation event and $107.90 on tickets to an event held by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Records show it’s not uncommon for Nicholson to expense meals — locally or while traveling. The meals are typically written off as strategy meetings or candidate meals. For example, on the same day, July 18, 2021, Nicholson expensed a $20 meal during a strategy meeting at Crab du Jour, 9080 N. Green Bay Rd., and a $91 meal at Cafe at the Pfister, also for “election stratgey [sic].” A March 2024 meal at Landry’s Seafood House in San Antonio ($76.95) was a “candidate expense – meal.” At other times, like a $30 expense in 2020 at Thief Wine Bar in the Milwaukee Public Market in Oct. 2020, the meals are more generically labeled “food”.

The chairwoman has also shown a taste for gourmet desserts while campaigning. For example, in Sept. 2020, Nicholson expensed a $79 purchase at Kehr’s Candy Kitchen. In Aug. 2021, she expensed her campaign account at Brooklyn Whiskers, a former bakery in Brooklyn, New York City. In January last year, she expensed $19 at Gracious Bakery in New Orleans. And in February this year she spent $25.15 at a dessert shop in Washington D.C. called Un je ne sais Quoi.

Nicholson’s campaign finance records show she travels often and frequently charges her campaign account for meals and rides with services like Lyft and Uber. Sometimes the travel is related to her role as a county supervisor. She still expenses her account during these trips, something other county elected officials avoid.

On June 3-5 this year Nicholson was in New Orleans representing the county board and accepting the 2024 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize alongside other county officials including Crowley. During her time there she expensed several meals at various restaurants and rides with Lyft. The county executive did not expense any meals or travel during the trip.

Just a month prior, in May, Nicholson charged her campaign account for $71 at Vino Volo, a wine bar at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. The next day she similarly charged for a $117 meal at Kitchen + Kocktails in Washington D.C., which serves “elevated southern comfort food.”

In February 2024, Nicholson reimbursed herself $1,866.97 for “candidate travel;” putting her own name as the source of the expenditure. Just a few days before this expense was logged, Nicholson charged $81 to her campaign account at a news stand and snack kiosk at Los Angeles International Airport.

The position of chair of the Milwaukee County Board pays approximately $46,574. Nicholson also serves on a number of boards for local organizations including Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin Counties Association, and Clean Wisconsin. She is also a board member of Local Progress, a national non-profit advancing progressive Democratic politics at the local level. The organization is based in Washington D.C. Tax records for these organizations show Nicholson does not collect any compensation for sitting on their boards.

Over the years, Nicholson has regularly spent thousands of dollars during any given reporting period on meals and travel. Rarely is she expensing items typical for local campaigns, like printing services, digital donation fees for services like ActBlue, stamps for mailers or catering for campaign events.

Nicholson did not respond to a request for comment prior to publishing.

Update

After publishing, a spokesperson for Nicholson responded to questions sent by Urban Milwaukee.

Asked why the chairwoman is regularly expensing meals and travel across the country, her spokesperson: “Chairwoman Nicholson is one of the top elected leaders in Milwaukee County, and her campaign reflects that level of responsibility. Her expenses cover outreach, meetings, and events tied to campaign activity, and they’ve always been reported transparently and in full compliance with Wisconsin law.”

Asked if expenses represent actual campaign expenses, or whether some represented personal expenses, they said, “All reported costs were campaign related. Chairwoman Nicholson’s activities often take her across Wisconsin and occasionally out of state to support other candidates, build relationships, and strengthen networks.”

And, whether Nicholson would continue to charge these sorts of expenses to her campaign account: “Her campaign will continue to report expenses transparently and when they are directly tied to campaign purposes.”