Joel Brennan Will Be Ready on Day One To Be Governor

Joel Brennan. Photo courtesy of Brennan’s campaign.

I’ve had the honor to have a long career in public service—as a Congressman, Mayor of Wisconsin’s largest city, United States Ambassador—and along the way I’ve hired and worked with a lot of talented people. I’ve hired Joel Brennan more than once. He worked as a legislative aide in my office when I was in Congress. Then he ran my campaign for governor in 2002, and my campaign for mayor in 2004. After that, he worked with me at the Redevelopment Authority while I was in office.

I’ve watched him operate up close for years, in different jobs, and I can tell you exactly what kind of person he is: the hardest worker in the room, every time, who’d rather get the job done quietly than get credit for it loudly. He’s a workhorse. Not a show horse.

I also know something about running for governor of this state, because I did it myself against Scott Walker in 2010 and again in the recall of Walker in 2012. I ran because I saw the damage Scott Walker was doing to a state that I love. And even though I didn’t win those elections, I learned what a campaign for governor actually demands, and I learned the difference between a candidate who can hold up under that kind of pressure and one who can’t.

Joel can hold up under it. I’ve watched him do it in jobs a lot less visible than this one—jobs where there isn’t a camera in the room. And I’ve also seen his strength and his willingness to stand up to anyone when that is what is needed and demanded. And at a moment in our history when Donald Trump and his enablers in Washington and Wisconsin are threatening our democracy, we need a governor—–Joel Brennan– who will never back down.

After he left city government in 2007, Joel took over Discovery World, the state’s largest science museum. It was carrying real debt and depending almost entirely on one donor to keep the lights on. Joel’s job was to fix that, and it wasn’t easy. He brought in new partners, broadened the base of support, and got the place to where it didn’t need one person’s checkbook to survive. And by the time he was done, Discovery World had paid off its debt and was standing on its own. And his decision to take that job and work so hard to educate thousands of school children who visited every year speaks volumes to Joel’s values and his commitment to always putting kids and their education first.

Governor Evers saw many of the same qualities I did. When he tapped Joel as his top cabinet officer to run the Department of Administration in 2018, he knew that it wasn’t some ceremonial post you hand somebody to keep them busy. DOA runs the actual machinery of state government — the budget, the workforce, the buildings, the contracts, every dollar that comes in and goes out.

It’s the job that makes every other part of government function, even though nobody’s chanting your name for it. And the state’s finances were a mess after eight years of Scott Walker when Joel took it on. He went to work on it the same way he went to work on Discovery World — not flashy, just steady. During his time there, the state built close to a $4 billion surplus and grew the rainy-day fund from around $200 million to almost $2 billion. And when COVID hit, Joel was in the room leading the effort to deliver relief to small businesses, farmers, and families who needed it fast.

I ran this city through the 2008 recession and through COVID. I know the difference between someone who can manage a crisis and someone who just talks about it. Joel jumps in, does the work, and gets things done.

That matters this year more than usual. We’ve got a President right now who’s willing to use his power against the very states he’s supposed to serve, and Wisconsin needs a governor who won’t back down from that fight. On top of that, families everywhere in this state are being squeezed every day with the high costs of gas, health care, housing, you name it. And the Republican running for governor, Congressman Tom Tiffany, has a record that makes things worse, not better. He voted against capping the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare, and he voted against extending the tax credits that help thousands of Wisconsinites afford health coverage. That’s not somebody who’s going to make life cheaper for people in this state, and it’s not somebody who’s going to stand up to Washington either.

I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’ve seen plenty of candidates who are good at saying the right things. Joel isn’t trying to be that. He’s the hardest worker I know, and right now, with everything Wisconsin families are up against, that’s exactly what this job calls for.

Bottom line is this: Joel Brennan is running for governor for all the right reasons. Because he knows what it means when the numbers don’t add up for Wisconsin families. He’s one of 11 kids who didn’t grow up with a safety net but worked five jobs to pay his way through college. He’s spent his career fixing problems other people couldn’t or wouldn’t. He’s running because he knows, with the right governor leading our state and with fair maps offering the opportunity for a Democratic majority in the legislature, we have a chance to deliver real change to Wisconsin.

Joel knows that people aren’t looking for miracles. They want a governor with values, intelligence and determination to roll up his sleeves and get things done for the people of the state he loves. That describes my friend, Joel Brennan. That’s why I’m backing him

The primary is August 11th. Take a look at his record. I think you’ll see what I see.

Tom Barrett served as Mayor of Milwaukee from 2004-2021