Ted Chisholm Running for County Treasurer

Ted Chisholm. Photo Courtesy of Chisholm campaign.

Ted Chisholm is running for Milwaukee County Treasurer.

Chisholm, 25, is the son of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and has worked in county government off and on since 2019; first as Chief of Staff to Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas from 2019 to 2022 and then as a senior staffer in the office of the Clerk of Circuit Courts Anna Maria Hodges beginning January 2023. He is resigning his position with the clerk’s office to focus on his campaign, he told Urban Milwaukee in an interview.

Chisholm said he’s running for Treasurer to “lead the office forward; modernize it, increase its engagement with the public, and also improve the customer service provided by the treasurer’s office.” He is running as a Democrat.

The Office of Treasurer manages the daily cash flow of county government, overseeing the county’s accounts and fund balances and investing public funds. The election for treasurer will occur on Nov. 5. The partisan primary will be held Aug. 13

Incumbent Treasurer David Cullen is a longtime Democratic politician, serving in the state Assembly and later the Milwaukee County Board. He has held his current office since 2014. He told Urban Milwaukee he has not decided whether he will run again for Treasurer, but added, “Ted Chisholm entering the race doesn’t have any impact on my decision whether or not to seek reelection.”

If Cullen runs, he and Chisholm will first face off in the Democratic primary in August.

“I’m proud of the work I’ve done and service I provided to Milwaukee County, and I’ll happily match my experience and my credentials with Ted or any other person who wishes to run,” Cullen said. “I’m an attorney who has been in private practice; I served in the Legislature; I was on the county board as Chairman of the Finance Committee prior to becoming treasurer; and I really think this office needs someone with more experience and credentials than being a political operative without a college degree.”

Chisholm was careful not to say he was running specifically to unseat Cullen. “I am not someone who is ever about or going to be about attacking anyone who dedicates their life to public service,” Chisholm said. “So I’m running a positive campaign on my own experience, my own vision and bringing those those ideas forward.”

He said his campaign is “a challenge to the way of doing business” and that he thinks the office can be more proactive and engaged with the public.

Chisholm focused his comments on his ideas for the office. “I also would say that I have the experience that qualifies me to make those changes and make them stick.”

The candidate has worked in politics and public policy since his teenage years. He began working on the campaigns of progressive candidates running for criminal justice reform while studying at Macalester College in St. Paul. Chisholm left college to take the position with Lucas and has not returned.

He said his time as chief of staff to Lucas and now in the Clerk of Circuit Court’s office has given him experience “managing county administrative and fiscal operations behind the scenes,” noting that he has worked closely with his colleagues to prepare and administer the budgets for both the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and the Clerk of Circuit Courts.

Chisholm said he would like to increase the public visibility and public engagement of the treasurer’s office.

“What we’re seeing right now is for the first time in years, Milwaukee County’s on more stable fiscal footing thanks to the achievement of the shared revenue [and sales tax] deal,” he said. “And what we need right now is leadership that’s going to capitalize on that progress, and really engage the treasurer’s office far more actively in the conversations surrounding Milwaukee County’s fiscal health and Milwaukee County’s achievement of its mission to become the healthiest county in Wisconsin through the achievement of racial equity.”

Chisholm said he would like to review the treasurer’s office for both efficiency and public access. “I want to examine all the technology that’s used in the office, software that’s used for any sort of public interfaces for the payment of taxes and see what we can do to really optimize those so that they’re as user friendly as possible,” he said.

In his time as treasurer, Cullen has operated the office quietly and below the radar. The office has “a number of substantial public facing responsibilities,” Chisholm said, explaining that the core duties of the office, like managing unclaimed funds held by the county, managing the investment of surplus funds and collecting late property taxes from municipalities are all functions that deserve public engagement and awareness.

“I believe public visibility and engagement and transparency are essential for the performance of any public office of trust,” Chisholm said. “I think the taxpayers of Milwaukee County deserve to know exactly what our treasurer’s office is doing day to day and they deserve to be proactively engaged in the work of the treasurer’s office.”

The treasurer is elected to a four-year term and earns an annual salary of $91,483.