Brower Beat the Mayor
April 1st was a solid win for anyone in Wisconsin on the side of working people. Both the Supreme Court, and the Statewide Superintendent races create meaningful steps away from consolidating power in the hands of the corporate elite on the state level. For many, this race was something of a proxy war for national power, with much of the rhetoric out of the Crawford camp pitching the competition as a vote against Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
In local elections, it was decided that Alex Brower will be the new alderman for Riverwest and much of Milwaukee’s East Side. He ran a campaign with an impressive ground game, and ultimately came up on top over the hand picked candidate of the political establishment of the city. If the Supreme Court Race was a rebuke of Elon Musk and Donald Trump, then the same can also be said of Alex Brower and Cavalier Johnson
The reasons for rejecting Cavalier Johnson are obvious, and it is clear that he intends to use the city of Milwaukee to build a campaign for Governor. By sacrificing basic services in the name of fiscal conservatism, and posturing tough on crime, Johnson seems to believe he will appear appealing to voters across the state. This of course will not work, because this state has some hangups with voting for black people in statewide elections first and foremost. Related to this, we know that the rest of the state hates Milwaukee and works to prevent us from gaining power in the state. Such is life for big cities in purple states.
We’ve talked at length about our republican mayor in the past, and just like a republican, Johnson can’t stand to see a meaningful challenge to his power from the left. What is a mayor to do when a potential common council seat might say no to his bad ideas? His technique in these scenarios is easy to spot. Pick an unassuming white man with no real political background to speak of, give him a list of vague progressive talking points and your endorsement and presto!
Here is a fun game for readers: mark your calendars right now for April 1st, 2026, and then come back here and say 3 things you remember about Dan Baumann! If you can’t wait a whole year, you play this game right now with Jarrod Anderson!
Many of us find ourselves in the position where we both don’t want to see Cavalier Johnson have more power, but also do not like Alex Brower. I am sympathetic to this, as he is unproven, but is pushing his one huge idea so hard it has dominated his campaign. He also has ruffled some feathers with those on the left within various organizing spaces, and has a tendency towards grandstanding. There are genuine concerns, so here is a good faith argument for Brower.
To the liberals out there… Do you remember The Election of 1800? Not the event, but the song from your favorite musical Hamilton in which our hero sings “When all is said and done, Jefferson has beliefs, Burr has none.” Of course you do, that is such a salient moment in Lin Manuel Miranda’s surprisingly enduring broadway smash.
Alex Brower wants to build out a public utility as an alternative against Weenergies. Is it going to work? Probably not. It would be really cool if it did though. He already got us $1000 from Weenergies. I feel like some of us forgot that politicians are allowed to have bold ideas. I think I would take 10 Alex Browers over a Cavalier Johnson, a man whose only ideas include conceding to republicans, enriching his corporate backers and rich friends, and vilifying Milwaukee’s most vulnerable people.
What the right knows and liberals forget is that elections are just one tool of many used in order to get the things we need. Republicans didn’t like Brad Schimel, but they thought they could use that guy to get the court off their back about cleaning up chemical pollution from manufacturers. And in the same way Democrats successfully made the Supreme Court race less about Susan Crawford, but about the potential power to be gained from having a liberal majority as it affects Gerrymandering.
Why do you need to “like” your politicians? Politicians have chosen careers that put them in positions where their decisions hurt real people. This makes the act of becoming an elected official a ritual exchange of their humanity for power over other people. You are allowed to not like them, and in fact I challenge readers to think of one thing you don’t like about a politician right now!
To Alex Brower, good luck with your utility thing. Also try to keep that energy for the more boring day-to-day work we need from an alderperson. We still have a lead problem, housing is too expensive, and there are cops everywhere, so if you could do something about all of that it would be really great.
