Two stories have dominated the conversation around the housing crisis in Milwaukee this year,  the damning scandal around Milwaukee public housing and the rejection of the Growing MKE plan. Both were covered by Milwaukee Beagle, but it is always important to continue to follow these stories after the initial headlines pass.

Yesterday’s election, with historic turnout, provided a resounding message to elites. We cannot be bought. Your money cannot stop us. In each of the races this cycle covered by Milwaukee Beagle, Wisconsin Supreme Court, Wisconsin State Superintendent, and Milwaukee Common Council District 3 we highlighted the disparity in resources between the candidates running. And in every single one of these races, despite facing an uphill battle, the candidate with less money behind them won.

While Brower is clearly the better candidate on paper, we want to be realistic about his chances of winning and implementing his bold vision. The recently released campaign finance reports and the electoral map do not bode well. We just hope whatever the results, that the broader left in Milwaukee can learn the appropriate lessons and continue to move forward, a little wiser, in our fight for a more just city.

Do not be fooled. Kinser is anything but a moderate and will surely implement her donor’s radical agenda to defund public education and direct more unaccountable dollars to charter schools. All you need to do is follow the money. The current state of the Superintendent race becomes even more concerning looking at recent polling which shows that Kinser generally is viewed positively but is also the candidate those polled know the least about. We must get the message out of Kinser’s true intentions.

Whatever happens on Tuesday,  if either Brower or Kostal make it out of the primary, we need to all be laser focused on the real battle here, beating back the establishment and winning a seat on the Common Council for the left.

There has been an onslaught of news lately about the dire situation of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) but it can be easy to miss. While this gross mismanagement is nothing new, it was not until residents and organizations like Common Ground began to advocate for themselves that anything began to change.

With his background as State Superintendent, many thought Tony Evers would be a champion for Wisconsin public education. Evers’ campaign itself made this claim. And perhaps at one point he was, but that is not the Evers governing today. ‘Public-education’ hero Evers is now a staunch charter and voucher school ally. Funneling more and more public dollars into these private schools and giving public education just the scraps. 

Maybe Growing MKE will help prompt the building of more housing that is not single family, but unless we push for the city to actually follow through on the ‘social-justice’ language of the plan, it will remain toothless and will have only a marginal impact on the affordability crisis.

If Democrats ever hope to win back Wisconsin, they need to start taking critiques from the left seriously. Simply accusing us of supporting Trump and other fascists like Dimitrijevic did, not only pushes us further away, but it also absolves Democrats from having to actually engage with any of these critiques and make change. While electoralism alone will not save us, it does give us access to power.