I expect that Jon Hochkammer will announce his candidacy for Dane County Executive in the first or second week of December.
Jon is the yin to Nancy Mistele's yang. Omar Bradley to her George S. Patton. Together, they will make a fine tag team match to unseat The Kathleen.
Nancy will make the rubble bounce in attacking The Kathleen's indifference to public safety and her obsession with rescuing unbuildable wetlands from development. She is no holds barred and I like that.
Jon Hochkammer, age 52, is a different sort of animal. He is more bipartisan, non-partisan, with a resume of local government service and involvement that doesn't quit. My guess is he will come at the incumbent a different way. Jon will emphasize balance - that safeguarding the environment means both the natural and the human environment. Safe streets, safe neighborhoods, are as important as bike paths and public wetlands.
He is currently serving his second term as mayor of Verona, one of the fastest and smartest-growing communities in Dane County. He joined the Verona City Council in 1997. Just Monday night, he finished another municipal budget - cops, streets, infrastructure - the stuff the county execs do. He already has county government experience, but in Manitowoc, as a member of its county board from 1984 to 1991, ending as its chairman and de facto chief executive.
In the 1990s he was State Senate sergeant of arms under both Democrat(ic) and Republican regimes.
He is currently employed by the Wisconsin Counties Association. That is the only reason he has not already announced; he would have to take a leave of absence to make the plunge. So, there remains a chance he will not make the race. A small chance.
The combination of Hochkammer and Mistele is the good cop/bad cop dynamic duo that will bring The Kathleen down. And good lord is she vulnerable. The hometown girl lost 2 to 1 to Peg Lautenschlager here in Dane County two years ago in the Democrat(ic) primary for attorney general. There is Falk fatigue - perhaps inevitable for anyone who has served 12 years.
The non-partisan election is April 7, 2009. A primary would be held February 17. The candidates' filing deadline is not until January 6.
Bonus material:
- I promised to post Nancy's campaign committee here as soon as I got it. Here 'tis: Citizens for Nancy Mistele, 5106 Reynolds Avenue, Waunakee, WI 53597.Individual donations max out at $2,500.
- Turns out The Capital Times favors welfare for corporations after all. In urging a bailout of General Motors, they discovered that real people work for corporations.
- If you favor a bailout for GM answer me this question: why don't you drive a GM vehicle? Paul Soglin, enemy of WMC, has a post on his blog explaining why he hates Toyota. His advice? Buy Hondas.
- Ed Garvey is majorly cranked that Barack the Obama is making "center-right" appointments. A little schadenfreude, anyone?
- Key kids! Catch the Blaskaman this Friday live and in color at 9 a.m. on Mitch Henck's Outside the Box program on WIBA AM 1310. Your frontal lobes will thank you.
- And have a Happy Thanksgiving. Even with the economy on its knees, we still have a lot to be thankful for. This is a great country, a great state, a great community. We can elect Barack H. Obama as president and a true patriot like John McCain can offer our next president "our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences, and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."
