Ald. Keith Furman says he recruited people to run against him in the spring election so voters will have a choice.
After Denise DeMarb, Mark Clear and Sara Eskrich each resigned from the Common Council this summer, the council appointed people to fill their seats through April, when the entire 20-member body is up for reelection. Legislative aide Michael Tierney took DeMarb’s seat, technology officer Keith Furman replaced Clear, and retired attorney Allen Arntsen took over for Eskrich.
During the selection process, all three pledged not to run for reelection. But Furman and Tierney will be on the ballot this spring.
Ald. Mike Verveer, who has served on the council since 1995, says the “long-standing policy” has been to only appoint interim alders who pledge not to seek reelection.
“The council felt uncomfortable giving a candidate a leg up via an appointment,” says Verveer, who notes that former alders or county board supervisors frequently took on this role in the past. “Interim alders are seen as caretakers of the seat. It’s also how some well-known folks like Tammy Baldwin and David Clarenbach — who were county supervisors at the time — have Madison alderperson on their résumés.”
Ald. Rebecca Kemble, an executive committee member, wishes that alders would serve full terms or resign in time for a special election to be called. “But when a resignation does occur and the council has to appoint someone, we’ve got to make sure the process doesn’t favor a particular candidate,” Kemble says. “A body of people in power granting the power of incumbency is just really bad practice. The issue is denying the people in a district a fair race.”
Arntsen says it was clear during his selection process that the executive committee preferred a candidate who promised not to run. “I said I wouldn’t be running,” Arntsen says. “To me, there was no question because I committed to that.”
Furman acknowledges that he told the executive committee in his interview that he did not intend to run. But he changed his mind. “Since being appointed, I’ve focused on getting as many people as possible to run for the position,” says Furman, when asked why he’s running after all. “I do understand the concern. Voters will have the benefit of seeing the work I’ve done [on the council]. But voters will have a choice in this election.”
Furman says he spread the word about running for the council seat through his city blog and by talking to neighborhood associations. Additionally, he helped add a page on the council’s website to inform people how to run for council. His recruitment efforts for the west-side district appear to have worked. Three people filed to run against him: Keith Christianson, Allison Martinson and Taylor Wall. However, only Martinson turned in nomination papers and will be the only challenger on the ballot against Furman.
“I, certainly, didn’t want to be the only one running for this seat,” Furman says. “I’m also not taking incumbency for granted. There are 4,700 doors in my district of registered voters. I have a plan to knock on every single one of them at least once.”
Tierney says up until early December he wasn’t expecting to run. He, too, made it a priority to recruit candidates for the east-side district — there just weren’t any takers.
“When I said I wasn’t planning on running, I meant it,” says Tierney, who is running unopposed. “But when I reached out to residents of the district...the only feedback I got was, ‘Do it yourself.’”
Editor's note: This article was updated to specify that only Allison Martinson turned in nomination papers to run against Ald. Keith Furman.
