The 2023 Madison mayoral race is heating up…perhaps that’s too strong. The race has warmed up a skosh. For months, Tell Dylan has received reports that former Madison school board president Gloria Reyes wants the city’s top job. When asked in late August, Reyes confirms as much.
“There are a lot of people who are asking me to run,” Reyes tells Tell Dylan. “Given the number of people who are encouraging me, I am seriously considering running for mayor.”
Reyes served one term on the school board and was deputy mayor for several years under Mayor Paul Soglin. Before that she was a Madison Police officer for more than a decade, including four years as a detective. Most recently she was CEO of Briarpatch Youth Services but resigned at the end of July “to explore more new leadership opportunities.” Reyes declined at the time to say what she had in mind.
If Reyes is running, she has some catching up to do. Incumbent Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway hasn’t officially announced a re-election bid but her latest campaign finance report shows she’s raised more than $20,000 this year for a potential run. The mayor has also spent $11,000 on “general consulting” from Milwaukee-based campaign manager Sonja Chojnacki. Rhodes-Conway was on vacation last week and could not be reached for comment. She has been sending out near weekly fundraising emails that have focused a lot on the drama of now-fired GOP election investigator Michael Gableman.
“I was the first to denounce Gableman’s mini-inquisition, his attempts to drag me to a strip mall in Brookfield to grill me behind closed doors and bully our clerks.” Rhodes-Conway wrote in an Aug. 15 email to supporters. “The GOP leadership in this state has no moral compass and no integrity…. Will you join me in this fight?”
Reyes also filed a campaign finance report in July for the committee she used to run for Madison school board (which can be transferred if she decides to run for mayor). That report shows she hasn’t started fundraising and she has less than a grand in the bank.
This time four years ago, there were already three declared candidates for Madison mayor: Rhodes-Conway, former Ald. Maurice Cheeks, and environmental nonprofit executive Raj Shukla. Soglin jumped into the race in October 2018 after placing seventh in the Democratic primary for governor though he had previously announced he would not seek another term as mayor.
Soglin was mayor for 22 years over three stints starting in 1973. Is he thinking about running again? Tell Dylan texted him.
“Dylan, you know better,” replied Soglin.
