Chris Abele has won the race for Milwaukee County Executive, defeating Republican Jeff Stone handily on Tuesday. The position was previously held by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R), whose controversial anti-union law has sharply divided the state.
Abele won more than 60% of the vote.
Abele used the recent controversy surrounding Walker to build support for his campaign. The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports that "he [Abele] put much of his advertising firepower into trying to fuse Stone with Gov. Scott Walker and his controversial push to end most collective bargaining for public employees."
WISN in Milwaukee reports that Abele only recently came into prominence, explaining that he "was fairly unknown until about four months ago except in philanthropic circles."
The Journal Sentinel details how Abele ran his campaign:
Though a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates and liberal causes, Abele ran for county executive - officially a nonpartisan office - often sounding like a conservative. Like Stone, Abele vowed not to raise taxes and said he'd work hard to attract new business. Abele said he'll push to wipe out inefficiencies and service duplications and might turn to privatizations, selling off county assets and marketing park services to the suburbs.
A tightly contested Supreme Court race is still undecided in the Badger State.