McDonald to run for mayor of Milwaukee

Edward McDonald thinks he is ready to be mayor of the city he grew up in and says he wants to take Milwaukee “back to its rightful place of being the envy of the country.”
McDonald, a UW-Extension faculty member, is one of two candidates to file to challenge incumbent Mayor Tom Barrett. The other candidate is Ieshuh Griffin, who gained attention in 2010 when she sought unsuccessfully to have the slogan "not the whiteman’s bitch" appear next to her name on the ballot for state Assembly.
Despite speculation that Milwaukee’s current mayor, Tom Barrett, may run against Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election, McDonald says he is focused on his own campaign.
“I haven’t really assessed it from a standpoint of him doing that or not doing it,” McDonald said. “I think Tom would be a very good governor, and if that’s his dream, then I think he should pursue his dream, much like I’m pursuing mine. I want to be mayor of the city of Milwaukee.”
McDonald says he believes he has the skill set “to work with my hometown, people of my hometown, every neighborhood, to build Milwaukee.”
According to his campaign website, McDonald would like to expand community-based policing and fire services, as well as community and cultural arts. He would also like to address fresh food access and childcare, youth and elderly services. He would also like to implement his “Build Milwaukee” plan, targeting specific areas within the city.
On the face of it, McDonald’s plan could be costly, but he says the money is available.
“Surprisingly, there is quite a bit of money that is appropriated at federal, state, and local levels to do pretty much all those things. It’s about prioritization and directing the money around community driven priorities,” McDonald said.
McDonald also calls for more of the Milwaukee’s bidded contracts to be awarded within the city. Right now he says roughly 80 percent go to vendors outside of the city.
“We need to shift that. It might need to be just the opposite, 80 percent of those contracts need to go to businesses within Milwaukee, maybe even more,” McDonald said. “We need to make sure that more of that money is recycling and helping with the development and retention of businesses within Milwaukee. They are the ones, along with other stakeholders, who are paying into the funds we use to issue contracts in the first place.”
See more from the WisPolitics interview with McDonald, visit http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=258608.
– WisPolitics.com