ELECTION - APRIL 02, 2024
About Deanna Alexander
Dear Neighbor
I've been honored to serve as your 18th District County Supervisor, representing over 50,000 residents in the northwest corner of Milwaukee.
As you may recall, you first elected me as your representative in 2012 and after multiple winning elections and eight years of service, I resigned in 2020 so I could honor my term-limit oath to you. I left office and invested my professional time working as a Village Administrator, Clerk, and Treasurer. Two years later, in 2022, I was called by many and asked to return to my former role of County Supervisor. I answered that call, and with your monumental support was re-elected by write-in campaign to go back to county government to represent you again.
When you vote in spring, you will be asked to again select the person best suited to represent our district in the coming 2024-2026 term. As a veteran of the Wisconsin Army National Guard, a woman who grew up with a parent in prison and family members with addiction issues and knows what it's like to struggle to make ends meet, a mother who has adopted through foster care, a taxpayer that is frustrated with rising taxes, and a public servant that has a record of walking through fire to turn government toward better public service, I hope to earn your support and your vote. If you have any particular concerns about county government, I hope you will reach out to me for a conversation.
Sincerely,
Deanna Alexander
Getting to know Deanna
I initially began my first campaign for public office in 2011. I was a new mother looking toward my family's future in Milwaukee County, a homeowner looking at the details of the property tax bill, and an accountant looking for ways to give back to the community. I felt that I could do good work in local government and was honored when the voters chose me to represent them. I served until 2020 when I declined to run for re-election because I wanted to honor the term-limit promise I'd made to the voters (that I would serve for a maximum of 8 consecutive years). I returned as a write-in candidate in 2022 and was re-elected to the County Board. I have a decade of experience as a County Supervisor and have also worked in roles managing parts of the foster care system and as a municipal administrator and clerk. On a more personal level, my life experiences include watching my dad go to jail as a child, watching my mom work on her own to support us, seeing family members struggle with addiction, and losing a parent and my best friend to cancer. I have also worked with border control at the U.S. / Mexico border and saw the humanitarian immigration crisis first-hand, seeing drug smugglers move their products, as well as pregnant women trekking across the desert hoping to give their children the benefit of U.S. citizenship. Having this wide array of deeply meaningful experiences have been essential to my success in representing our district with pragmatic confidence in my position on difficult votes, while also showing consideration and compassion for the many stakeholders that public votes affect.
First, it's not just about "getting things" for the district, but also about being a responsible voice for the district on issues all across the county. Whether one lives in our northwest side neighborhoods, in the hustle and bustle of downtown, or next to a community park on the south side of the county, we together face the challenging gaps between public need and government service.
Next, we all know that crime, ignorance, and instability are all key facets of our community's problems. I am currently working on a project aimed at creating a formal coordination between the many services, grants, and programs we have across governments and nonprofits here in the Milwaukee area with a goal of creating connections, reallocating overlap, and finding missing links that are needed to help families live safely and prosper. The bottom line here is that every policy-maker in town can create a new program or try to move money around, but I think that if we can discipline ourselves to take care of what we have already invested in, and do it well, we can gain both efficiency with tax dollars and success in getting closer toward our goals in making Milwaukee County the healthiest county in the state of Wisconsin.
When we worked on the 2023 budget, I successfully partnered across all of the political spectrums, forming an alliance with both conservatives and socialists to hold up the passing of the budget until we had the votes to secure substantial raises for Corrections Officers. This pay increase was essential for many reasons, such as correcting pay equity issues and ensuring that we could reduce overtime, decrease the approximate 50% of our position vacancies, reduce the constant staff turnover, and hopefully help avoid potential tragedies of inmates being treated poorly, or neglected while in our care.
Response: I find that renters are sometimes in difficult positions because the costs of housing keep rising and their incomes simply don't increase quickly enough to keep pace and similarly, landlords are often faced with difficult decisions when renters simply can't or won't do what is necessary to pay their bills. I recently voted in support of allowing the creation of a Cities and County Housing Committee to help community members on the frontlines of housing insecurity issue exchange ideas with us in government to help ensure more effective and equitable results in housing policies and practices. I also support establishing guidelines more meaningful than simply "giving contracts to the lowest bidder" to ensure that the businesses we partner with are proactive and responsible in providing for and managing their workforce, and that our contractors' employees are able to prosper from their labor.
Advancing racial equity begins by helping people understand and use "perspective" as a tool. I've attended racial equity classes with the YWCA and Milwaukee County and believe that listening and seeing others' perspective is vital before crafting responses, policies, and programs. When we do work on these things, we must consider the County's stated goal of achieving racial equity and then aim to actively seek out potential equity-stunting pitfalls that could otherwise be ignored or unseen.
I strongly dislike tax increases, but recognize it is not always practical to avoid them. The most effective thing we can do to ensure Milwaukee County does not become entirely unaffordable is to ensure that we are not creating duplicate programs as feel-good initiatives. We must continue evaluating existing services and then be considerate, reasonable, nimble, and firm in setting our goals and the measurable action plans that define our success.
I am the best candidate for County Supervisor for District 18 because I have the experience required to understand the many moving parts of our public service system, how they can and cannot interact, and how to navigate making government work better for the people. This role had a steep learning curve in the beginning and the ground is constantly shifting where one must work hard to identify and understand the players, agencies, rules, and opportunities as essential ingredients to the type of success developed over time. My strong advantage in being the best candidate to move forward in this role is a decade of experience that I continue to build upon, while continuously proving to the public that despite being a political figure, I am a practical person with integrity. You can count on me!
RE-ELECT DEANNA ON APRIL 2ND
Endorsements
Denita Ball
Milwaukee County Sheriff
Nikiya Dodd
Milwaukee Alderwoman (former)
Chris Abele
Milwaukee County Executive (former)
Patti Logsdon
Milwaukee County Supervisor
Priscilla Coggs-Jones
Milwaukee County Supervisor
Dan Knodl
Wisconsin State Senator
Emery Harlan
Minority-owned Law Firm Equity Partner
Dan Adams
Milwaukee Defense Attorney
Brian Rothgery
Milwaukee County Communications Director (former) and Union Organizer
Joseph Williams
Milwaukee County Auditor (former)
Whitefish Bay Trustee & Venture Capital Principal Raisa Koltun
Public School Teacher Christine Stango-Yogerst & Mr. Jacob Yogerst
News Undone CEO Ian Jordan
MATC Instructor (retired) Dr. Richard Busalacchi
Banking Manager Daryl Smith
Mr. Odell & Dr. Denita* Ball
Mr. Joseph* & Sharon Williams
Ms. Chandra Staples
Mr. Jon & Mrs. Elizabeth Carlson
Mr. Charles & Mrs. Nancy Miller
Mr. Richard Michuda
Mr. John & Mrs. Vivienne Karol
Ms. Joy Draginis-Zinglaes