milwaukee county executive chris abele high-fives supporters as he comes out to make a victory speech at ugly’s pub in milwaukee. credit: kyle bursaw / for the journal sentinel by of the milwaukee county executive chris abele defeated state sen. chris larson tuesday, after spending $4 million of his own money since july and loading broadcast airwaves and mailboxes with messages in recent weeks. abele, 49, was re-elected to a second full four-year term by a wide margin of 12 percentage points. abele won 56% of the vote to larson's 44%, according to incomplete results. abele had placed a close second behind larson in the four-way february primary. county comptroller scott manske won re-election to a second four-year term. manske, the former appointed county controller, was not opposed for the office. abele supporters chanted "four more years" after results were announced during an election watch gathering at ugly's pub on old world third st. "so what do i owe you for that?" he said of the work that secured a second term. "what i owe you is that we're going to think bigger and aim even higher." pointing to his administration's project to eliminate chronic homelessness in the county in the next three years, abele pledged a similar effort to reduce racial disparities in incarceration, housing, employment and education. "we're going to put a stake in the ground," he said. "hold me accountable for it." larson, 35, had expected to spend about $210,000 on his campaign — a figure dwarfed by abele's multimillion-dollar campaign. larson attempted to counter the large spending imbalance by greeting voters at community events and friday fish fries. late tuesday, larson thanked supporters at garfield's 502 while jabbing his opponent's well-funded campaign. "big money may have won the battle, but they haven't won the war," he said. the challenge forced abele to listen more attentively to the community, according to larson. "the chris abele that we ran against today is very different than the chris abele we were running against six months ago," he said. larson promised to continue the pressure. "this is a movement. and so, while we didn't win the battle today, we will the war," he said. "we will continue to fight." abele pledged to complete the full term, dousing rumors of his interest in running for wisconsin governor in 2018. larson did not make the same pledge and had been expected to use this election as a springboard to run for governor in two years. one of abele's consistent messages was that voters should rehire him based on a record of accomplishment during five years in the office. his list includes: reducing the projected county deficit and cutting annual debt payments; supporting bus transit services without increasing fares; boosting job training programs; adding more than 150 acres of parkland; and ending long-term institutional care of mental health patients at the troubled mental health complex in wauwatosa. abele was first elected in 2011 in a special election to fill the final year in scott walker's term after walker was elected governor. abele was re-elected in 2012 to a full four-year term. as part of his campaign platform, larson said he would push to add 1% to the sales tax collected here, to 6.6%, to provide dedicated funding for bus transit and parks maintenance, and reduce property taxes. the current 5.6% rate collected in the county is the maximum allowed under state law. with the extra revenue, larson promised to lower bus fares and expand routes. abele criticized larson for promising such dedicated funding with a plan that could not be executed by a county executive without the backing of the republican-controlled legislature — an unlikely prospect at best. rather than raising the sales tax, abele suggested that the county ask the legislature to restore state funding to milwaukee county so that shared revenue and other payments are set at the same rate as other counties. abele said he had not raised bus fares in his five years in office and had put more property tax dollars into the transit budget to replace cuts in state aid. larson challenged abele's collaboration with republican lawmakers to add county executive authority while undercutting the county board. his chief complaint of such collaboration is an amendment to the state budget law adopted in july by gop lawmakers. the amendment gave the milwaukee county executive authority to sell or lease county-owned land not zoned as a park without county board approval. such a sale would need the approval of the comptroller or a municipal representative of the community where the land is located. larson had been endorsed by the wisconsin working families party, which actively campaigned for him. county supervisor marina dimitrijevic is state director of the group. mark johnson and ellen gabler of the journal sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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