I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a supporter of Pat Jursik for the 8th District’s County Supervisor seat, and I think I’ve made it abundantly clear I dislike Chris Kujawa’s brand of politics. Today was election day here in the 8th District, and I’m pleased that despite a barrage of user-submitted stories in favor of Kujawa on SouthMilwaukeeNOW.com, preliminary results of today’s election have Pat Jursik winning the County Board seat for the 8th District. The vote wasn’t nearly as close as I expected, with Jursik taking 3,104 votes to 2,622 for Kujawa.

Jursik can’t get too comfortable though, because her newly-won seat will be up for re-election in April of 2008. I anticipate we’ll see Chris Kujawa run again, since he doesn’t strike me as the type to take no for an answer, and I’ve already decided I’m going make the Jursik re-election campaign my first foray into the sordid world of campaign volunteering.

I happened to be watching the news tonight, and I heard a story about a 13 year-old boy who was shot outside the home of Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy West. Curious for more information, I surfed on over to WISN.com, where I found a little more on the story. Apparently the dispute was gang related, and according to the report, the boy who was shot allegedly flashed gang symbols at a 14-year-old friend of Supervisor West’s daughter, who then pulled out a gun and shot the 13-year-old in the back. The 13 year-old victim is recovering in the hospital, but he’s going to be paralyzed for life from the waist down.

Supervisor West’s home has apparently been vandalized since the incident, and she says her family has received death threats as well. This is a sad story all the way around, but what really gets my goat is the fact that the shooter apparently can’t (or won’t) be tried as an adult, so he’s going to get a slap on the wrist for his actions. I know I should probably show a little mercy considering the shooter’s only 14 years old, but I’m a firm believer that if he was grown up enough to have a gun and use it, he should be grown up enough to face the consequences as a grown up.

As I noted earlier today, it seems County Supervisor candidate Chris Kujawa is no fan of voter referendums, despite his public comments that “Public service needs to be about serving the best interests of the public.” It seems County Executive Scott Walker is no fan of voter referendums either, which really isn’t much of a surprise. However, as I was trolling through the Cheddarsphere, I came across a really interesting entry by Brew City Brawler, who astutely points out that just five short years ago, County Executive candidate Scott Walker said:

“…I will take this vision for the future directly to the people. Instead of working deals in a backroom in the executive’s office, I will take our agenda on the road to senior citizen clubs, civic organizations, church groups, and anywhere else people are willing to listen. Positive change must come through the support of the public and this will force the board to act on our reforms.”

What I find really interesting about conservatives is the level of their hypocrisy. Many conservatives I’ve either interacted with or heard speak have struck similar tones about wanting to “give power back to the people” and about “letting people decide for themselves,” yet every time they’re given an opportunity to put their words into action, they refuse and blame some liberal bogeyman. If Scott Walker really supports voter referendums, then I challenge him to put his money where his mouth is and allow the sales tax referendum to make it to the ballot.

According to an article submitted by Patty Kujawa, County Supervisor candidate Chris Kujawa has rejected the County Board’s plan to push a referendum that would raise the area’s sales tax by a penny, if approved. Kujawa’s position on this issue is interesting, given the fact that according to his own campaign website, he believes, “Public service needs to be about serving the best interests of the public.” Apparently, Mr. Kujawa believes serving the best interests of the public involves him deciding what’s best for his constituents, instead of allowing those constituents to decide for themselves. Mr. Kujawa’s disdain for letting the taxpayers of Milwaukee decide the issue for themselves in a referendum is exactly the kind of attitude we don’t need on the County Board, because the citizens of the 8th District deserve a Supervisor who trusts citizens enough to give them the opportunity to decide these kinds of issues for themselves. If Chris Kujawa can’t be bothered to trust the good people of the 8th District to make decisions for themselves, then how can the citizens of the 8th District trust him to provide us with the quality representation we deserve?

Chris Kujawa has made it clear he wants to be a County Supervisor so he can serve as nothing more than a rubber stamp for County Executive Scott Walker, a fact that should come as no surprise given their close relationship. Kujawa’s company has done over two hundred thousand dollars worth of work for the County, a fact that apparently escaped Mr. Kujawa’s memory during a recent interview, saying that fact “slipped his mind.” The citizens of the 8th District deserve more from their Supervisor than someone who’s perfectly content to vote in lockstep with the wishes of the County Executive, never mind the wishes of the citizens he hopes to be elected to serve.

The citizens of Milwaukee County’s 8th District deserve more than a “rubber stamp” from their Supervisor; they deserve real leadership that isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo and think outside the box when necessary, and quite frankly, Chris Kujawa just can’t offer that kind of leadership.

So according to an article on All Politics Watch, County Supervisor candidate Chris Kujawa, a personal favorite of mine (yeah right), said in an interview this week that KEI, his family’s landscaping and exterior design company, doesn’t do business with the county. Kujawa went on to say he resents suggestions he might have a business conflict of interest if he wins a vacant south suburban Milwaukee seat on the County Board. What’s really interesting about Chris Kujawa’s statements is the fact that records show his company’s been paid over $200,000 by Milwaukee County for products and services his landscape firm has provided the county since 2000. Of course, when asked to explain the discrepancy between his own statements and county records, Kujawa chalked it up to the fact that $200,000 worth of work his company did for the county “slipped his mind.”

This is yet another example of why Chris Kujawa simply isn’t fit to serve as a member of the County Board of Supervisors, and I personally hope Pat Jursik hands him his hind end on Tuesday.

Next week Tuesday, voters will get to choose the next County Supervisor for Milwaukee County’s 8th District. I’ve talked a little about the two candidates, and I’ve expressed my misgivings about Chris Kujawa, given the relative lack of substantive information available about his issue positions on his website, and now comes a report in South Milwaukee NOW that Kujawa has said he’s only running in order to uphold County Executive Scott Walker’s vetoes of the County Board. I haven’t been able to find a link to the comments by Kujawa, which were apparently made to WisPolitics.com, so I don’t know for sure if that’s really what he said, but it wouldn’t surprise me, given the fact that he’s been endorsed by County Exec. Walker and seems just nutty enough to be a supporter of his.