Ald. Austin King, Dist. 8, announced last month he would not seek another term in the Madison City Council. The announcement marks the end of King's three-year term representing a large portion of the UW-Madison campus.
Elected at only 21 years old, King brought a fresh young perspective and progressive politics to the council. Eventually, he earned the crown as the youngest council president ever. However, lacking the perspective that comes with more life experience, King often overdid idealism.
Such idealism and radicalism had associated costs. For example, last fall King blamed increased crime in part on the Bush administration's fiscal policies. The statement reinforced the stereotype of extreme-left Madison politics, thereby further alienating the city's moderate and right-wing citizens.
While this board agrees with most of King's views, we believe King spent a disproportionate amount of his tenure focused on issues that did not directly effect his constituency, UW-Madison students. His prolonged fights for sick leave and increased minimum wage were important but largely irrelevant to the majority of the student body.
Unfortunately, these issues were fought at the expense of other issues such as student safety. While King is not responsible for the spike in campus violence, one can only imagine what could have been prevented had the issue been tackled more quickly in the City Council.
At the same time, we applaud King's efforts in other areas, such as his effort to revitalize Regent Street. He proved accessible and responsive to student opinion, providing leadership for other student issues such as Halloween planning and tenant rights.
The vacancy he leaves opens the council to changes, including a new representative for the UW-Madison campus and a new council president. In total, eight of the 20 total seats will have freshmen alders, which means the council will have the opportunity to move in a new direction. We hope candidates with long-term perspective emerge from the ranks of council hopefuls.
