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Friday, March 29, 2024
Paul Soglin and Scott Resnick

Voters will choose between incumbent Paul Soglin (left) and challenger Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, to be Madison's next mayor.

Madison to weigh question of experience versus youth in mayoral election

Following a primary election with only 12 percent turnout, current Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and challenger Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, are going head to head one final time Tuesday in the spring general elections.

Both candidates are UW-Madison alumni. Soglin’s political career has spanned over 40 years, with Madisonians electing him seven times as mayor and three times as a Common Council member. Resnick has served as an alder for District 8, which encompasses much of the UW-Madison campus, since 2011.

The candidates debated in a series of mayoral forums over the past two months, with the last forums focusing more on racial issues and the death of 19-year-old teenager Tony Robinson.

Following the officer-involved shooting of Robinson, protesters marched to a mayoral debate March 19. Young, Gifted and Black organizer Alix Shabazz said Soglin is a “piece of this racist institution” and said they wanted to talk to him. The organization has been the primary leader of protests following the shooting.

The crowd was not pleased with Soglin’s explanation of why police violence happens. Resnick challenged him, saying elected leaders need to do more for the community and criticizing him for taking too long to make the most recent racial disparity studies public.

“The city needs to make a choice as to whether it wants to engage in leadership that talks about talking, or actually goes out and listens and reforms,” Soglin said, defending his experience with Madison’s racial disparity.

The mayor’s office released updated statistics about racial disparity in Dane County March 31. City staff reviewed the data from 2010 to 2013, which shows the Dane County unemployment racial gap has consistently been above that of the U.S. gap.

The candidates differ on their visions for Madison’s future, including how to bring broadband to the city and create affordable housing.

Soglin plans to expand the city’s existing network to schools and community centers, while Resnick prefers bringing 4G to the city.

Soglin also says his proposed $25 million housing plan could eliminate homelessness, but Resnick says it is not enough. He supports more drug counseling and emergency housing.

Resnick has said his goals as mayor include making Madison’s city government more transparent.

Early on in the election cycle, the 28-year-old mayoral hopeful won the endorsement of UW-Madison’s College Democrats for his mayoral campaign. He has consistently focused on voters’ being tired of the “status quo” of Soglin’s administration, highlighting the necessity to bring new ideas to the table for Madison as a “21st century city” as well as leadership coming from a younger generation.

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“I’m very excited for him,” Steve Resnick, the candidate’s father, said in an interview after Resnick advanced in the mayoral primary. “He gets to live his passion, and his passion has always been service to his community.”

One of these new ideas that Resnick has expressed stronger support for in comparison to Soglin is a proposed police body camera study for the Madison Police Department, which will issue officers with a recording camera while on duty, making policing practices more transparent.

However, the police body camera initiative is controversial. At one of the series of mayoral forums held at the Barrymore Theatre, Resnick’s favorable response for the initiative was met with challenges from the crowd, who cited that Eric Garner’s death was filmed on camera, yet the officers involved were still not held responsible for Garner’s demise.

For both candidates, voter engagement remains an issue. According to statistics from Dane County, turnout for the April 2011 primary was about 20 percent, while the April 2011 general election turnout spiked to about 48 percent.

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