NIGHT OF POLITICAL PARTIES

Dear Reader:

I hope you got your vote on today, so you can party tonight with a clear conscience, and hopefully at your favorite candidates' expense.

--Michael Horne

THE NATIONAL RACE

The Hillary Clinton supporters will hang at the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery at 740 N. Plankinton Ave. Obamamania will prevail at Bar Louie, 1114 N. Water St. That gig will feature Mayor Tom Barrett and Rep. Gwen Moore and could prove to be a hoot. The two appeared Saturday at the Wisconsin Democratic Party Founders Day Dinner at the Midwest Airline Center. Moore told a cute anecdote, allegedly from a Ronald Reagan 1986 diary entry calling George W. Bush a "shiftless ne'er-do-well." Alas, the quote is apocryphal, and came from the pen of the brilliant satirist Michael Kinsley. But it satisfied the crowd.
It is also worth noting that Hillary Clinton spoke first on Saturday night. Even so, the entire audience, including tablesful of those wearing Clinton t-shirts, remained to hear Barack Obama speak. Although Clinton made reference to "whoever will be our next president," in her speech, Obama made no such equivocation. These observations may prove to be portentious, depending on tonight's results.

LOCAL CANDIDATES' PARTIES

The #10 bus goes right past some of tonight's "victory parties" for Third District Aldermanic candidates. Only two will come out of tonight's results to face off on April 1st, 2008, and the robust campaign with its multiple overlapping (yet paradoxically often mutually exclusive) constituencies and candidates, is a real puzzler. Will the vote go to the alderman's aide? It's happened before. Is his experience a benefit? Or a sign that it's time for a change? Will the students turn out at UWM? Will the Riverwesterners outpoll the East Siders? Will Brady Street scatter its vote? Will the gay vote matter, or will the two gay candidates split it? Will all eight candidates narrowly split the vote? Will one candidate dominate? A winner and a runner up could easily get on the ballot with less than 20 per cent of the vote.

You can watch the results in person tonight by jumping on the #10, and getting off at County Clare An Irish Inn & Pub, 1234 N. Astor St., where John Connelly is having his gig. Then it's over to see Sam McGovern-Rowen at the Hi Hat Lounge, 1701 N. Arlington Pl.. Head back to N. Humboldt Ave., and the bus will take you up to Red Room, 1875 N. Humboldt Ave. where Patrick Flaherty will welcome his supporters. Next stop! Nik Kovac at Linneman's River West Inn, 1001 E. Locust St., and cap off your adventure with Sura Faraj at Art Bar, 722 E. Burleigh. What could be more fun?

COUNTY SUPERVISOR 14th DISTRICT

Sebastian Raclaw invites us over to The Terminal, 5917 S. Howell Avenue, for his gig. The Milwaukee Police Department detective and first-time candidate says he's knocked on thousands of doors, made 1650 telephone calls over the weekend, delivered 650 pieces of literature in addition to 3,200 mailed last week, set out signs; dug 200 of them out of the snow and re-set them, and generally dove in feet-first into his campaign to replace retiring Richard Nyklewicz in the county's 14th district. As a result, he says he now has 85% name recognition, while his opponents have nil. We'll find out tonight if that is the case, and if his retail campaigning methods are more successful than those of his opponent Steve Kraeger, (pictured below) who has waged his campaign by standing in the middle of the street wearing his blaze orange hunting cap, Tommy Hilfiger down jacket, knee britches, rubber boots and waving his crudely painted sign.

This man wants to restore dignity to the County Board. As you see, there is more than one way to go about it.

--Michael Horne