Protesters claim County Executive Chris Abele is using own money to undermine local election process

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele was the target of a demonstration on Wednesday.

One of the protestors with the League of Progressive Seniors was covered in dollar bills, claiming that Abele is using hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to fund a political organization called Leadership MKE, a group that’s trying to unseat some of the County Board members who have fought Abele on key county issues like the wheel tax and parking meters at county parks.

“It does not say this is paid for by Chris Abele, even though it is. It says it’s paid for by Leadership MKE, well who’s against Leadership MKE? Nobody,” said Dave Weingrod with the League of Progressive Seniors. “I’m quite passionate about it. This is really a very, very dangerous trend that we’re seeing here. That Chris Abele has got both feet and both hands into these county races.”

The Executive Director of Leadership MKE, George Aldrich, released the following statement:

“It’s clear there are members of the Milwaukee County Board who want to keep the public in the dark about the $15 million in cuts to vital services they enacted, but Leadership MKE is sharing the truth by knocking on more than 25,000 doors across the county and informing people very publicly that funding for critical services like transit, public safety, parks and homeless shelters was put at risk by these career politicians.”

Abele himself has not commented on Wednesday’s demonstration.