I’m tired of defending Brown Deer.

I moved to Brown Deer over a decade ago but since then I’ve had many friends and acquaintances ask me what’s with all the rancor in the Village.

Oh sure, it’s not Menomonee Falls — the community to our west that threw out a conscientious village president, Joe Greco, in favor of Republican activist Jefferson Davis. Davis was recently forced to resign as part of a plea-bargained deal that allowed him to avoid jail for misappropriation of campaign funds.

And we’re not Wauwatosa, where voters tossed out longtime Alderman Mary Heins in a recall election last fall because Heins refused to pre-judge an issue that wasn’t even before the council. That was a recall orchestrated and supported by Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) – the pro-recall group that works to destroy public confidence in elected officials who truly believe in public service.

But I can’t just dismiss some of the goofy things that have happened in Brown Deer as “not as bad as the others.” The truth is that goofy things have been happening in Brown Deer.

CRG has made the political situation in Brown Deer so caustic that no one filed to run for an open trustee seat on the Village Board. Fewer good people want to run than ever before, and I really don’t blame them.

Last spring I ran to recapture the 6th District seat on the County Board. In my campaign literature I forewarned voters about the dangers of having an inexperienced supervisor (my opponent, Joe Rice) who wouldn’t make a full time commitment to the job. Now, nearly a year later (shock, shock), the district is without an advocate in county government, even as the county’s debt continues to grow to crippling levels due to policies passed since the Walker administration took power..

My campaign advisors back then urged me to put a mug shot of convicted criminal Bruce Thomas, a campaign volunteer for Supervisor Joe Rice, on a piece of campaign lit. Thomas, who was convicted on misdemeanor charges related to a credit card scam in which he defrauded his neighbors (for more on Thomas, click here), was one of Rice’s smear lieutenants in the campaign. After the campaign, Thomas waved around a letter from Rice, which thanked him for his work.

For months after the election, I received mocking and taunting e-mails from Thomas, gloating over his success in the Rice smear campaign. In recent months, Thomas has kept himself busy by opposing a referendum to fix our crumbling school buildings.

Now Thomas is on the ballot this spring as a candidate for the Brown Deer School Board.

If it weren’t so sad, I’d laugh.

Fortunately, there is an alternative. Dennis Griffin, a conscientious and active parent, is facing Thomas. The election is Tuesday, April 5.

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Post Column Election Results

Brown Deer School Board     REPORTING     100%
Dennis Griffin 1,749 /  37%
Mark Levone (inc)  1,610  /  34%
Bruce Thomas     1,374     29%