John Norquist

Infobox Mayor
name = John Norquist
office = 37^th Mayor of Milwaukee
term_start = April 15, 1988
term_end = December 31, 2003
predecessor = Henry W. Maier
successor = Marvin Pratt
birth_date = birth date and age|1949|10|22
birth_place = Princeton, New Jersey
party = Democratic

John Olof Norquist (born October 22, 1949 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American politician and 37th mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as mayor from 1988 until he left office in 2004 to lead the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Personal background

Norquist was born in Princeton, New Jersey, where his father, Rev. Ernest O. Norquist was attending seminary. His mother is Jeanne Norquist.

He is married to Susan Mudd and has one son, Benjamin, and one daughter, Katherine. Susan is the great-granddaughter of Samuel Mudd, the doctor who treated President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Early political career

He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1975, where he served until seeking and winning a seat in the Wisconsin State Senate in 1983. In 1974 he ran against completing the Stadium South Freeway, which was to run from Milwaukee County Stadium south to I-894. In 1974, nearly 50% of the freeway segment was either built or the land was cleared for construction. Mr. Norquist opposed the Stadium South despite his constituents voting for completion in the November 1974 Milwaukee County freeway referenda. This was common of the time, with other local officials opposing freeway segments--claiming to represent their constituents--but then losing the referendum votes. All 5 remaining Milwaukee County freeway segments passed in the November 1974 referendum (complementing the April 1967 city vote in favor of the Park East-Lake Freeway project). Ignoring majority wishes for additional freeway construction, Norquist joined forces with emerging generation of legislators including James Moody (later a U.S. Congressman) in opposing freeway expansion and was re-elected to the Assembly and advanced to the State Senate. While in the Senate, Norquist served on the powerful Joint Finance Committee and was recognized by Milwaukee Magazine as a leading legislator.

Mayor of Milwaukee

In 1988, Norquist campaigned and won the job of mayor of Milwaukee. His tenure as mayor of Milwaukee came on the heels of the 28-year reign by Henry Maier.

Norquist can perhaps best be described as a "fiscally conservative socialist." [http://governing.com/poy/1998/ptnorq.htm] He was strongly in favor of light rail as a solution for the city's transit problems and was known throughout the country for his anti-freeway stance and for the removal of the Park East Freeway, the largest highway ever purposely destroyed. He consistently reduced the property tax rate every year since becoming mayor and kept city budgets from growing beyond the rate of inflation.

One of the first controversies of Norquist's tenure occurred in 1988, when he took a trip to Israel. The trip was paid for by local Milwaukee Jewish organizations, but as a result of the controversy, Norquist afterward paid much of the cost himself. On his return, the "Milwaukee Sentinel" printed a political cartoon showing him getting off a plane dressed as a Hasidic Jewish rabbi. The cartoon created an uproar, and the "Sentinel" published an apology for it.

In December 2000, Norquist's future as mayor was thrown into doubt as a staff assistant, Marilyn Figueroa, alleged that the mayor had sexually harassed her. Norquist admitted to a five-year consensual affair, but the case refused to go away. When he was presented in June 2003 with the opportunity to lead the Congress for the New Urbanism, Norquist said that he would resign at the end of the year rather than serving his full term, which expired in April 2004. The announcement was timed to prevent a special election. Instead, the head of the common council, Marvin Pratt, served as acting mayor.

His term was marked by public conflicts with other city leaders, including Bo Black, former head of Summerfest; Arthur Jones, his one-time bodyguard who became chief of police; and Bradley DeBraska, head of the police union. Despite some conflict, Norquist's legacy in Milwaukee includes a decline in poverty, a boom in downtown housing, and reforms in both education and welfare.

Post mayoral career

At the beginning of 2004, Norquist began working full time as the head of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an urban development organization based in Chicago, Illinois.

Works

Norquist, John O. "The Wealth of Cities" (1998). ISBN 0-7382-0134-0

External links

* [http://www3.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan01/norq14011301a.asp Biographical sketch from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
* [http://governing.com/poy/1998/ptnorq.htm Biography in "Governing" magazine]
* [http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan02/16040.asp Retrospective on Norquist's term as mayor from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]
* [http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=151768 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel urban design critic Whitney Gould on Norquist's legacy]