In front of an enthusiastic crowd of supporters on the steps of Madison’s City-County Building Thursday afternoon, Dave Cieslewicz officially announced his bid to become the next mayor of Madison.
Cieslewicz, who joked that there are “more people than voters,” will join former mayor Paul Soglin, School Board Vice President Ray Allen and a cast of others lining up to challenge current mayor Sue Bauman in next spring’s election.
The former Dane County Board supervisor and founder of 1000 friends of Wisconsin, an organization which aims to reduce urban sprawl, said he had found two things everyone in Madison could agree on.
“First, it’s time for new leadership in the mayor’s office,” Cieslewicz said. “And second, it’s time for a mayor with more creatively positioned consonants in his last name.”
While Cieslewicz, pronounced “Chess-lev-itch,” made an effort to avoid spitting in the eyes of Bauman, acknowledging that “being mayor is a difficult job, and [Mayor Bauman] has done her best,” he also made clear his belief that the current city government is suffering from stagnation and internal conflict, largely due to poor leadership on the part of Bauman.
“We’ve had enough of the politics of confrontation,” he said. “It’s time for someone who knows how to bring people together.”
“We need to change the tone in city hall to one of respectful engagement,” Cieslewicz said.
Much of Cieslewicz’s experience in public affairs has been spent working on environmental issues.
Before becoming director of 1000 Friends of Wisconsin in the spring 1997, Cieslewicz was the government relations director for the Wisconsin chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
He has served on the Dane County Board of Supervisors, where he was a member of the Zongin committee, the Dane County Regional Planning Commission and the Dane County Housing Authority. Above all, Cieslewicz has dedicated his career to slowing urban sprawl in Madison.
“I have come to realize that building good cities is perhaps the best thing any of us can do for our environment,” Cieslewicz said. “After all, every home that is made in our city is one less in the countryside.”
Issues Cieslewicz plans to address during the duration of his campaign include improving city services and transportation policy and increasing the availability of affordable housing.
Cieslewicz supporter Jan Koloen, who joined the crowd of supporters at Thursday’s press conference, said she is “tired of seeing Madison sprawled” and Mayor Bauman’s “failure to do anything about it.”
“Traffic has been increasing for 30 years, and farms in the state of Wisconsin have been disappearing at the rate of six per day,” she said.
Those endorsing Cieslewicz and appearing at his press conference Thursday included state Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Terese Berceau (D-Madison), Rep. Mark Miller (D-Monona) and Madison City Council member Ald. Tom Powell, District 5.
