John Norquist

John Olof Norquist (born October 22, 1949) is a retired American politician, urbanist consultant, and author. He served as the 43rd mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, winning four terms (1988–2004). He previously represented Milwaukee's south side in the Wisconsin State Assembly (1975–1983) and Wisconsin Senate (1983–1988). After serving as mayor, he worked for ten years as president of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Early life and career

Norquist was born in Princeton, New Jersey, where his father was attending seminary.

He attended Augustana College in western Illinois for two years, then transferred to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he graduated with his bachelor's degree in political science in 1971. Shortly after graduation, he enlisted in the United States Army Reserve and was trained as a medic. Later that year, he went to work at Milwaukee Electric Tool, where he operated machinery on the assembly line and also served as a first aid attendant.

Early political career

While working at Milwaukee Electric Tool in 1974, Norquist launched a primary challenge against incumbent state representative Earl Keegan Jr., in Wisconsin's 8th Assembly district. 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. Norquist defeated Keegan in the Democratic primary and faced no opposition in the general election. He continued to oppose the new freeway despite his constituents voting for completion in the November 1974 Milwaukee County freeway referendums (complementing the April 1967 city vote in favor of the Park East-Lake Freeway project).

In the Assembly, Norquist joined forces with emerging generation of legislators including James Moody (later a US representative) in opposing freeway expansion. Norquist was re-elected to three more terms in the Assembly before winning a seat in the Wisconsin Senate in 1982. While in the Senate, Norquist served on the powerful Joint Finance Committee and was recognized by Milwaukee Magazine as a leading legislator. He was re-elected to another term in the Senate in 1986 and served as Assistant Majority Leader in the 1985–1986 and 1987–1988 sessions.

While serving in the Senate, Norquist also attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and earned his Master's in Public Administration in 1987.

Mayor of Milwaukee

In 1987, Milwaukee mayor Henry Maier announced he would not run for another term as mayor in 1988, and would leave office after 28 years in the role. Norquist announced his candidacy for mayor, advanced through the nonpartisan primary, and defeated former governor Martin J. Schreiber in the April 1988 general election, taking 54% of the vote.

Norquist can perhaps best be described as a "fiscally conservative socialist". 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 after a staff assistant alleged that the mayor had sexually harassed her. Norquist admitted to a five-year consensual affair, but whether it was consensual is contested. Eventually, in April 2002, Norquist announced that he would not seek a fifth term as mayor in 2004.

In July, 2001, when the Communist Party held its 27th national convention in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student union, Norquist sent the convention his greetings, noting commonalities between the city's socialist heritage and the goals of the Communist Party. Norquist later released a statement saying he "does not endorse Communist ideology and condemns many elements of Communist history."

When presented in June 2003 with the opportunity to lead the Congress for the New Urbanism, Norquist said that he would resign at the beginning of the following year rather than serve out his full term. 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 planning and development reform organization based in Chicago, Illinois. He left CNU in 2014 after a decade with the organization. During his tenure, he spoke often and eloquently about the regulatory obstacles that continue to get in the way of good urbanism. Building on his experience taking down the Park East Freeway in Milwaukee, he championed a national CNU campaign that has helped advocates and local officials in their own highway teardown movements. Norquist is now the John M DeGrove Fellow at Florida Atlantic University and adjunct professor at DePaul University Real Estate Program.

Personal life and family

John Norquist is a son of Rev. Ernest O. Norquist and his wife Jeannette Norquist. He is of Swedish descent.

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

Electoral history

Wisconsin Assembly (1974, 1976, 1978, 1980)

Wisconsin Senate (1982, 1986)

Milwaukee Mayor (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)

Published works

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Awards

* Edmund N. Bacon Prize, Ed Bacon Foundation (now under the Philadelphia Center for Architecture), 2008

References

External links

Biographical sketch from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Retrospective on Norquist's term as mayor from the Milwaukee Journal-SentinelMilwaukee Journal-Sentinel urban design critic Whitney Gould on Norquist's legacy
* https://web.archive.org/web/20041201064357/http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may01/norq26052501a.asp?format=print
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Norquist, John
1949 births
Living people
20th-century mayors of places in Wisconsin
21st-century mayors of places in Wisconsin
Politicians from Princeton, New Jersey
American people of Swedish descent
Democratic Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
Democratic Party Wisconsin state senators
Mayors of Milwaukee
Writers from Princeton, New Jersey
Writers from Wisconsin
New Urbanism
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
20th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature