Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders Wasn’t Our First Socialist Mayor: Remembering Milwaukee’s Socialist Party History
Note that Eugene Debs famously dissed these mayors as "sewer socialists." (They are more interested in cleaning the streets than in marching on them.)
http://inthesetimes.com/article/19032/when-milwaukee-was-led-by-a-socialist-the-conservative-counterrevolution-be
Milwaukee was an early stronghold of the Socialist Party, furnishing the party with wins for mayor, council, state legislature and even a seat in Congress. In city government, they emphasized honest government and effective public services. Critics on the partys left derided them as sewer socialists. The Milwaukee Socialists wore the term as a badge of honor.
Although, to this day, the Socialist candidate can draw upwards of 20% in first round balloting in Milwaukees non-partisan mayoral elections, Zeidlers election was something of a last hurrah for the party. He ran as part of a liberal coalition and benefited as much from name recognition (his older brothers tenure as mayor was cut short by his WWII casualty) as it did lingering voter loyalty to socialism.
But his record in office nevertheless contributed significantly to the citys socialist legacy. Milwaukee's stock of public housing was expanded dramatically; a lucrative new channel of newfangled television broadcasting was reserved for public education programming; and the citys tax base was preserved through an aggressive campaign of suburban annexation.
Zeidlers annexation agenda was particularly crucial for Milwaukee, and represents a road not taken for too many other post-war cities. The combination of white flight, highway construction, suburban development and tax breaks for mortgage interest is a uniquely American tragedy that left great cities blighted and broken down. Zeidler refused to accept that suburbanites could just cut themselves off from responsibility from the wider society. His office organized over 300 annexation votes that incrementally expanded the city by more than 35 square miles. Zeidlers preferred method to win these votes was through education campaigns about the benefits of pooling resources and the efficiency of Milwaukee government, but he was also not shy about engaging in water wars. Suburbs that insisted upon independence were denied Milwaukee city water and sewer services, among other benefits.
OutNow
(867 posts)I grew up in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. Reading was one of several cities with a socialist mayor and city council in the twentieth century.
There were several socialists in the state legislature in Pennsylvania.
Here is a short history.
http://www.ragingchickenpress.org/2012/02/15/reading-pa-a-socialist-town/
They don't teach much of the real history of political parties in school. Much of what I learned about socialism in Pennsylvania in the 1960s came from Howard Penley, a leader in the local anti-war movement who was a life long socialist organizer in Reading and other areas of the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_E._Penley
catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)Jasper McLevy who served for 24 years-Seems these socialists had a habit of being re-elected.....I wonder why?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_McLevy