LETTER: Like most of the North Shore, Mequon starting to turn blue

To Ozaukee Press:

I was horrified and embarrassed during the recent election by a mailing by the Republican Party of Wisconsin for Assemblyman Jim Ott of Mequon insinuating that Democrats are communists. The red and yellow graphic bore a huge sickle and hammer.

Not only are actions like this indecent, they are bad for business, damaging Mequon’s image and economically dangerous for us all—Republicans and Democrats.

Mequon is evolving, its demographics changing quickly.

Democratic-leaning voters are moving to Mequon, while the city’s far-right leaning voters age out.

The progressive movement has been moving north for decades now. Today, all of the suburbs south of Mequon lean Democratic: Fox Point, Bayside, Whitefish Bay, Brown Deer and Glendale.

Whitefish Bay, for example, was long a bastion of conservatism. But in 2004 it turned blue for the first time since its 1896 inception and has never turned back.

All North Shore suburbs have experienced the same voting patterns, including Mequon.

Mequon, too, was overwhelmingly Republican in the 20th century, but today its voting mix is 55% Republican, 38% Democratic, and it tips more blue with every election.

This change is especially dramatic in Mequon’s business community.

As the city has becomes younger and more progressive, it has attracted dozens of exciting alternative businesses from Milwaukee, River West, Shorewood and Walker’s Point. Spur 16 is bringing in at least nine restaurants from Milwaukee County. They’re not moving to Mequon because Communists live here.

These exciting, forward-looking businesses are revitalizing Mequon’s economy, increasing property values, lowering taxes, improving our schools, enriching
Mequon’s quality of life and revitalizing existing Mequon businesses.

To call nearly 40% of Mequon’s growing population communists is not only indecent and rude, it’s bad business.

Deborah Hufford
Mequon