Paying For Licenses in Milwaukee

Want a license?  Pay up.

Bar owners, food-mart magnates and gas-station operators are making a champagne splash in funding Milwaukee aldermanic campaigns.

In the roll call of heaviest givers since 2007, these sellers of booze, food and fuel rival big-name developers, city contractors and lobbyists. They rely on City Hall, and their local alderman, for annual licenses that allow sale of alcohol or permit late-night hours.

The leading recipient in the past two years of these license-related donations, Ald. James Witkowiak, got more than enough from these interests to support a credible aldermanic bid without any other help.

And many of the licensees - or those seeking a license - are writing attention-getting checks at or near the maximum allowed in a four-year campaign cycle.

Those are among the findings from a new database of aldermanic contributions compiled by the Journal Sentinel in the wake of former Ald. Michael McGee’s criminal conviction.

McGee’s repeated shakedown of foreign-born liquor and food sellers and others has renewed debate about how much control aldermen should have over licensing in their districts. It has also put a spotlight on contacts between aldermen and license applicants, including campaign fund raising. McGee demanded large sums of cash outside the legal campaign finance system.

Milwaukee’s politics looks a lot like Chicago’ from here.