Soglin was raised in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago,Illinois. He attended Hyde Park High School (now Hyde Park Career Academy),and graduated from Highland Park High School in 1962. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) in the fall of 1962 as a pre-medical student,obtaining a Bachelor of Arts with honors in history in 1966. After spending three years in the UW History graduate program,he went on to earn a Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1972. Both of Soglin's parents were Jewish and he and his siblings were raised as secular Jews. He attended the South Side School of Jewish Studies.[1]
Activism
In 1962 he was elected treasurer of the UW-Madison chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).[2][3] In October 1963,Soglin joined 200 classmates at a rally on the steps of the Memorial Union protesting the presence of U.S. military advisers who were suspected of active participation in the Vietnam War.[4]
In 1964 a group of suburban women partnered with William Moyer,Grace Mary and Hub Stern and other Chicago area activists focusing their Housing Opportunities Program through the Chicago Regional Office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The effort which was to create open housing in the Chicago suburbs was known as the North Shore Summer Project (NSSP).[5] In the late spring of 1965 Soglin and a dozen other college students set out in suburbs such as Winnetka,Wilmette,and Kenilworth going door-to door with petitions calling for real estate agents to show and sell homes to "Negroes".[5][6] Before the summer was out volunteers had contacted over 600 home sellers and over 1,500 other residents.[5][6]
Soglin participated in demonstrations against the Dow Chemical Company on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus in 1967. Dow had come to the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus to recruit engineering students as potential new employees,but students protested the company's presence because of Dow's role in the manufacture of napalm and Agent Orange used in Vietnam.[7][8] Beaten by police during the demonstrations,[9] Soglin was elected to lead the subsequent student strike.
Much of this demonstration was captured on film,and an interview of Soglin by journalist and author David Maraniss served as the basis for several chapters of the book They Marched Into Sunlight,and for the PBSdocumentaryTwo Days in October. Interview footage with Soglin also figures prominently in the documentary,The War at Home (1979),which chronicled the history of Madison in the Vietnam War era.
While a graduate student in the University of Wisconsin–Madison History Department,Soglin was elected to Madison's Common Council in 1968.[10] He was re-elected in 1970 and 1972. In November 1972,Soglin announced that he was a candidate for mayor of Madison. He advanced in the March 1973 primary election,[11] and upset incumbent Mayor William Dyke in the April 3,1973,spring general election.[12]
In May 1969,Soglin,while representing the Eighth Ward,was arrested twice at the first Mifflin Street Block Party. He was tried and found guilty of failing to obey the lawful order of a police officer.[13] The charge of unlawful assembly was dismissed in Dane County Courts. The arrest was later described as a "badge of honor," as Soglin was intentionally defying the city's attempt to ban the left-wing gathering.[14]
Soglin served as mayor of Madison for three terms,from 1973 to 1979. In 1975,Mayor Soglin gave the key to the city to Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro.[15] From 1979 to 1980 he was a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.[16] After working for nearly a decade as a lawyer in Madison,Soglin returned to office in 1989,serving three additional terms as mayor until 1997. In October 1996 he announced he would resign as mayor effective April 1997,regardless of the outcome of his congressional campaign. At the time Soglin was campaigning for the United States House of Representatives,seeking to represent Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district in the election scheduled for November 5,1996. His bid was unsuccessful. In 2003,he sought election again as mayor of Madison and was defeated by a narrow margin by Dave Cieslewicz.[17][18]
Soglin returned to city politics in 2011 as a candidate in the 2011 mayoral election,where he defeated the incumbent Cieslewicz in a close race.[14][19] He took the oath of office for his third stint as mayor on April 19,2011. After returning to office in 2011,food policy in the city became a priority for Mayor Soglin. In 2013,he was named Chairman of the Food Policy Task Force of the United States Conference of Mayors.[20] He initially served as co-chair with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino,and later was co-chair with Washington,D.C.,Mayor Muriel Bowser. The task force was established to develop strategies to increase access to healthy,affordable food in low-income communities,increase food procurement from local sources,promote food-related economic development,and reduce obesity. In 2018,Soglin and Bowser,at the 86th winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington,D.C.,announced they would join 160 other cities in signing the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact.[21]
On April 7,2015 Soglin was again re-elected defeating Alderman Scott Resnick with a record 72% of the vote 37,790 to 14,235.[22] Mayor Soglin jokingly said,using the rhetoric of his critics,"I'm the guy,if you can't tell the difference between us,who is identified as old,tired,gray and bland. Well,I'm going to show you old,tired,gray and bland."[23]
Soglin joined the 2018 campaign for governor of Wisconsin,running in the Democratic primary against nine other candidates.[24] Soglin eventually finished a distant seventh in the Democratic primary,losing to state superintendent Tony Evers,who would ultimately go on to defeat incumbent Governor Scott Walker in the general election.[25][26]
Despite initially stating during his gubernatorial campaign that he would not run for reelection as mayor of Madison,Soglin announced that he would be seeking another term in October 2018.[27] Soglin ultimately advanced through the February primary election,but was defeated in the April general election by former alderman Satya Rhodes-Conway. Rhodes-Conway became Madison's first openly-gay mayor,and only the second female mayor in the city's history. Soglin was defeated soundly in the election by a wide 62% to 38% margin. Rhodes-Conway won in over 80% of the city's wards,but ran up large majorities in the University of Wisconsin precincts that had first brought Soglin to office 46 years earlier.[28][29]
Among the changes and accomplishments on Soglin's watch:
Soglin led the project to construct the State Street Mall and the Concourse around the Capitol Square.[16]
Under his guidance, the city started its first day care program, providing certification for independent day care centers.[30]
During his first administration, the city coordinated renovation of several buildings on State Street to build the Madison Civic Center. (That center was later renovated and is now the Overture Center.)[16]
Soglin led reforms in the city's hiring of women and minorities.[31]
Soglin led the city of Madison's effort in the 1990s of Monona Terrace, to construct a building conceived by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s.[2]
In 1975, Soglin became the first U.S. mayor and only the fourth politician from the United States to meet Fidel Castro.[32][33]
Madison's bond rating (per Moody's Investment Services) was upgraded from AA to AAA status in Soglin's first term in office after he made a personal visit to the New York offices of the rating company.[34] Madison was also named to the most livable cities list several times during Soglin's second tenure as mayor, capturing the number one spot in 1996 [35] and again in 1998.[36]
In 2018 the Brookings Institution found that of the one hundred largest U.S. cities, "...only 11 metro areas achieved inclusive economic growth and prosperity by posting improvements across every measure: Cincinnati, Des Moines, Detroit, Greenville, Madison, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Portland, Providence, San Francisco, Spokane, and Washington, D.C."
Madison is the capital city of the state of Wisconsin and the county seat of and largest city in Dane County. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second most populous city in Wisconsin after Milwaukee, and the 80th most populous in the United States. Madison is named for American Founding Father and President James Madison.
Monona Terrace is a convention center on the shores of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin.
William D. "Bill" Dyke was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was a two-term mayor of Madison, Wisconsin from 1969 to 1973 and ran for Vice President of the United States on the American Independent Party ticket with presidential candidate Lester Maddox in 1976. From 1996 until two months before his death, in 2016, he served as a Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge in Iowa County, Wisconsin, he was Chief Judge of the 7th Judicial Administrative District from 2007 to 2013.
David J. Cieslewicz, commonly referred to as Mayor Dave during his term, is an American politician who was the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin from 2003 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
The flag of Madison, Wisconsin, includes a sky blue background with a diagonal white stripe that goes from the bottom left corner to the top right which symbolizes Lake Mendota, Lake Monona and the isthmus between them. At the center of the flag is a black cross, which symbolizes the four lakes, as well as the cross shape of the Wisconsin State Capitol. The gold circle in the middle represents the Wisconsin State Capitol's dome.
The War at Home is a documentary film about the anti-war movement in the Madison, Wisconsin, area during the time of the Vietnam War. It combines archival footage and interviews with participants that explore the events of the period on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The Mifflin Street Block Party is an annual block party celebration held on Mifflin Street in Madison, Wisconsin. The party is held on the last Saturday of April and attended predominantly by students attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Originally a political protest, it has since become more focused on socializing and alcohol consumption before final exams.
They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 is a 2004 book written by David Maraniss. The book centers around the Battle of Ong Thanh and a protest at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Mark F. Miller is a retired American politician. A Democrat, he served 16 years in the Wisconsin Senate (2005–2021) and was majority leader in 2012. He also served 6 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly.
Susan J. M. Bauman is an American attorney and former politician. She was the 54th mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, and the first woman to be elected mayor of that city.
Stephen L. Nass is an American politician from Wisconsin. A Republican, he has been a member of the Wisconsin State Senate since 2015, and was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1991 to 2015.
Scott Resnick is a tech business executive and former alderman of the Common Council in City of Madison, Wisconsin, representing the 8th District from 2011-2015. The 8th District incorporates areas including: State Street, the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, and Spring Street neighborhood.
The 2015 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 3. The off-year election included a special election for Speaker of the House. There were also gubernatorial and state legislative elections in a few states; as well as numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a variety of other local offices on the ballot.
The 2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018. It occurred concurrently with a Senate election in the state, elections to the state's U.S. House seats, and various other elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker sought re-election to a third term, and was challenged by Democratic candidate and then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, as well as Libertarian Phil Anderson and independent Maggie Turnbull. Evers, along with his running mate Mandela Barnes, managed to defeat Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch in a closely fought and widely watched race, ending unified Republican control of the state.
Frank Joseph "Joe" Sensenbrenner Jr. is a retired American attorney, management consultant, and Democratic politician. He was the 52nd Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, serving from 1983 to 1989, and held high-ranking offices in the state government, serving as executive secretary and legal advisor to Governor Patrick J. Lucey, and as Deputy Attorney General of Wisconsin under Bronson La Follette. He is currently President of the Board of Rooted, a non-profit organization which works to encourage healthy and sustainable neighborhoods in Madison.
Satya Rhodes-Conway is an American politician and the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. She was first elected in 2019 and was re-elected in 2023. She previously served on the Madison Common Council between 2007 and 2013. She is the first out lesbian elected as a mayor in Wisconsin, and only the second woman to become mayor of Madison.
The 2019 Wisconsin Spring Election was held in the U.S. state of Wisconsin on April 2, 2019. There was one seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on the ballot, as well as several other nonpartisan local and judicial elections. There were also a number of local referendums for school funding. The 2019 Wisconsin Spring Primary was held February 19, 2019.
Samba Baldeh is a Gambian-American immigrant, information technology professional, and Democratic politician. He is a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the 48th Assembly district since 2021. He is the first Muslim member of the Wisconsin Legislature. Before his election to the Assembly, he served six years on the Madison Common Council, and was president of the Council from 2018 to 2019.
The 2015 Wisconsin Spring Election was held in the U.S. state of Wisconsin on April 7, 2015. There was a contested election for justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, as well as several other nonpartisan local and judicial elections and an amendment to the Constitution of Wisconsin to change the process for selection of the chief justice of the State Supreme Court. In addition, the ballot contained a special election to fill a vacancy in the 20th State Senate district. The 2015 Wisconsin Spring Primary was held February 17, 2015.
Nonpartisan elections are currently held every four years to elect the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin.
1 2 Mollenhoff, David V.; Hamilton, Mary Jane (1999). Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace: The Enduring Power of a Civic Vision. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN0-299-15500-5.
↑ Mollenhoff, David V.; Hamilton, Mary Jane (1999). Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace: The Enduring Power of a Civic Vision. University of Wisconsin Press. p.187. ISBN0-299-15500-5.
↑ Clara Penniman and Paula A. White Madison: an administrative history of Wisconsin's capital city, 1929–1979, Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, 1999, pp. 173–175
↑ Erika Janik Madison: History of a Model City, The History Press
Kenner, Robert, director (2005). Two Days in October. Documentary film. PBS Direct. DVD Release, November 8, 2005. ASINB000BKSITY
Maraniss, David (2003). They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America, October 1967. Simon & Schuster. ISBN0-7432-1780-2
Silber, Glenn and Barry Alexander Brown, directors (1979). The War at Home. Documentary film. Buena Vista Home Entertainment. DVD Release, September 3, 2002. ASINB000065V3U
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