Racine mayor race: Mason, Perez make pitches before April 4 election
RACINE, Wis. - You may have seen TV ads and wondered: What's going on with Racine's mayoral race? Political expert Mordecai Lee said it's the first time Racine mayoral candidates are hitting Milwaukee broadcast TV.
"So much happens at the local level. It’s really, really important," said Racine voter Natalie Chulew.
It's a battle to lead Wisconsin's fifth-largest city.
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The mayor of five years is former Democratic State Rep. Cory Mason. Labor unions and Democratic lawmakers like U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore back him.
His conservative opponent is Ald. Henry Perez, who is a current Racine Unified School District special educator and a former police officer. The city's police and fire unions endorse him.
"It is our primary responsibility to keep our residents and our citizens safe, and we're not doing that right now," Perez said. "Our police department is currently down 39 officers this year, and we just had one retire over the weekend."
Cory Mason
Mason said the city is cracking down on gun violence.
"We worked really quickly with the county and the school district to start a violent crime reduction initiative. We’ve seen gun crime go down 18% just in the first year," said Mason. "We’re doing the things we need to do, not only to arrest people who commit gun violence and hold them accountable, but we’re investing in prevention measures, too, to prevent crime from happening in the first place."
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Racine is a Democratic stronghold. The race for mayor in Racine is officially nonpartisan, meaning there won't be an "R" or D" next to the candidates' names on the ballot. In this race, Mason, a Democrat, has accused Perez of being a "MAGA" extremist.
"This isn’t conjecture. This is him posting and saying in his own words how proud he is to be standing behind Donald Trump. Those are his words, not mine," Mason said. "I think it’s important voters know there’s a difference between electing a Democrat as a mayor and a MAGA Republican mayor."
Henry Perez
"I am not a MAGA extremist. What I find funny about that is they had a picture of me that I posted on Facebook with a MAGA mask and a Trump hat," said Perez. "I was invited by the White House to come meet the president of the United States for my service as a police officer for almost two decades. Of course, I'm going to go meet the president of the United States, especially if they're inviting me personally. And so that's what that picture is. And I don't deny that he lost the election like it says on the ads."
As candidates make their last pitch to win votes, early voting is already underway. Voters around Racine will decide April 4 who should lead the mayor's office.