Cudahy ousts Ryan McCue, 3 other incumbents

Tony Day

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Spring Election Results

The following is a complete list of results in contested races for county, municipal and judicial races in the Milwaukee metro area.

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BrookfieldNOW

Live Blog Transcript: Reporters and readers offered real-time results and reactions Tuesday night at BrookfieldNOW.com

Cudahy Mayor Ryan McCue and three other Cudahy incumbents were upset Tuesday, while South Milwaukee Mayor Thomas Zepecki easily won re-election.

Retired banker Tony Day defeated McCue by a margin of 54% to 46% to capture the Cudahy mayor's job.

Day was making his first run for public office, while McCue was seeking his second three-year term.

Day became the front-runner after the February primary. In that race, he got more votes than McCue and transportation company executive Kevin Fech combined.

The other defeated Cudahy incumbents were City Clerk/Treasurer Robert Goss, who lost to Dennis Broderick; Ald. Thomas Pavlic, who lost to Dick Bartoshevich, a former alderman; and Municipal Judge John Zodrow, who was defeated by John Dobogai in a rematch of an election two years ago.

The state Judicial Commission filed judicial misconduct charges against Zodrow in November, accusing him of allowing more than 1,000 cases to backlog. He has held the part-time position since 1999.

In the mayor's race, Day, 62, attributed part of his success in the primary to the goodwill that he said he built as an executive at Chase Bank in Cudahy. He said he likely was the beneficiary of discontent with elected officials nationwide.

Although McCue, 35, is 27 years younger than Day, McCue had touted his three years of experience as mayor and his prior experience as a Cudahy alderman and Milwaukee County supervisor.

Day took credit for spurring McCue into action, saying that announcing his campaign seven months ago led McCue to do more in economic development.

Day also said McCue had been slow to utilize financial incentives to attract businesses and was too focused on trying to redevelop the site of the failed Iceport project.

McCue took Day to task on Iceport, a proposed ice rink center that was never developed and that he said cost the city $3.8 million. McCue criticized Day for voting for the Iceport proposal while Day served on the city's Community Development Authority.

McCue said his accomplishments included a crackdown on absentee landlords through pairing the Police Department with inspectors in order to enforce regulations. He also said the city added police officers, including two in schools, and that crime dropped 5% from 2008 to '09.

Day will be paid $64,471 a year.

In South Milwaukee, Zepecki, 64, won his third two-year term in a rematch with Richard Raduenz, a former alderman.

Zepecki beat Raduenz by a 2-to-1 ratio two years ago and won by the same margin Tuesday.

Zepecki said he would continue to push for a southward expansion of I-794 and retention of the Hoan Bridge.