Paul Soglin
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Paul R. Soglin (born April 22, 1945) is an American politician and former three-time
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
, having served a total of 22 years in that office between 1973 and 2019. A member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
, he was a candidate for
Governor of Wisconsin The governor of Wisconsin is the head of government of Wisconsin and the commander-in-chief of the state's army and air forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Wiscons ...
in the 2018 Democratic primary.


Early life and education

Soglin was raised in the
Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...
neighborhood of
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
. He attended Hyde Park High School (now
Hyde Park Career Academy Hyde Park Academy High School (formerly known as Hyde Park High School and Hyde Park Career Academy) is a public 4–year high school located in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1863, Hyd ...
), and graduated from Highland Park High School in 1962. He enrolled at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
(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 The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school was founded in 1868. The University of Wisconsin Law School is guided by a "law in ...
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.


Activism

In 1962 he was elected treasurer of the UW-Madison chapter of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...
(SNCC). 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 The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. In 1964 a group of suburban women partnered with
William Moyer Bill Moyer (September 17, 1933 – October 21, 2002) was a United States social change activist who was a principal organizer in the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement. He was an author, and a founding member of the Movement for a New Society ...
, 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 The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...
(AFSC). The effort which was to create
open housing Housing discrimination in the United States refers to the historical and current barriers, policies, and biases that prevent equitable access to housing. Housing discrimination became more pronounced after the abolition of slavery in 1865, typical ...
in the Chicago suburbs was known as the North Shore Summer Project (NSSP). 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". Before the summer was out volunteers had contacted over 600 home sellers and over 1,500 other residents. Soglin participated in demonstrations against the
Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world. Dow manufactures plastic ...
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 Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated al ...
and
Agent Orange Agent Orange is a chemical herbicide and defoliant, one of the "tactical use" Rainbow Herbicides. It was used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It ...
used in Vietnam. Beaten by police during the demonstrations, 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 David Maraniss ( ; born 1949) is an American journalist and author, currently serving as an associate editor for ''The Washington Post''. Career ''The Washington Post'' assigned Maraniss the job of biographer for their coverage of 2008 president ...
served as the basis for several chapters of the book '' They Marched Into Sunlight'', and for the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
documentary '' Two 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 The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
era.


Political career

While a graduate student in the University of Wisconsin–Madison History Department, Soglin was elected to Madison's Common Council in 1968. 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, and upset incumbent Mayor
William Dyke William D. "Bill" Dyke (April 25, 1930March 10, 2016) 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 Part ...
in the April 3, 1973, spring general election. In May 1969, Soglin, while representing the Eighth Ward, was arrested twice at the first
Mifflin Street Block Party 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–Madiso ...
. He was tried and found guilty of failing to obey the lawful order of a police officer. 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. 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 Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
. From 1979 to 1980 he was a fellow at
Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. 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 The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
, seeking to represent
Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district of the United States House of Representatives in southern Wisconsin, covering Dane County, Iowa County, Lafayette County, Sauk County and Green County, as well as portions of ...
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 David J. Cieslewicz (; ; born February 17, 1959), 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. Personal life and ...
. 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. He took the oath of office for his third stint as mayor on April 19, 2011. During his first year back in office, Soglin attempted to put an end to the Mifflin Street Block Party, no longer an event with political content but marked by knifings, sexual assaults, and significant transports to detox. As with earlier attempts, the attempt to shut down the block party was unsuccessful but by 2017 the sexual abuses and assaults were all but eliminated. 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 The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayors or other chief elected officials. The organization was founded i ...
. He initially served as co-chair with
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
Mayor
Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...
, and later was co-chair with
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, Mayor
Muriel Bowser Muriel Elizabeth Bowser (born August 2, 1972) is an American politician serving since 2015 as the eighth mayor of the District of Columbia. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously represented the 4th ward as a member of the Council ...
. 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. 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. 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." Soglin joined the 2018 campaign for governor of Wisconsin, running in the Democratic primary against nine other candidates. Soglin eventually finished a distant seventh in the Democratic primary, losing to state superintendent
Tony Evers Anthony Steven Evers (born November 5, 1951) is an American educator and politician serving as the 46th governor of Wisconsin since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Wisconsin's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 200 ...
, who would ultimately go on to defeat incumbent Governor Scott Walker in the general election. 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. Soglin ultimately advanced through the February primary election, but was defeated in the April general election by former alderman
Satya Rhodes-Conway Satya Rhodes-Conway (born November 3, 1971) is an American politician. She was a member of the Madison Common Council between 2007 and 2013. In 2019, Rhodes-Conway was elected Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. She is the first out lesbian and first o ...
. 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.


Accomplishments as mayor

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. * Under his guidance, the city started its first day care program, providing certification for independent day care centers. * 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 Overture Center for the Arts is a performing arts center and art gallery in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. The center opened on September 19, 2004, replacing the former Civic Center. In addition to several theaters, the center also houses the ...
.) * Soglin led reforms in the city's hiring of women and minorities. * Soglin led the city of Madison's effort in the 1990s of
Monona Terrace Monona Terrace (officially the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center) is a convention center on the shores of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin. Controversy Originally designed by Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright, it was first propo ...
, to construct a building conceived by architect
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
in the 1930s. * In 1975, Soglin became the first U.S. mayor and only the fourth politician from the United States to meet
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
. Madison's bond rating (per
Moody's Investment Services Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides international ...
) 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. 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 and again in 1998.Money Magazine July, 1998 In 2018 the
Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
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."


Electoral history


Madison Mayor (1973, 1975, 1977)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Primary Election, March 6, 1973 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 3, 1973


Madison Mayor (1989, 1991, 1993)


United States House of Representatives (1996)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Primary Election, September 10, 1996 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, November 5, 1996


Madison Mayor (2003, 2011, 2015)


Wisconsin Governor (2018)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Democratic Primary Election, August 14, 2018


Madison Mayor (2019)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Primary Election, February 19, 2019 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 2, 2019


References


Sources

* Kenner, Robert, director (2005). ''Two Days in October''. Documentary film. PBS Direct. DVD Release, November 8, 2005. * Maraniss, David (2003). ''They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America, October 1967''.
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
. * Silber, Glenn and Barry Alexander Brown, directors (1979). ''The War at Home''. Documentary film. Buena Vista Home Entertainment. DVD Release, September 3, 2002. * *


External links


Soglin for Mayor
(Archived) * *
Waxing America
Paul Soglin's blog

at University of Wisconsin-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Soglin, Paul 1945 births 21st-century American politicians Jewish mayors of places in the United States Harvard Kennedy School staff Living people Mayors of Madison, Wisconsin Politicians from Chicago University of Wisconsin Law School alumni Wisconsin city council members Wisconsin Democrats Jewish American people in Wisconsin politics 21st-century American Jews