Ted Chisholm calls on Milwaukee County Treasurer David Cullen to repay cost of mailers

Candidate Ted Chisholm is calling on longtime Milwaukee County Treasurer David Cullen to pay back more than $20,000 in taxpayer money spent on a mailer in April in the runup to the Aug. 13 primary race.

Chisholm, the 25-year-old son of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, said the newsletters were an "unnecessary expenditure" and that Cullen's previous argument to the Journal Sentinel that they had nothing to do with his campaign does not pass the "smell test."

"For any of us who choose to engage in public service, it is essential that we keep a firewall between what we do in terms of government business and what we do in terms of politics and campaigning," Chisholm said. "I don't think this is the kind of leadership that our community deserves from our elected treasurer."

When asked whether he would pay the money back, Cullen said: "I am not sure why Ted would think that an elected official should pay for an informational newsletter distributed in their official capacity. When Ted also asks every County Supervisor who sent out a newsletter in November to refund the county, I will treat this as a legitimate question about county finances and not the political grandstanding it is."

In late April, the Journal Sentinel reported Cullen sent out more than 40,000 taxpayer-funded mailers, despite Milwaukee County having more than 300,000 households, featuring a handful of pictures of him with his grandchildren and costing $24,116 to produce and mail.

He mailed out the four-page, full-color flyer to 43,887 homes just days before state law would bar political candidates from using taxpayer resources to create and mail such campaign literature.

Cullen, however, called the flyers a newsletter for constituents "highlighting issues they have addressed during their term" and said he did not have his campaign in mind when he sent the mailer.

Urban Milwaukee reported late last month that Cullen’s wife requested a list of active county voters who voted in the partisan primary races in 2020, 2022 and 2023, costing a little over a $1,000.

Cullen's campaign finance reports show he charged the request as an expense, which would be repaid by his campaign committee, Friends of David Cullen. The expenditure was reported as "Voter Lists" from "Wisconsin Elections Commission / Badger Votes."

Cullen said he stands by his comment that the mailers were not campaign-related in an email to the Journal Sentinel.

"To my knowledge, every County Board Supervisor uses a Badger Voter database for the newsletters they sent out in November 2023, just prior to their blackout period," Cullen said. "The difference is that they charge the purchase of that database to the taxpayers, while I paid for it myself to save taxpayers money."

With no Republicans running, the Democratic primary will determine who holds the office next.

Contact Vanessa Swales at 414-308-5881 or at [email protected]. Follow her on X @Vanessa_Swales.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ted Chisholm calls on Treasurer David Cullen to repay cost of mailers