I haven't commented on the Milwaukee mayoral race in a few weeks so I thought I'd consume a few lines of text on that. It's safe to say that Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt has run one of the worst campaigns for local office I've ever seen.

First, Pratt's campaign has a $116,000 discrepency in its financing reports (a huge sum in a Milwaukee mayoral race). Then come reports that the District Attorney's office has opened a John Doe investigation into this matter.

If that wasn't bad enough, other signs of Pratt's inability to manage money came to light with news of his not paying the YMCA for a trip to Africa he took in 2001, and that the American Jewish Committee paid for a junket to Israel in 2002. More details are available at the website Waiting for Marvin.

The election is a week from Tuesday on April 6. I believe Pratt's opponent Tom Barrett is going to win this election, because of his integrity as a local leader. Barrett served the area well in the state legislature, and when he was in Congress. The city would do well to elect him the next mayor of Milwaukee.