Madison, Wisconsin
| Madison, Wisconsin | |
 | |
| General information | |
Mayor of Madison
Satya Rhodes-Conway | |
| Last mayoral election: | 2023 |
| Next mayoral election: | 2027 |
| Last city council election: | 2023 |
| Next city council election: | 2025 |
| City council seats: | 20 |
| City website | |
| Composition data (2019) | |
| Population: | 254,977 |
| Race: | White 78.6% African American 7.0% Asian 9.0% Native American 0.5% Pacific Islander 0.1% Two or more 3.5% |
| Ethnicity: | Hispanic 7.0% |
| Median household income: | $65,332 |
| High school graduation rate: | 95.5% |
| College graduation rate: | 57.9% |
| Related Madison offices | |
| Wisconsin Congressional Delegation Wisconsin State Legislature Wisconsin state executive offices | |
Madison is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin. The city's population was 269,840 as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Click on the links below to learn more about the city's...
- Mayor
- City council
- Other elected officials
- Elections
- Census information
- Budget
- Contact information
- Ballot measures
- County government
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Madison utilizes a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.
Mayor
The mayor serves as the city's chief executive. The responsibilities of the mayor include proposing a budget, signing legislation into law, appointing departmental directors, and overseeing the city's day-to-day operations. The mayor also represents the city on the state, national, and international levels.[1] The current Mayor of Madison is Satya Rhodes-Conway. Rhodes-Conway assumed office in 2019.
City council
The Madison City Council, which is more commonly known as the Common Council, is the city's primary legislative body. It is also responsible for approving and adopting the city budget.[2]
The city council is made up of 20 members, who go by the title of alders. Each alder is elected by one of Madison's 20 districts for two-year terms.[3]
The widget below automatically displays information about city council meetings. The topic list contains a sampling of keywords that Voterheads, a local government monitoring service, found in each meeting agenda. Click the meeting link to see more info and the full agenda:
Other elected officials
Ballotpedia does not cover any additional city officials in Madison, Wisconsin.
Mayoral partisanship
Madison has a Democratic mayor. As of March 2025, 65 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 25 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, two are independents, four identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and three mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Elections
2025
The city of Madison, Wisconsin, is holding general elections for Common Council seats and municipal court judge on April 1, 2025. A primary was scheduled for February 18, 2025. The filing deadline for this election was January 7, 2025.
2023
The city of Madison, Wisconsin, held general elections for mayor and city council on April 4, 2023. A primary was scheduled for February 21, 2023, for the seats that had three or more candidates file to run. The filing deadline for this election was January 3, 2023.
2021
The city of Madison, Wisconsin, held general elections for common council and municipal judge on April 6, 2021. A primary was scheduled for February 16, 2021. The filing deadline for this election was January 5, 2021.
2020
The city of Madison, Wisconsin, held a special election for the district 8 alderperson on April 7, 2020. A primary was scheduled for February 18, 2020. The filing deadline for this election was January 7, 2020.
Incumbent Sally Rohrer did not file for the District 8 special election. She was appointed to the seat on November 5, 2019, to fill a vacancy.[4]
2019
2017
The city of Madison, Wisconsin, held an election for common council on April 4, 2017. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was January 3, 2017.
All 20 common council seats were up for election in 2017. Incumbents ran for re-election in 19 of the 20 districts. They were unopposed in 15 of those races.
2015
The city of Madison, Wisconsin, held nonpartisan elections for mayor and city council on April 7, 2015. In races with more than two candidates, a primary took place on February 17, 2015. These included the races for mayor and Districts 1 and 14. The top two vote-getters in these races advanced to the general election. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was January 6, 2015. All 20 city council seats were up for election.
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about the city.
| Demographic Data for Madison | |
|---|---|
| Madison | |
| Population | 269,840 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 83 |
| Race and ethnicity** | |
| White | 73% |
| Black/African American | 7.1% |
| Asian | 8% |
| Native American | 0.4% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| Two or more | 9.4% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 9.3% |
| Education | |
| High school graduation rate | 95.7% |
| College graduation rate | 59.2% |
| Income | |
| Median household income | $76,983 |
| Persons below poverty level | 16.2% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2018-2023). | |
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | |
Budget
The city's budget process operates on a fiscal year cycle from January 1 to December 31. The city charter gives responsibility for drafting a budget to the mayor. The mayor's draft of the budget is called the executive budget. Once completed, the mayor introduces the executive budget to the city council in October. The budget is then presented to the board of estimates, followed by a public hearing. Once the board of estimates has amended the budget, the city council has a chance to amend it. Another public hearing is then held in November to present the amendments to the public. The city council must then adopt the budget.[5]
Fiscally standardized cities data
The fiscally standardized cities (FiSC) data below was compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to make municipal budgets comparable across cities in the United States.[6]
| “ |
FiSCs are constructed by adding revenues and expenditures of each central city municipal government to a portion of the revenues and expenditures of overlying governments, including counties, independent school districts, and special districts. The allocations to FiSCs are estimates of the revenues collected from and services provided to central city residents and businesses by these overlying independent governments. Thus FiSCs provides a full picture of revenues raised from city residents and businesses and spending on their behalf, whether done by the city government or a separate overlying government.[7] |
” |
| —Lincoln Institute of Land Policy[8] | ||
The tables below show estimated finances within city limits. As such, the revenue and expenses listed may differ from the actual city budget.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Historical total revenue and expenditure
To see the historical total revenue or expenditures as a rounded amount in this city, hover over the bars.[6]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ City of Madison, "Office of the Mayor," accessed August 18, 2014
- ↑ City of Madison, "City Council," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ City of Madison, "Common Council: Members," accessed August 18, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin State Journal, "UW grad student Sally Rohrer appointed to open seat on Madison City Council," November 6, 2019
- ↑ City of Madison, "2022 Adopted Budget," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities database," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ Wisconsin Public Radio, "Violence Erupts In Madison After Demonstrators Gather Across Wisconsin Demanding Justice For George Floyd," May 31, 2020
- ↑ NBC 15, "Wisconsin National Guard to assist Madison police with looting," May 31, 2020
- ↑ Movement Advancement Project, "Local Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinances," accessed July 7, 2015
- ↑ Vox, "No charges for the Wisconsin police officer who killed unarmed teen Tony Robinson," May 12, 2015
- ↑ Race to Equity, A Baseline Report on the State of Racial Disparities in Dane County, accessed October 2, 2013
- ↑ Madison.com, "Mayor Paul Soglin's statement on the Tony Robinson shooting," March 7, 2015
- ↑ Madison.com, "Tony Robinson shooting investigation will be turned over to district attorney on Friday," March 24, 2015
- ↑ BET, "No Charges for Officer Who Killed Tony Robinson Jr.," May 12, 2015
 |
State of Wisconsin Madison (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |