John Chisholm
John Chisholm (Democratic Party) was the Milwaukee County District Attorney in Wisconsin. Chisholm assumed office in 2007. Chisholm left office on January 6, 2025.
Chisholm (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for Milwaukee County District Attorney in Wisconsin. Chisholm won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Biography
John Chisholm attended Marquette University where he received his undergraduate degree.[1]
He went on to law school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison where he graduated in 1994. He was admitted to the Wisconsin Bar on June 21, 1994.[2]
He served as a First Lieutenant in the Army. Before running for Milwaukee County DA, he had never run for another public office.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Municipal elections in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin (2020)
General election
General election for Milwaukee County District Attorney
Incumbent John Chisholm won election in the general election for Milwaukee County District Attorney on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | John Chisholm (D) | 97.7 | 336,608 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 2.3 | 8,092 | ||
| Total votes: 344,700 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Milwaukee County District Attorney
Incumbent John Chisholm advanced from the Democratic primary for Milwaukee County District Attorney on August 11, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | John Chisholm | 98.9 | 88,191 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.1 | 963 | ||
| Total votes: 89,154 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Chisholm did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Noteworthy events
John Doe investigations
Two John Doe investigations, beginning in 2010 and ending in 2015, were launched by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm (D) into the activities of staff and associates of Gov. Scott Walker (R).[3] In September 2014, Stuart Taylor, of the American Media Institute, published an article in Legal Newsline detailing what a source described as Chisholm's potential motive for pursuing the John Doe investigations. In the article, Taylor wrote:[4]
| “ | Now a longtime Chisholm subordinate reveals for the first time in this article that the district attorney may have had personal motivations for his investigation. Chisholm told him and others that Chisholm’s wife, Colleen, a teacher’s union shop steward at a school in St. Francis, which is near Milwaukee, had been repeatedly moved to tears by Walker’s anti-union policies in 2011, according to the former staff prosecutor in Chisholm’s office. Chisholm said in the presence of the former prosecutor that his wife 'frequently cried when discussing the topic of the union disbanding and the effect it would have on the people involved … She took it personally.'
Citing fear of retaliation, the former prosecutor declined to be identified and has not previously talked to reporters. Chisholm added, according to that prosecutor, that 'he felt that it was his personal duty to stop Walker from treating people like this.' [...] Still, Chisholm’s private displays of partisan animus stunned the former prosecutor. 'I admired him [Chisholm] greatly up until this whole thing started,' the former prosecutor said. 'But once this whole matter came up, it was surprising how almost hyper-partisan he became … It was amazing … to see this complete change.' The culture in the Milwaukee district attorney’s office was stoutly Democratic, the former prosecutor said, and become more so during Gov. Walker’s battle with the unions. Chisholm 'had almost like an anti-Walker cabal of people in his office who were just fanatical about union activities and unionizing. And a lot of them went up and protested. They hung those blue fists on their office walls [to show solidarity with union protestors] … At the same time, if you had some opposing viewpoints that you wished to express, it was absolutely not allowed.'[5] |
” |
| —Stuart Taylor | ||
Samuel Leib, Chisholm’s private lawyer, responded to the allegations, saying they amounted to a "baseless character assault" that "is inaccurate in a number of critical ways." He provided no specifics. He added that "John Chisholm’s integrity is beyond reproach."[4]
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "In district attorney's race, experience is key," October 30, 2006
- ↑ State Bar of Wisconsin, "Atty. John Theodore Chisholm," accessed May 8, 2015
- ↑ United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Milwaukee Division, "Eric O’Keefe, and Wisconsin Club for Growth, Inc.," accessed February 23, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Legal Newsline, "District attorney’s wife drove case against Wis. Gov. Walker, insider says," September 9, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
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 |