South Milwaukee Mayor Tom Zepecki has endorsed Jess Ripp, the Republican candidate vying to replace Jeff Plale in the state Senate’s 7th District.
You can read the release here. From it:
“With his background in small business and law, Jess is the perfect candidate to represent this district,” Zepecki said. “Our citizens have real concerns about rising government spending, tax increases, and vanishing jobs. Jess has the same concerns and understands what it will take to repair our economy and keep jobs in Wisconsin.”
For Ripp, an attorney and relative unknown politically, this endorsement is a nice win.
For Larson, a Milwaukee County supervisor, this will only further hurt his chances in South Milwaukee … although his prospects here seemed pretty bleak anyway. Keep in mind that voters backed Plale nearly two to one in South Milwaukee in the September primary, even as Larson rolled to victory elsewhere, winning 60 percent to 40 percent overall. This endorsement certainly won’t help turn those numbers around.
Still, a local endorsement in this race surprises me some because neither candidate, to my knowledge, has campaigned much in South Milwaukee.
I know I’ve never met either one of them, and I hope that changes. I want to feel confident that both candidates will stand up for our city in Madison come January … and alleviate the real concerns locally that South Milwaukee will be a forgotten part of the 7th District after the election.
South Milwaukee Blog 
I met Jess about a month ago. It was a very hot day as well, and he was all over the neighborhood (I am just south of the Little League Park) – I was impressed with him so much at the door, that I immediately went to his website to check him out, and than just liked him more by what I saw.
I emailed him some questions, and he emailed me back pretty quickly (must have been checking via his cell phone) and than he called me and asked if I wanted a yard sign, and I said ‘sure!’. He dropped it off a couple of hours later, I took a few more and passed them out to friends living to the north of me, a brother in law in Oak Creek and several friends who live near the high school.
I am very excited about what he is bringing to the election as well as hopefully after Nov 2.
He also was at Joes K Ranch for a get together with others running for office in the district. And I am hoping to be able to attend the luncheon with him and Paul Ryan next week.
Funny how Eriks link only works for Larsons website.
sorry, my bad.