Kathleen Falk

Kathleen Falk
Kathleen Falk at a rally
Dane County Executive
In office April 21, 1997 – April 18, 2011
Preceded by	Richard J. Phelps
Succeeded by	Joe Parisi
Assistant Attorney General
In office 1983–1997
Personal details
Born	June 24, 1951 (1951-06-24) Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Peter Bock (m. 2002)
Children	Eric Phillips
Residence	Madison, Wisconsin
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin Law School (J.D.) Stanford University (B.A.)
Profession	Prosecutor, Politician

Kathleen Falk (born June 26, 1951) is an American politician who was the County Executive of Dane County, Wisconsin, serving from 1997 until 2011. In 2006, she was the Democratic Party nominee for the office of Attorney General of Wisconsin. She was an Assistant Attorney General and Public Intervenor in the Wisconsin Department of Justice from 1983 to 1997. Prior to her tenure as a prosecutor, Falk served as co-director and counsel to the Wisconsin Environmental Decade. She was the first woman elected Dane County Executive and in 2002 she became the first major party woman candidate for governor in Wisconsin’s history.

Falk is currently considered a leading potential Democratic candidate to run against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is facing the prospect of a 2012 recall.

Personal life

Falk was born in Milwaukee, grew up in Waukesha County and lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She earned a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University in 1973 and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1976. She is also a graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program. Falk is married to former Democratic State Representative Peter Bock. She has one son, Eric Phillips, and is an avid baseball fan, bicyclist, hunter, and angler.

Professional life

Falk has served as an award-winning environmental advocate, an assistant attorney general and as Dane County’s longest-serving chief executive. During her more than three decades in public service, she has been praised as an accomplished public budgeter and manager, a fierce advocate for the poor, an aggressive environmental steward and an innovative bipartisan problem-solver who is willing to form coalitions to tackle tough challenges.

Dane County Executive (1997-2011)

Balanced budgets

The Dane County budget is an annual $500 million outlay that includes resources for public safety, transportation, social services and land use, among other expenditures. During Falk’s 14-year tenure as the county’s chief executive officer, Falk implemented cost-saving mergers of county departments, vetoed expensive borrowing for jail construction and ended Dane County’s wasteful practice of sending its inmates to other counties. Falk has also been an aggressive advocate for state and federal dollars tabbed for economic development and social services, lessening the burden of these expenditures on local taxpayers.

Falk has received widespread credit for authoring and abiding by a self-imposed property tax limit and for her fiscal stewardship of the county during difficult economic times.

Public safety

Immediately after taking office, Falk announced a series of budget priorities aimed at fighting crime and modernizing the county’s law enforcement infrastructure.

For the next decade Falk’s budget priorities led to significant investments in public safety programs and law-enforcement infrastructure. During her tenure, she created 134 new positions in the county’s sheriff’s department, she opened a state-of-the-art juvenile justice facility, and launched a groundbreaking community-based initiative aimed at gang prevention. Falk has repeatedly invested in jail diversion programs for non-violent substance-addicted offenders and has been praised for launching a sweeping effort to target the root causes of alcohol addiction and its impact on public safety.

Labor negotiator

During her time as county executive, Falk, a former union member herself, was a negotiator with the county’s more than 2,000 union members. She consistently achieved labor cost-savings while at the same time participating in good-faith negotiations that led to improved worker protections and output levels. This management balance made the county’s workforce more efficient and has earned Falk public- and private-sector union political support in every race of her political career.

Land use and open space

As an award-winning environmental advocate, Falk’s time in the county executive’s office was marked by a series of high-profile and innovative land use initiatives. In 1999, she struck the first-ever agreement with the state to fund an environmental protection plan for a local highway development. That same year, Falk put forward and won a countywide referendum to create the county’s first conservation fund, a pool of money that has since protected more than 11,000 acres of land for public use.

Falk drafted three bold development and land protection plans during her time in office. The plans provided a first-of-its-kind countywide vision for how to progressively combine environment and farmland protections with sustainable development and economic growth. Falk’s long-term vision for the county’s natural spaces also included Wisconsin’s first-ever bans on law fertilizer containing phosphorus and on toxic tar sealant, and one of the strongest storm water regulations in the nation.

In 2010, Falk proposed and helped install one of the nation’s first neighboring-farm manure digesters to target phosphorus and runoff pollution in the county’s lakes and streams. The facility has since been heralded as an innovative, cost-effective way not only to protect the environment but also to grow green farm jobs, provide green energy and help Wisconsin’s dairy industry expand.

Falk has also been praised for her successful efforts to procure additional county park space and for the creation of a state park on the shore of Lake Waubesa.

Human services

While Falk’s balanced budgets and capped property tax levies won her praise from fiscal conservatives, many of her hallmark initiatives were the result of highly acclaimed investments in social services helping children, the poor, disabled and elderly. Dane County ranked the highest in per-person social service spending in Wisconsin under Falk’s leadership.

Falk’s social service budget priorities included groundbreaking measures aimed at renewing blighted communities, increasing the number of youth centers, expanding affordable housing, and providing health care for children in low-income families.

In 2005, Falk created the “Early Childhood Initiative,” which directed resources and job training to the parents of newborns. Since its inception, it has served more than 250 families in the county’s four poorest neighborhoods. Three years later, Falk launched an ambitious effort to combat the abuse of alcohol in the county. Falk’s model incorporated citizen coalitions, alcohol treatment for non-violent offenders, increased drunk-driving enforcement, a middle school education plan and an intervention pilot program targeting chronic abusers.

Resignation

Falk stepped down as county executive in April 2010, citing an interest in contributing to public policy in a new way following 14 years as the county’s chief elected official. Her tenure in office made her the longest serving county executive in the office’s history. “As I looked at what I set out to do, what we have done, and where I can best serve -- the answer was clear. As I approach the seventh decade of my life, it's time for me to find that next chapter of how I can make a contribution,” Falk said at a press conference in October 2010.

Assistant Attorney General (1983-1997)

In 1983, Falk became an assistant attorney general in the State of Wisconsin Department of Justice, where she was appointed Public Intervenor by Attorney General Bronson La Follette. In her role as the state’s principal environmental watchdog, Falk’s work included litigation, lobbying and advocacy before agencies, courts and the legislature on a wide variety of matters including wetlands and farmland protection, transportation, mining and septage regulation, prevention of water pollution and urban sprawl, providing public access to navigable waters and encouraging fair procedural and substantive agency decisions. The Public Intervenor position was eliminated by Republican Governor Tommy Thompson in 1995.

Following the elimination, Falk was assigned to the Department of Justice’s Government Operations and Administrative Law Unit. Her responsibilities included litigation on behalf of and in defense of the State relating to constitutional claims, voting rights and school finance law, and the defense of state agencies. In addition to litigation responsibilities, Falk also provided advice and assistance to government officials and citizens with inquiries about the state’s open meetings law.

Wisconsin Environmental Decade (1977-1983)

Following her graduation from law school, Falk became the co-director and general counsel for Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, Inc., a non-profit public interest organization devoted to litigating and lobbying for environmental protection goals. As co-director, Falk supervised a program and fundraising staff of more than 70 people, providing long-range policy direction for the organization, and overseeing development and implementation of a budget. As in-house counsel for the organization, she was responsible for tax, labor, business, corporate affairs and litigation. Falk's legal victories in the Wisconsin Supreme Court created national precedents in environmental protection and consumer utility law.

Awards

During her more than three decades of public service, Falk has received dozens of awards and recognitions from environmental groups, business interests, women’s organizations, LGBT and equality advocates, advocates for the disabled, conservation groups, the American Legion and domestic violence support groups.

Political history

Falk made her first run for public office in 1996, joining a field of accomplished local leaders in the highly-competitive open race for Dane County Executive. She went on to stun the political establishment by finishing first in the runoff and eventually defeating a long-time conservative county board member, Mike Blaska. She was later re-elected a Dane County record three times (2001, 2005, 2009), all by wide margins.

In 2002, Falk became Wisconsin’s first woman candidate for governor from a major political party. Though heavily outspent by a Democratic field that included an attorney general and U.S. congressman, strong debate performances and positive editorial coverage allowed Falk’s campaign to surge in the final month. On election night, Falk collected more than 27% of the vote in the three-way primary.

In 2006, Falk challenged and defeated Wisconsin’s embattled attorney general in a Democratic primary election. Falk would lose the general election race by fewer than 9,000 votes out of more than 2.1 million cast, despite being targeted by nearly $3 million in negative ads by conservative special interests.

Falk has recently been confirmed as a contender to challenge Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in an ongoing recall attempt triggered by Walker’s dismantling of the state’s collective bargaining protections for public employees. Falk announced her candidacy for governor on January 18, 2012.

Electoral history

Dane County Executive General Election 2009
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Kathleen Falk	59,180	59.29
	Republican	Nancy Mistele	40,495	40.57

Wisconsin Attorney General Election 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	J.B. Van Hollen	1,065,453	50.15
	Democratic	Kathleen Falk	1,056,594	49.74

Wisconsin Attorney General Election 2006 - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Kathleen Falk	193,400	52.93
	Democratic	Peg Lautenschlager (incumbent)	171,750	47.00

Wisconsin Gubernatorial Election 2002 - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Jim Doyle	212,066	38.36
	Democratic	Tom Barrett	190,605	34.48
	Democratic	Kathleen Falk	150,161	27.16

Notes

Preceded by Richard Phelps

Dane County Executive 1997 – 2011

Succeeded by Joe Parisi

External links

• Dane County Executive biography
• Falk County Executive campaign website