CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – When he was Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani appeared at a event dressed as a woman. It was a fundraiser for an AIDS charity.
22 years later, the pictures are still online. They are easy to find.
And Rudy Giuliani today says he’s glad that he raised money for a worthy cause, but he regrets dressing in drag. As he explains now – that’s not what the mayor of a major city does. If you want to be taken seriously, you don’t do un-serious things.
Which brings us to Wausau’s 30-something mayor Katie Rosenberg.
When she was elected last spring, her now infamous tweet was “Holy Balls!” It immediately started trending on social media. That’s not because our mayor is witty or clever. It’s because that’s not the language of politics. It’s not how political leaders talk. And it wasn’t some spontaneous outburst at a moment of victory. The mayor says she’s used that expression at least a dozen times on her personal twitter account. It’s part of how she expresses herself.
Wausau’s mayor is also particularly proud of the ballot drop box outside of City Hall. Never mind that drop boxes are not part of state election law, and can’t be used under court order. But there’s Mayor Rosenberg twerking in front of it. She posted that video online too. Needless to say, a mayor bent over with her posterior sticking out is… not expected from a city’s chief executive. And more serious people have figured out that drop boxes make ballot harvesting infinitely easier and almost impossible to trace .Not something to celebrate.
I get it, the mayor is a millennial. And I’m… older. And I’m not against having fun.
My point is this. Someday a large company will consider whether to move to Wausau. Someday there will be a crisis or an emergency And the Mayor will be the face of the city. And at those moments all the child-of-the-90s, rollerblading, skull-print skirt wearing persona won’t amount to anything. There will be a time when Wausau will need a mayor who acts like a serious person – like… a mayor.
-Chris Conley
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