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| Affiliation | Nonpartisan |
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| Name | Thomas G. Nardelli |
| Address |
Milwaukee, Wisconsin , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | Thomas Walker
May 23, 2005 05:36pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | It's easy to picture Tom Nardelli as a boy, chasing around his neighborhood on the lower east side, cracking jokes and poking fun at himself, but standing his ground in schoolyard disputes.
That energetic boy hasn't changed much, even after a military career, five political defeats and 17 years on the Milwaukee Common Council.
Nardelli still talks with a boyish enthusiasm and vows he "won't back away from a fight."
His high-speed monologues mix self-deprecating one-liners with barbs at former Mayor John O. Norquist and show that he's passionate about the city, believes he knows how to fix its problems and tries not to take himself too seriously.
Voters might not choose him as their next mayor, but he's likely the one they'd choose to share a fish fry.
"One thing about Tom, he's an honest guy," said Dominic Frinzi, an attorney who has known Nardelli since he was a boy. "He's a man of integrity. He's firm in his positions and he's a straight shooter."
Even Nardelli's philosophical opposites on the Common Council speak highly of his honesty and respectfulness, qualities he developed in that old neighborhood in the shadow of St. Rita's Catholic Church.
"I'm proud of my heritage," said Nardelli, 59. "I grew up around hard-working people with Christian values."
His mother taught him to remember who he was and where he came from. And her reminder - "Don't get too big for your britches" - spills out in Nardelli's humor. In an interview, he referred to himself several times as merely a "dumb alderman" and dismissed press conferences as a self-serving way to draw attention to one's work.
"Some people take themselves too seriously," he said. "If you think you're better than anyone you serve, then you probably shouldn't be in office."
Persistent approach
Perhaps his view also was shaped by his long struggle to win an election.
He graduated from Riverside High School, worked for a time as a shoe salesman, then signed on for a full-time job in the Army Reserve. He retired as a lieutenant colonel, after 25 years.
Nardelli developed an appetite for politics working on various campaigns in the 1950s, including Dominic Frinzi's race for governor.
He ran his own campaign for the first time in 1966, in a race for alderman. He lost.
That same year he ran for the School Board. He lost.
In 1974, he ran for the Milwaukee County Board. He lost.
In 1978, he ran again for the Common Council. And he lost again.
Finally, in 1986, Nardelli won a seat representing the northwest side, District 15. He's held on to it since.
"He is a bulldog, and I say that in a favorable way," said Franklyn Gimbel, who serves with Nardelli on the Wisconsin Center District board.
As board chairman, Gimbel appointed Nardelli to head the project development committee, which had oversight duties for construction of the Midwest Airlines Center and the remodeling of the Milwaukee Theatre.
"He beat the crap out of the builders and expediters and made them live up to their commitments," Gimbel said.
In his years as an alderman, Nardelli developed a reputation as being feisty and sometimes abrasive.
He failed to gather enough support among his fellow aldermen in a bid for Common Council president in 1992 and lost in the primary race for county executive in 2002. That effort cost him most of a $200,000 campaign fund he had amassed for a run for mayor and possibly diminished his stature among voters.
Former Common Council President John Kalwitz said Nardelli has hurt himself at times with a rush to judgment and enthusiasm overwhelming the need for a more thoughtful approach.
"He had his feet on the ground, but he always had an opinion," said Kalwitz, who served with Nardelli for 17 years.
Lessons from Nardelli's past shaped his conduct as an alderman in other ways. He watched the city's spending as closely, and he ran meetings with attention to military order.
Frinzi said Nardelli brought the same fiscal approach to his stint as president of the Italian Community Center from 1995 to '97.
"He was kind of thrifty, not a spend-thrift, but he kept people straight," Frinzi said.
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