Judge Pedro Colon is the wanna-be upwardly mobile former Democratic State Representative who was rewarded with a $128,000 a year Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judgeship in the waning days of the Doyle Administration.
Before being appointed to the bench by Doyle, Colon was probably best known for getting walloped in his 2008 race for Milwaukee City Attorney (40% of the vote), his aborted campaign for Mayor in 2003 and his unsuccessful attempt to be hired by MMSD after he announced his departure from the State Assembly. Colon also made headlines while in the Legislature for his classless verbal attack on another State Representative and his unsupported assertion that Milwaukee suburbs are hot beds of racial profiling.
Colon, now running for a full-term as a Milwaukee County Judge, drew two challengers. For much of the evening on Election Night, it appeared possible that he might actually finish third. As it turned out though, Colon was the top vote-getter with 36% of the vote. His two challengers, Glendale Municipal Judge Christopher Lipscomb and State DOJ Attorney Roy Korte finished second and third with 33% and 31% of the vote respectively.
Moving forward, the good news for Colon is that he survived and finished first in the Primary with 29,000 votes. The bad news is that 52,000 voters chose someone other than him.
It's possible that Colon can either expand his base or siphon off some of the votes that went to third place finisher Roy Korte. If I were a betting man though, I think it's more likely that Judge Colon will be plain old Mr. Colon after the April elections.
By the way, I continue to think that the best candidate was Roy Korte - who finished a close third. Frankly, from the perspective of conservative voters in Milwaukee County, I'm not sure that there's too much difference between the two finalists.
As to Judge Colon though, perhaps he should consider renting - not buying - those robes.
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