One day early in his legislative career, state Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer (D–Manitowoc) got a telephone call from one of his constituents.
"He called me up and said ‘I’d like to spend a day shadowing you,’" recalls Ziegelbauer.
That’s not an uncommon request from high school or college students interested in a career in politics. The would-be job-shadower, however, was a middle-school student, Justin Nickels.
"We had a typical-session day in the Legislature, and he spent the whole day following me around," says Ziegelbauer. "Within a few months after that, I’m walking down the steps of the Capitol, and there he was — he was hanging out at the Capitol watching the Senate and the Assembly in action."
One decade later, Nickels is Manitowoc’s mayor, at 22 years old, the youngest mayor to be elected in Wisconsin’s spring general election. Nickels defeated Ald. Dave Soeldner by 17 votes.
"I love this, and I see this as an opportunity to do what I love to do in a different way," says Nickels.
The 22-year-old veteran
Not surprisingly given his early experiences, Nickels is not a political neophyte. He served two terms on the Manitowoc City Council, and was elected city council president for one year.
"I always had instilled in me by my parents and my grandparents — they were middle-class families — I’ve always wanted to help," says Nickels. "I tell people I’m not smart enough to be a doctor, and I’m not patient enough to be a teacher, but I can talk enough to be a politician."
Nickels’ first run for office — because the deadline for nomination papers was three days before his 18th birthday, his parents had to sign them — was against 16-year incumbent Ald. Larry Bergner.
"My mother thought I was crazy, but I told her this was what I wanted to do," says Nickels, who won with 57 percent of the vote to be the only new alderman on the Manitowoc City Council in 2005.
Even as a four-year City Council veteran, Nickels’ run for mayor a year after he could legally drink raised eyebrows. Even though Nickels was approached to run for mayor, the obvious issue Nickels had to surmount was his age.
"I said to myself, if another 22-year-old runs for mayor, would I vote for him?" he says. "The only thing we could think of was to laugh it off. Pretty much my answer was I can’t do anything about my age, but I can do something about the issues.
"I took the role of bringing forth ideas, whether they’d work or not. I was saying we need answers now — you’ve got to know what kind of mayor you’ll get."
Nickels’ predecessor, Kevin Crawford, who left office after 20 years, says Nickels’ age "can be a detriment, but in many ways it can be interesting. He’s got a lot of new faces on the City Council, plus one who hasn’t been elected from his old district. It takes people time to figure out how to get from point A to point B."
"I think the community, and I’m proud of this, gave up focusing on the fact that Justin is young, and are focusing on the issues we face," says Karen Szyman, executive director of The Chamber Manitowoc County.
Nickels believes Manitowoc is getting a mayor not substantially different from his predecessor.
"Basically he’s a guy with his eye on the future, and I am too," says Nickels. "I believe in investing your money in this community, and he did that. We better believe in investing our money on local business and the infrastructure of the community.
"Government has the ability to invest these dollars. That’s a liberal view, I guess."
Nickels does not plan to govern based on his 17-vote margin. "The election’s over, and I’m mayor of them all now," he says. "And I told them I’m mayor of all 34,000 people, and I need their help."
"Even though he won with 50.0001 percent of the vote, 100 percent of the people in Manitowoc want him to be successful," says Ziegelbauer.
Nickels believes cities should "provide basic needs for citizens — safety, health, quality of life — first and foremost. I said throughout the campaign that we provide quality services in Manitowoc — I’ve seen that for four years — and there is not one program I want to cut or eliminate. But we’ve spent foolishly in Manitowoc."
Nickels praises the growth of Manitowoc Public Utilities under Crawford’s stay in office, as well as the initiative to sell water to the Central Brown County Water Authority.
"Water’s going to be like gold, and we have it, and it’s clean," says Nickels.
Crawford, says Nickels, "changed the look of the mayor. I have big shoes to fill. He raised the bar as to what you should expect from your mayor."
City economics
Nickels’ top two issues were the economy and city debt, captured by his tagline "separating our wants from our needs in this economy." One example was his opposition to the city’s $5 million aquatic center, $2 million of which came from city funds. The aquatic center, designed to replace the Citizen Park pool that closed in 2003 because of leakage, is scheduled to open around Memorial Day 2010. Nickels was on the losing side of a 6–5 City Council vote, as was Soeldner.
"In this economy, I’d rather spend $2 million on our businesses," says Nickels, whose goal is to retire more debt each year than the city takes on. "This is a 10-year project to get the debt controlled while continuing to provide the services we provide."
Crawford sees "working your way back from a difficult economy" as the biggest challenge Nickels faces, along with the learning curve involved with making connections as a new mayor with the state and federal government.
