Ambassador Tom Barrett: A change of address for Milwaukee’s long-serving mayor
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Luxembourg, really? That tiny chip of marble in the mosaic of Europe? That minuscule pawn in the endless continental chess game? That full-fledged United Nations member with half the population of metro Milwaukee?
Yes, that’s where Tom Barrett is headed. As unlikely as it might seem, Milwaukee’s mayor is ending, or at least extending, his long political career by serving as America’s ambassador to the last grand duchy in the world. It would appear to be a plum assignment, a post where the crises are few, the accommodations well above average, and the food cooked to order. A tuxedo, I’m sure, will be an essential part of Barrett’s ambassadorial wardrobe.
Although his nomination is secure, it might be a while before the mayor gets to wear that tux. Positioning himself as the anti-Biden in anticipation of the next presidential race, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is blocking every diplomatic appointment until he gets his way on a new European pipeline; the number of prospective ambassadors currently languishing in limbo approaches 100. How Cruz’s obstructionism advances American interests abroad is an excellent question. For the moment, at least, it leaves our mayor all dressed up with nowhere to go.
RELATED: Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett nominated to be ambassador to Luxembourg by President Biden
Barrett, for his part, is a picture of patience. “I’m not clamoring to get out of town,” he told me. “I love being mayor, and I’m not running from something but to something.” His fondest hope is that Senate confirmation will come in time for Milwaukee’s next mayor to be chosen in the regular spring contest of 2022, avoiding a costly special election.
And how does a Midwestern mayor become a European ambassador these days? It mattered, of course, that Joe Biden carried Wisconsin in the last presidential race. Barrett, one of the state’s most prominent Democrats and a two-time gubernatorial nominee, worked hard for the Biden-Harris ticket and played an even larger role in planning for the aborted Democratic national convention. When the dust settled, it was hardly surprising that he would be considered for a post in the Biden administration.
An ambassadorship emerged as a distinct possibility, but Luxembourg was a complete surprise. One contributing factor, oddly enough, was a fact Barrett mentioned briefly in talks with the Biden team: All four of his kids had attended the German Immersion School, an MPS specialty program, and German is one of the principal languages spoken in Luxembourg. In politics, as in life, so much depends on circumstance.
The mayor’s personal circumstances played a pivotal role in his decision to accept the job. His children are grown and gone, his wife, Kris, was on the verge of retirement as a teacher, and at 67 he could see the first rays of the sunset peeking over the horizon. The prospect of one more adventure had understandable appeal.
Barrett was also nearing the end of his 17th year in office — the longest tenure of any mayor currently serving in the nation’s 50 largest cities.
“Being Milwaukee’s mayor has been an incredible honor and experience,” he said, “but as George Harrison sang, ‘All things must pass.’ The time comes when you say, ‘Let’s see what someone else can do.’”
The ambassador’s post, when it finally comes, will be the capstone of a remarkably long and diverse political career. Tom Barrett has held elective office almost continuously since 1984, moving stepwise from the Wisconsin Assembly to the state Senate before spending a decade in Congress and then taking up quarters in City Hall. Service on the state, national and local levels was already a rare trifecta, and now Barrett will add foreign affairs to his resume, even if he’ll be in one of the world’s quieter corners.
A capstone for Barrett will also be a turning point in Milwaukee’s political history. It is a remarkable fact that the city has had only seven elected mayors in the last 105 years, and that includes one who was lost at sea during World War II. Socialist Dan Hoan served from 1916 to 1940, Carl Zeidler (the war casualty) until 1942, John Bohn until 1948, Frank Zeidler until 1960, Henry Maier until 1988, John Norquist until 2003, and Tom Barrett since 2004. Milwaukee loves stability.
I’ve always been an unabashed Barrett fan. For nearly 18 years, the mayor has governed with common sense, good humor and transparent decency. He is a past master at retail politics, moving with grace and ease through any social situation, and he has been a vocal cheerleader for the region. Barrett has proven less adept at what George H.W. Bush memorably called “the vision thing.” There have been no signature initiatives during his long tenure — no Summerfests or Riverwalks — and his sense of the city’s broader possibilities has seemed murky at times. The mayor’s focus has been on maintaining rather than innovating, but that need not be considered a weakness. Simply managing a major city, particularly in the face of economic turmoil, rapid social change and the entrenched resistance of a hostile state Legislature, has been, in his own words, “no easy feat.”
And what awaits our mayor on the far side of the Atlantic? Spending an hour at the Luxembourg American Cultural Society’s museum and research center, just off I-43 in the Ozaukee County village of Belgium, provides a great orientation. Today’s Luxembourg, you’ll learn, is a country feeling its oats after a long period of restive submission. Wedged between France, Germany and Belgium, it was for centuries an appendage of foreign powers, including Spain, France, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and Prussia. Luxembourg did not achieve independence until 1839, and even then it was under Netherlands’ thumb until 1890. The result was a tenuous national identity. The country did not adopt an official flag until 1972 or a national anthem until 1993.
In more recent years, Luxembourg has taken advantage of its central position in Europe to become a nexus of political power on the continent and a financial center of global importance. (Its dozens of banks are still trying to shed a reputation for money-laundering; North Korea’s Kim Jong Un reportedly has billions sheltered in the country.) Ambassador Barrett will find a nation that is fabulously wealthy, exorbitantly expensive and culturally secure.
He may also experience some echoes of home. It’s highly unlikely that President Biden’s team was aware of the connection, but the largest rural settlement of Luxembourgers in America emerged in northeastern Ozaukee County, particularly around Belgium. (Why did the newcomers name their settlement Belgium? Because they were from a region that had recently been ceded to that country, and they decided to honor the new political boundaries in naming their Wisconsin home.)
Beginning in 1845, nearly 400 families put down roots in the area. Their descendants are still there, and many have maintained ties with European relatives who will no doubt greet Barrett warmly. Not that he has much in common politically with the American cousins. In 2020 Donald Trump took 68% of the votes cast in the town and village of Belgium — well ahead of his 55% majority in Ozaukee County as a whole.
Milwaukee and Luxembourg have other things in common, beginning with diversity. The country’s permeable borders and small size have encouraged an exceptionally high level of multilingualism, a trait amplified by Luxembourg’s huge immigrant population. Nearly half its residents — the highest proportion in the European Union — have roots in other countries, including Portugal, of all places.
An even more basic shared trait is psychological. My friend Kevin Wester, an Ozaukee County native who has become a sort of professional Luxembourger, has spent months at a time in his ancestral homeland. Wester characterizes Luxembourg as “a big small town.” Sound familiar? The country has a population of about 640,000, not much larger than the city of Milwaukee’s 577,000, and it’s similarly easy to navigate. “Everyone knows everyone,” Wester observed, “and it’s easy to get things done on a personal basis. The size is the magic.” Milwaukee has found a similarly congenial spot between large and small that Barrett might recognize instinctively.
I’ll miss Tom Barrett’s steady presence in the mayor’s office, but I won’t second-guess his decision to move on. “I’ve worked as hard as I can for as long as I can,” he said, “and I haven’t taken my foot off the accelerator.” But the mayor grew more philosophical late in our conversation. “That’s the thing about cities,” he reflected. “They’re always changing. There are always new challenges and new opportunities. We get our turn, and then we hand off the baton.”
Bon voyage, Tom, whenever your journey begins, and don’t forget to write.
John Gurda writes a column on local history for the Ideas Lab on the first Sunday of every month. Email: mail@johngurda.com
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ambassador Tom Barrett: A change of address for Milwaukee mayor
