Joel Brennan enters governor’s race

Another candidate has entered the crowded Democratic field for Governor. 

Joel Brennan announced his campaign on Thursday. He’s currently president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, previously headed up the Discovery World in Milwaukee, and served for three years as a Cabinet Secretary under Governor Evers. 

Brennan says he’s worked in public policy for three and a half decades. And he gave other numbers introducing himself in a campaign launch video. 

“Ten. That’s how many siblings I grew up with right here in Wisconsin. We were long on potential, although sometimes a little short on resources. 49, that’s how many points future NBA star Nick Van Etzel and I combined to score when we played each other in high school. I had 8, he had the rest. 5, that’s how many jobs I had to help pay my way through college. Like landscaping, making copies, retail, and deep-frying egg rolls. Zero, the number of functioning blinkers on my first car.” 

Brennan worked for three years as Secretary of the Department of Administration. He was one of Evers’ only cabinet appointees who got some support from Republicans. 

“By the time that I left after three years, we had a surplus of about 4 billion dollars, a rainy day fund that had gone from a couple hundred million dollars to nearly $1.7 billion. And it was a time that I was really proud of,” he said in an interview with Civic Media’s Pat Kreitlow.

Brennan’s brother-in-law is Kevin Conroy, CEO of Exact Sciences, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  

The publicly-traded company is headquartered in Madison, and in the process of selling to Abbott Laboratories for a whopping $23 billion. 

Brennan joins a crowded family of Democratic candidates. The most recently-added name is former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who announced his campaign last week.

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