Voters in the City of Glendale reelected incumbent mayor Bryan Kennedy to serve for a fourth term on Tuesday, April 2.
Kennedy has served in the role since he was first elected in 2015 and indicated his 2024 campaign would be his last for mayor of Glendale. His opponent, lawn care business owner Steve Bruckner, was Kennedy’s first challenger in nine years.
Kennedy received 2994 votes, or 79.29% of the total votes, while his challenger, newcomer Steve Bruckner received 772 votes, 20.44%, according to the Milwaukee County Clerk’s office.
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel early March, Kennedy touted his work in drawing new businesses to the city, lowering its tax rate, and reducing the debt it took on to finance new developments, including at Bayshore.
But Kennedy said there was more he wanted to do, including finishing a joint redesign and redevelopment project with the City of Milwaukee along Silver Spring Drive from 27th Street to the Milwaukee River that will make the roadway safer.
He sees it as a pilot for what the city could do on a number of other major roads in the city, like Green Bay and Good Hope, where speeding and reckless driving are prevalent.
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In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Bruckner said he wanted the city to spend less on bike and pedestrian projects, mass transit and parks.
But at the crux of Bruckner’s campaign was a promise to crack down on crime in Glendale, particularly retail theft and drug enforcement, a topic he frequently discusses on his Facebook page.
Living along the border of Glendale and the City of Milwaukee, Bruckner said his campaign was rooted in a desire to address experiences of hearing gunshots and witnessing reckless driving.
At the same time, in 1999, Bruckner received a felony conviction for possessing and intending to distribute cocaine, and, in 2010 he was ordered by the state to pay a $2,500 fine for misapplying pesticide chemicals, according to two complaints, one civil and one criminal, obtained by the Journal Sentinel from the Milwaukee County Clerk of Circuit Court. He ultimately received a pardon for the felony conviction from Gov. Tony Evers in March of 2023.
Asked whether these cases undermine his message on crime, Bruckner told the Journal Sentinel he wants other people committing crimes to learn the lesson he had to after he was arrested.
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