Guess the Party II

Guess the Party*
In July 2006, the New York Times published a 2,900-word feature about Racine, a city in southeastern Wisconsin. It began as follows:

Gary Becker, this city's mayor, remembers handing out fliers at local factory gates as a 10-year-old campaigner in Hubert H. Humphrey's ill-fated presidential bid in 1968. Mr. Becker, 48, is still a Democrat . . .

Note that this is not the Gary Becker from the University of Chicago. Mayor Becker is in the news again, as Racine's Journal Times reports:

Mayor Gary Becker has been arrested on multiple felony charges related to attempted sexual assault of a child and having child pornography, according to a state agency.

Becker was taken into custody at Brookfield Square Mall in Brookfield on Tuesday afternoon. He was arrested on charges of child enticement, possession of child pornography, exposing a child to harmful materials, attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and misconduct in public office, according to the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation.

The Racine paper, however, makes no mention of Becker's party affiliation. Maybe they figure Raciners all know it, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Associated Press don't mention it either. The Journal Sentinel, however, does manage to mention the affiliation of an innocent local pol:

"It's tragic news for both the mayor and his family, and for the people of the city of Racine," said John Lehman, a Racine state representative and Democrat who served with Becker on the Racine Common Council. "It saddens people all over town."

What about the Times? It runs a paragraph from AP:

Mayor Gary Becker of Racine was arrested Tuesday on tentative charges of attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, child enticement and possession of child pornography, state officials said. Mr. Becker, left, was also accused of exposing a child to harmful materials, using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and misconduct in public office, according to a news release by the State Department of Justice. Mr. Becker, 51, was freed Wednesday evening on a $165,000 cash bond. The Racine police received a tip two weeks ago about possible criminal activity involving Mr. Becker, Lt. James Dobbs said. Racine is Wisconsin's fifth-largest city, with about 80,000 residents. It is on Lake Michigan, about 30 miles south of Milwaukee.

We suppose that "left" in the second sentence could be an ideological label, but more likely it's a photo-caption artifact. Oh well, at least we knew what party he still was in 2006.

*From th Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2009