MAYORS: A Radical's Greening

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Soglin, as alderman, helped push through a bill enabling the city to take over Madison's failing private bus line and has since got $2.135 million in federal grants for buying new equipment. As a result of improvements made during his administration, ridership on the bus line is up 17% in the last year. The mayor has also tightened housing inspection procedures, started a fund to provide loans for home rehabilitation, and opened city government to more people. Of the 370 people Soglin has named to city committees, 47.7% have been women and, in a city where only 2% of the population is black, 12.4% of his appointees have been members of minority groups.

Still, Soglin has had his problems. Many policemen are upset over his support of David Couper, 31, an iconoclastic police chief whose enforcement of a merit system for promotion has made him enemies on the force. Members of Madison's business establishment feel that many of Soglin's committee appointees lack the expertise needed to deal with municipal problems. "These are a lot of people who have been in the stands watching but who haven't had a chance to play the game," says Robert Brennan, a former University of Wisconsin track coach and head of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, who has been working to bridge the gap between Soglin and the businessmen.

Nor has Soglin escaped criticism from his friends on the left. Some, pointing to the modest, $26,000 house he and his wife recently bought and to his $24,000 salary, suspect that he has gone bourgeois. Others feel that he has at least retreated from the radicalism of his student days. "There are council members who are submitting much more progressive legislation than Paul is," says Alderman Susan Kay Phillips, 29, a member of the radical Wisconsin Alliance. Even the university's Daily Cardinal, which endorsed his mayoral bid, has become critical. Soglin, it charged, has provided "mere efficiency, not change."

Soglin does not agree that he has changed in office; he dates his newly realistic attitude from the start of his mayoral campaign. "When I decided to run, I decided to run to win," he says. "I dropped the luxury of being able to pontificate about desirable societal goals. There are worthwhile things that can be done that are better than chasing after windmills."

No one has yet compared Soglin to Don Quixote. Most, in fact, recognize that Soglin is a shrewd politician with a good shot at re-election when his two-year term expires next April. He has disarmed many of the city's conservatives and picked up a new constituency among the moderates. He feels that he has held onto the support of all but the most disillusioned radicals. Soglin would like another term in which to carry out some of his ideas on housing and land-use planning. Beyond that, he says he has higher ambitions. If he wins a second term as mayor of Wisconsin's capital city, he might be in a position to realize them.