Wisconsin 5th District

For decades, the orderly, heavily German-American factory city of Milwaukee has been spreading slowly, mostly west and north, into Wisconsin dairy country. There are high-income enclaves here, like close-in Elm Grove and exurban Oconomowoc, halfway to Madison and tucked in around numerous lakes. There is office development in Brookfield, and subdivisions spread out in Mequon and Menomonee Falls and farther, reaching small towns with roots in the 19th century. This is comfortable but not fancy territory, and the economy is still based heavily on skilled manufacturing. Not far from Milwaukee are Port Washington, with Allen-Edmonds shoes; West Bend, with West Bend kitchen appliances; and Pewaukee, with Harken sailboat hardware. Closer to Milwaukee are tonier, liberal suburbs along Lake Michigan, many with sizeable Jewish populations—Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, and Fox Point. In April 2006, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay voters approved referenda calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The 5th Congressional District of Wisconsin includes most of the western, northwestern and northern suburbs of Milwaukee. Among them are the close-in lakefront suburbs in Milwaukee County and the suburbs in Ozaukee County north of Milwaukee and in Washington County to the west. It also takes in most of the Milwaukee County suburbs of Wauwatosa and West Allis, most of the northern three tiers of townships in Waukesha County just to the west, and a part of Jefferson County farther west. Farmland in Ozaukee and Washington counties has dropped by one-third since the 1970s. This is by far the most Republican district in the state. It voted 62% and 63% for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, respectively. And it voted 58% for GOP nominee John McCain in 2008. It was the only district in Wisconsin that he carried.