Did Duey Stroebel Do It?

An “anonymous objector” on Duey’s committee nearly derailed the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Project.

Here’s what we know.
GOP State Senator Duey Stroebel:

  • Refused to comment when asked by local media about the objector... And did nothing in response to constituent pleas to save the project.1
  • Failed to schedule a public hearing to address anonymous objection (as required by law).2
  • Avowed "enough is enough" about efforts to conserve our natural resources.3
  • Has consistently voted to weaken Wisconsin water protections and air quality standards.4

  1. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/17/22, 5/06/22
  2. Ozaukee County News Graphic, 7/09/24
  3. Urban Milwaukee, Stroebel Op-Ed, 5/01/19
  4. Vote Smart website

The Mystery of the Anonymous Objector and the Secret Buyer

"Expressions of anger, outrage, contempt, and suspicion go on unabated over the secret sabotage of a state grant for the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Nature Preserve by anonymous actors in the Wisconsin Legislature. It's all well deserved."

- OZAUKEE PRESS April 27, 2022

We may never know the identity of the secret “anonymous objector” who killed a DNR-approved grant to secure the land purchase to protect the Cedar Gorge Clay Bluffs Preserve for future generations, but one thing is certain: scandalous corruption, lack of transparency and contempt for the public all happened squarely under Republican Duey Stroebel’s watch.

Not only did Duey Stroebel serve as Vice-Chair of the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee (JFC), from which the secret vote and shady dealings took place, he held special responsibility because the Cedar Gorge property fell within his district. Yet, when the scandal first came to light in the Ozaukee Press in February, 2022, he remained silent after they reached out by phone and email (a not uncommon experience for his constituents). Later, he declined to comment on the issue to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in May, 2022.

As local citizens and voters of both political parties fumed, Stroebel could have demonstrated a modicum of good faith by using his elevated position on the JFC to call for a public hearing on the matter, as mandated by state statute. He did no such thing, preserving the secrecy and inaction of his committee. When members of the Ozaukee County Board of Supervisors attempted to help save the preserve with a county grant, Stroebel conspicuously did not work to help pass the measure, as a suspiciously well organized faction of five Port Washington Supervisors all voted to kill that plan, too.

Those same five County Supervisors were simultaneously meeting with an anonymous buyer, a developer who emerged to purchase the land for private development. It turns out the secret buyer’s lawyer was Lane Ruhland, who reportedly worked for both the 2020 Donald Trump and Kanye West campaigns in Wisconsin. To this day, the identity of the developer is kept secret by Duey Stroebel, who happens to own his own real estate company (with a 1.8/5 User Rating on Google).

Luckily, the pristine Gorge was spared a gloomy fate in August, 2022 when Governor Tony Evers saved the project with reallocated federal funds. But the mystery of Duey Stroebel’s role in the scandal endures.