Meet Bridget Maniaci

Welcome! I’m Bridget Maniaci. I’m 42. I own a small retail home goods and gift shop on Downer Avenue on Milwaukee’s East Side, and I rent within walking distance of the store in the Murray Hill Neighborhood.

I’ve been a local elected official and I’ve engaged for 25 years in building progressive Wisconsin politics. Both in public life and within the non-profit and private sector, my whole career has been spent building community resources.

Being an effective, approachable, and productive community member and change-agent is something I’ve consistently worked to achieve – experience that’s especially valuable in a tricky legislative environment like the Wisconsin State Legislature.

I’d like to be YOUR representative, fighting for Milwaukee in Wisconsin’s Legislature representing District 19.

Meet Bridget Maniaci!

Bridget has spent years fighting for thoughtful, accessible, progressive public policy and getting results:

Named a 2014 “Women to Watch” by Brava Magazine, Bridget has been a fierce champion for a new generation of women in leadership and policy that challenges the status quo – fighting for renters, labor rights, underserved and minority communities, and environmental assets and conservation efforts.
First-hand WI State Capitol experience working for State Rep. Tom Hebl
Served two-terms (4 years) as a Alderperson in downtown Madison, representing District 2 – one of the most fierce and socially progressive districts in the city from 2009-2013
She was the lead sponsor of a nationally lauded 2012 tenant voter registration ordinance, that was used as model legislation by other cities including Minneapolis, MN, East Lansing, MI and Seattle, WA
Bridget moved to Washington, DC from 2018-2022 and worked for the World Wildlife Fund, American Geophysical Union, and National Cooperative Business Association – CLUSA International, in addition to advocating for financially underserved and underbanked communities and organizations
2018-2021: She served as the founding State Secretary for the Young Democrats of Wisconsin

EDUCATION

Attended UW-Milwaukee 2002-2003
UW-Madison B.A Political Science and Economics (2007)
M.S. in Public Policy & Management from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), with a degree focus in Urban & Regional Economic Development (2014)

Before opening her eastside shop, Bridget spent more than 20 years working in policy and Wisconsin politics at every level: local, state, federal, private sector and the non-profit sector – specializing in urban & regional community economic development and championing community investment and access to investment in underserved communities.

A summary of Bridget’s political & policy experience over the last 25 years is below – Her LinkedIn Profile contains more detailed information.

Milwaukee Roots

Bridget comes from a long line of Sicilian-American families that have lived on Milwaukee’s East Side and Third Ward Neighborhoods for over 120 years, where three generations of family have owned small businesses.

My dad is an engineer, my mom is a public school children’s librarian. I was raised in a union household that championed education, literacy, community service, and creativity.
I grew up as a child in Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood
Attended UW-Milwaukee my freshman year of college
Opened my shop GoodLand Home & Goods in 2022, making use of a Mainstreet Bounceback Grant from the State of Wisconsin. My store had been vacant for thirteen years!

My shop is a lovely mix of ethically produced goods with a mix of items made right here in Milwaukee, along with items from across the globe.

I strongly believe that we should be able to afford and have nice, ethically produced things readily and affordably available here in Milwaukee.
GoodLand has won the Reader’s Choice Award two years running from Milwaukee Magazine. This year was the first time in at least 18 years that all of the store spaces on Downer Avenue had been filled and actively occupied.

Elected Office Experience:

Elected as District 2 Alderperson to the Madison Common Council in April, 2009 at the age of 25 Bridget won against a four-term incumbent and a 5-way primary.

She served two terms representing downtown Madison’s Langdon Street, James Madison Park, East Washington Avenue & Tenney-Lapham neighborhoods – one of the most socially progressive and demanding districts.

Known for her collaborative and spirited nature focused on getting results, she successfully passed notable legislation and budget amendments that strengthened tenants’ rights, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, park facilities and infrastructure, public transit and parking infrastructure, affordable housing, historic preservation projects, and significant brownfield economic development.

Key committee assignments included Housing and Tenant Issues, Transportation and Parking, Landmarks Commission, Downtown Issues.

Her time in office serving District 2 saw more than $250 million in project approvals and infrastructure improvements for the district, including:

$110 million historic, lakefront Edgewater Hotel redevelopment
$35 million City Row Apartments – Wisconsin’s first Energy Star-qualified multi-family high-rise (with 83 units of LIHTC affordable apartment housing)
Re-positioning of the defunct Don Miller auto dealership across three city blocks into the $35 million Constellation mixed use development and the $90 million Galaxie mixed use projects located on E Washington Avenue, getting a new grocery store built, catalytically jumpstarting the larger strategic land use repositioning of the Capitol East Corridor that has transformed the economic and accessibility success of Madison’s eastside.

During her tenure on the Common Council, the City of Madison underwent significant public policy initiatives including:

Financial restructuring of the $150 million Overture Center performing arts center
Municipal pro-labor union contract restructuring due to Scott Walker and Republican-led union-busting efforts during Act 10
A city-wide parcel-by-parcel zoning code rewrite

Non-Profits & Issue Advocacy:

Bridget moved to Washington, DC from 2018-2022 and worked for the World Wildlife Fund, American Geophysical Union, and National Cooperative Business Association – CLUSA International. She spent a year serving as a policy associate for a small issue advocacy firm that represented community development organizations and community development financial institutions that distribute federal Small Business Administration funds, and CDFI Fund disbursements through the U.S. Treasury Department to improve access to capital in underserved and underrepresented communities.

Prior to her time in Washington, Bridget served as a financial and community impact analyst for Baker Tilly, LLP writing federal allocation applications and analyzing community and economic impact for development projects and federal grant applications that received a variety of state and federal tax credits and incentives, including historic tax credits, low income housing tax credits, New Markets Tax Credits, and Opportunity Zones.

Leadership Development

Alumnus of People for the American Way’s Young Elected Officials’ Network, a national leadership and policy forum for under-40 progressive elected officials.
2018-2021: served as the founding State Secretary for the Young Democrats of Wisconsin and worked to establish a network of non-collegiate young adults that wanted to actively engage in Democratic leadership across the state of Wisconsin (Can you believe: We were the only state in the country that didn’t have a Young Democrats chapter!)

Non-Profit and Civic Engagement Experience

Bridget served as a Graduate Assistant to the Center for Resilient Cities, its mission area serving Madison & Milwaukee) and for Pittsburgh’s Local Government Academy, a non-profit that focuses on ensuring voting access and elected official ethics.

Bridget was honored to serve as a board member and finance committee member to the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County, one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the country.

Bridget was appointed by Dane County Executive Joe Parisi to serve on the Dane County Youth Commission, where she was elected Vice-Chair. The committee oversees several initiatives, including:

County funding grant distribution of the “By-Youth, For-Youth” program, a unique collaborative project between Dane County, the United Way, and the UW-System Extension for Dane County youth
Managing the Dane County Youth Assessment, a nationally-renowned and academically researched public health survey conducted every 3 years of more than 20,000 Dane County middle and high school students.
As Vice-Chair, Bridget spearheaded the creation of DaneYouth.org, a website that is a critical public health information resource for assistance for Dane County youth, and additional public outreach materials for community members surrounding the committee’s work.

Her love of transportation and parking infrastructure led her to join Downtown Madison Inc. and its Transportation & Parking committee whose work tackle local policy issues and projects in an effort to strengthen and advance the health and vitality of downtown Madison. The work focuses on encouraging people to live, work, and visit downtown Madison by facilitating their movement to, from, through, and within the downtown and coordinating public and private parking and transportation resources.

Joyful Life Experiences

A creative and visual person, Bridget has worked for The Capital Times and The Onion A.V. Club as a photographer, the Daily Cardinal as a photojournalist and staff writer, and as a DJ of both music and talk programing at 91.7 FM (WSUM in Madison).

A lover of water, she is a former Vice-Commodore to UW-Madison’s Hoofer Sailing Club, and is a former Events Chair to Hoofer Council. Bridget led the effort to find, restore, and display the famous Statue of Liberty on Lake Mendota’s winter ice, reinstating a beloved community festival that draws thousands of visitors outside in winter.

She also was actively engaged as an organizer of the inaugural organized Halloween Freakfest on State Street, and in creating a Mifflin Street Block party that was positively programmed with music, food, and bathrooms, with an organizational structure that was student community-led with sponsorship from WSUM 91.7.

She is an active bicyclist; member of Milwaukee Film; lover of art museums, live concerts, and comedy shows; and plays D&D.