WAUKESHA — In the chatter of a political campaign — the questions on the issues, the discourse among the electorate, and the ads — sometimes it can be easy to forget that underneath it all, the candidates in every race are people, too.
They have families and pursuits outside the jobs they seek that often don’t get as much attention as the talking points of the moment. To help readers get to know who is running for the job as Waukesha County’s top prosecutor, The Freeman asked district attorney candidates Lesli Boese and Mike Thurston to share a little more about themselves and their lives outside their jobs, in which both serve as deputy district attorneys.
Lesli Boese
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Boese, 58, is a lifelong resident of Waukesha County, a daughter of a police officer. When asked why she does what she does, she said she always tells people who are thinking about being a prosecutor that "if you ever think you’re going to make money off doing this job, you’re gonna be rich, don’t do it, because you’re not. But that’d be like me asking you why you do your job (she told a Freeman reporter), because it’s important. ... For me, I think when I went with my dad when I was younger during the summers he would take me along to court when he had to testify. I got to see and I got to meet these people, and I got to talk to these people, and I really did, going back to that time, I was probably at that time I was 10, 11, 12, I thought this is really cool. He’s doing something that’s really good. He’s putting his life at risk but he’s doing it for the greater good. And I think the public service they offer the community is kind of the public service that I’ve always wanted to offer the community.
“I live in Waukesha County, I’ve lived here my entire life, and as I said, there is nothing more important to me than the people who live here and work here. I want it to be a safe place for people to be able to raise a family and I think that’s why I do it. It’s important to me. It kind of goes into why I am running. It’s like, it is that important to me and I think I am the right person to be at the helm of the D.A.’s office to ensure our public safety remains, and that people know that it’s not a political decision whether to charge or not charge, it really is based on what I think is best for the community and certainly what I think is appropriate for the individual I am prosecuting. ... Sometimes that doesn’t mean putting someone in jail or getting a conviction, although often times it does. And I think I try to take a global view of that. And again, I don’t do it because I thought I was going to be rich. I did it because I feel I am doing the right thing.”
When asked about her professional goals, Boese said, “This is it. Some people use the D.A.’s office for a stepping stone to do something else. I’ve never looked at it, people do it to become a judge or run for attorney general or do something. Like I said, I never envisioned that I would be running for district attorney. I would never want to leave the office. People are like why don’t you run for judge? I don’t want to run for judge. I’m like, I don’t want to run for judge. That’s not something I am interested in. I would like to end my career in the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office. They are my family, they are my friends and this is my community so I really feel that my political aspirations would be to be the district attorney and continue doing the job I love to do ...
I just, this is what I am meant to do I firmly believe that and I firmly believe I am meant to do it here.”
Boese is not married and has no children. The Genesee resident fills her free time in other ways, tending to two “fur babies” who are rescue dogs. She said her average weekend sees her pursuing other passions - her gardens and tending to a koi pond on her property.
“I love to go to craft sales, I love to do crafts, I am not very crafty but I love to think I am, and I love to just hang out with my friends. There is nothing like sitting in someone’s back yard, just relaxing, talking about your week, or a plan a vacation, and I do love to travel, which I’ve done more I would say in the last 10 years,” Boese said. “I found a travel companion, her husband doesn’t like to travel so I said, ‘Hey if you ever want to go somewhere ... .’ We’ve gone to Iceland, Croatia, France. Hopefully there’s many more trips like that in the future.”
Mike Thurston
Thurston, 44, lives in Hartland with his wife, Nicole, and twin daughters and son.
He is from Champaign, Illinois, as is his wife, Nicole Griglione, who is a physician in the area. They knew each other in high school but didn’t start dating until later. They started dating his first year of law school when he was in Washington, D.C. and she was finishing school at Charlottesville in Virginia when the spark of romance struck. She moved back to Illinois to pursue medical school and he transferred back here; they were married in 2006.
He worked for two years at the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office in Rockford, Illinois, as his wife finished medical school, then in 2007 she went to Emory University in Atlanta for a residency in internal medicine and fellowship. Meanwhile, he practiced law in the Clayton County D.A.’s office. Then when his wife landed a job in Wisconsin in 2013, they moved their infant twin daughters here; Nicole’s parents live in Oregon.
Thurston began working in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office first as a volunteer prosecutor then as an assistant district attorney for two years, handling misdemeanor cases of battery and disorderly conduct — a far cry from the felony matters and death penalty cases he said he handled in Georgia.
“I had to take a slice of humility to start from scratch here in Milwaukee and it turned out to be really a godsend because I met some incredible prosecutors in Milwaukee and we were able to recruit some out here to Waukesha and also I was able to prove and able show my mettle there in Milwaukee, tried 30 cases in two years, that led me to my job here in Waukesha which I am deeply proud of. In Waukesha Sue (Opper) has promoted me twice from December 2015 through now as a managing prosecutor and now as a head of her sensitive crimes unit. So all these experiences have kind of come together to lead me to this race,” he said.
When asked why he does what he does, Thurston said: “Over time I’ve really learned this job is a calling. I find great meaning in standing with victims and representing victims. I like to say I have a front-row seat to the human condition, that is some of the worst that can happen to the human race, also some of the best, some great courage, some great hope. I see kids and women getting up there on the witness stand and really confronting their abuser and walking out with their head held high. So I find great meaning and purpose in that.”
When asked about his professional goals, Thurston gave a similar answer as Boese did: “This is it. This is my only professional goal. Getting to be the D.A., the leader of what I hope will be aspirationally — I don’t know if we’ll ever achieve it — but the best D.A.’s office in the state. And I say I don’t know if we’ll ever achieve it, because I don’t know that you ever want to rest, complacently. You’ll always want to improve. You’ll always want to get better ... but that’s my professional goal, is to be the best D.A.’s office in the state.”
Apart from the recent months on the campaign trail and attending community events, the average weekend for the Thurstons is spent going to tennis tournaments with their daughters, and balancing that with outdoor opportunities with their son, who enjoys wagon rides. Spending time with friends is on that list, as is visiting with family spread from Minneapolis to Chicago to Indianapolis and Champaign, where his mother still lives.
Most of his hobbies, Thurston said, involve his children. The family enjoys skiing, including downhill — “which is ironic, for a kid from central Illinois, a true flatlander,” Thurston said, adding this area is “like a winter wonderland up here.”
Biking and swimming also are favored pastimes. “I love to swim. There was a time before this campaign that I would do triathlons. I love competing in triathlons around here. Not long ones, Olympic and sprint. Maybe a goal one day would be doing a half-Iron Man, that’d be about the max I could do,” Thurston said.
