"I slept as well last night as if I had won," Zima said at his office this morning.

But then again Zima's always spoken his mind since he was first elected to the common council in 1976. He spoke about taxpayer funding for the Brown County Veterans Arena in 1982 or trying to get some convention center funds to revitalize the Broadway District.

"We've turned that (Broadway) around. When you go there are night, you have a good feeling of the lights and the shops. And we preserved our history," Zima said.

Zima believes a similar approach to preserving historically significant buildings downtown, such as the former Kaap's Restaurant, might have worked that the now defunct Port Plaza/Washington Commons Mall. That facility is now being razed to make way for Schreiber Food new corporate headquarters and technology center.

"They are now spending more millions trying to make something significant there. When all they had to do was look at the history they had there," Zima said. "Maybe take down a few of the lesser buildings there and provided parking."

Still Zima says there's very little he'd change about his 36-years as an alderman. And he definitely wouldn't change his style of campaigning.

"I never accepted any campaign contributions in my whole life in running for alderman here," he said. "Never wanted anybody telling me how to thing. I always wanted to keep my independence."