State Supreme Court
Rebecca Dallet
Rebecca Dallet
The Shepherd Express Editorial Committee strongly and enthusiastically endorses Rebecca Dallet for the vacant seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. She has been a public servant her entire working career, serving 11 years as a Milwaukee County prosecutor and 10 years as a Milwaukee County judge. Judge Dallet is viewed as a liberal-leaning moderate jurist running against an extremist. Dallet has a reputation for integrity and high ethical standards.
Her opponent is an ideologically extreme right-wing Republican. As an attorney, he represented serious environmental polluters, he was on Gov. Scott Walker’s legal team that defended the controversial Act 10, and he worked with the Republicans to draw gerrymandered legislative districts so extreme that they were declared to be unconstitutional by a panel of three federal judges—one Democratic and two Republican appointees.
He also has a history of extreme right-wing activism, which has gotten him arrested multiple times for blocking access to abortion clinics. He does not apologize for or regret the actions that brought his arrests. Apparently, he only obeys the laws he likes, which is exactly what you don’t want in any judge, especially not in a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice.
In this election he is receiving out-of-state special interest money to the tune of almost $2 million dollars, dwarfing the money he has raised from Wisconsin voters. To make matters worse, he has declared that, if elected, he will not recuse himself when these right-wing interest groups, who paid for his campaign, come before the court. How do you spell “totally corrupt”? This should be an easy choice.
State Treasurer Referendum
Vote: NO
There is a referendum on the ballot that would change the state constitution and eliminate the independently elected state treasurer that has existed for the past 170 years since the birth of the State of Wisconsin. Among the many original functions intended by Wisconsin’s founders, the state treasurer was to be our independent fiscal watchdog. The Republicans have slowly taken many of the functions away from the state treasurer, weakening the office and then arguing that it should be eliminated.
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Eliminating the state treasurer would make it easier for politicians to play fast and loose with our state tax dollars. Former Republican State Treasurer Jack Voight is campaigning hard for a NO vote on this referendum because eliminating the office, he said, “will silence the financial voice of our state and silence the checks and balances.” If the right wing prevails and eliminates the state treasurer, we would be the only state without an independently elected state treasurer, auditor or comptroller.
It is bad enough that our legislature passes major pieces of legislation, usually to benefit some special interest at the expense of the taxpayers, in the middle of the night with no name of the author attached. They now want to eliminate someone who is looking over their shoulders. Legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, are guilty of these midnight amendments to the state budget, which is the only real “must pass” bill.
This amendment is an invitation to corruption and will cost the state taxpayers millions and millions of dollars if we shoot the watchdog. Please vote NO.
Milwaukee County Endorsements
District One: Theo Lipscomb
District Seven: Kenneth Ginlack Sr. or Felesia Martin
District Eight: Steven Shea
District Nine: Steve Taylor
District 18: Sparkle Ashley
You may be wondering why we are having Milwaukee County supervisor elections when we had them just two years ago, and why these elections are being held when the county executive is not also up for re-election. The answer is that, in his efforts to consolidate power, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele worked with the Republicans who control both chambers of the state legislature to draft legislation that would weaken the checks and balances on the county executive.
This was done by taking various powers away from the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, giving various unchecked, unilateral powers to the county executive such as the ability to sell off any county property except the parks, drastically cutting the salaries and eliminating all of their benefits (including health insurance) for the county supervisors and, finally, shortening their terms to just two years. Despite these more limited powers, the county board has still managed to provide some very important checks on the irresponsible spending by the county executive.
Still unhappy and seeking even more control, Abele is now trying to buy county supervisors. This new and very dangerous twist of Abele’s father’s money entering the Milwaukee County supervisor races has a corrupting influence. As we have seen in Abele’s own elections, his father’s money is used primarily for nasty, negative and deceptive ads. Abele has set up an independent expenditure committee so he can avoid campaign contribution limits. He is now spending several hundred thousand dollars on at least five races.
Unfortunately, money plays a very important role in elections. As you might recall, when Abele was on track to lose his April 2016 reelection, he dug deep into to his billionaire father’s wallet and spent well over $5 million—both directly and indirectly—on a vicious, negative and deceptive reelection campaign against State Sen. Chris Larson. Milwaukee County elections were never like this prior to Abele coming in with his virtually unlimited East Coast money. He has used his father’s money to buy his elections, and now he wants to use that money to buy a county board beholden to him. This is not healthy for our democracy. So look carefully at the negative ads you see, because they are probably lies and probably paid for by Abele.
Below, we have made endorsements in five Milwaukee County supervisor elections. Of the 18 county supervisor districts, 11 have incumbents with no opposition, leaving seven contested races. The Shepherd Express, having studied the candidates, is making endorsements in five of the seven contested races.
Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors
District One: The Shepherd strongly endorses Theo Lipscomb for reelection. Supervisor Lipscomb has chaired the county board in a difficult time as the Republican-controlled state legislature and Gov. Walker have severely weakened the role of that board to provide the needed checks and balances to the county executive, Chris Abele, a man who likes to take care of his wealthy friends. Despite their weakened position, Lipscomb and the county board have stopped Abele from putting parking meters in our public parks and from trying to privatize various aspects of county government. They stopped Abele from turning over the Milwaukee County Transit System to a Texas company in a sweetheart deal. It’s work such as this that has earned Theo our strong endorsement.
District Seven: This is an open seat since the current incumbent, Michael Mayo, has chosen not to run for reelection. The voters in the seventh district are fortunate to have two qualified candidates before them; the Shepherd sees enough strength in both individuals to do a dual endorsement. We believe that either Kenneth Ginlack Sr. or Felesia Martin would be a good addition to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Briefly, Ginlack has a master’s degree in social work and has been active in the community through extensive work with individuals suffering from mental health issues and alcohol and other drug abuse problems. Martin has been an active volunteer in the community for decades and has been employed in an administrative capacity at the Medical College of Milwaukee.
Owner
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District Eight: The Shepherd enthusiastically endorses Steven Shea, who has been civically active in Milwaukee County’s south suburban communities. For the past 22 years, Shea has worked at Milwaukee Area Technical College teaching and working with students—many of whom are dislocated workers, veterans and individuals with physical challenges. Very important: His opponent’s campaign has received between $100,000 and $200,000 from Abele—many times the amount of money he received from his voters. If elected, we fear that the other candidate will have been bought and paid for by Abele; his loyalties will be with the person who owns him and not the voters of the eighth district.
District Nine: The Shepherd endorses Steve Taylor for his reelection. Taylor is willing to speak out and verbally fight hard for what he supports. He is willing to stand up and fight against Abele’s abuses and mismanagement of our county resources. As a result, Abele has targeted him by putting between $100,000 and $200,000 into his opponent’s campaign so he can elect a supervisor beholden to him. If you begin to see negative attacks against Taylor, they are probably paid for with Abele money and their accusations will be lies.
District 18: This election is perhaps one of the most important of the county supervisor races. The challenger who the Shepherd is strongly endorsing, Sparkle Ashley, is not well known and has been attacked by the right wing. She is running against the person who many believe—and the Shepherd agrees—is the absolute worst supervisor currently on the board. Talking with Ms. Ashley or seeing her speak from the podium, you have to be impressed. She is smart, articulate and a social worker by profession. She has seen firsthand and on a daily basis the barriers that people who are down face when they try to get the help they need to get back on their feet. Sparkle Ashley would be an excellent addition to the Milwaukee County Board and would replace someone who should retire.
Local Suburban Elections
We usually do not spend much time on the local suburban elections. However, this cycle, there are a number of races that the Shepherd Express Editorial Committee views as important to the concept of honest and well-functioning local government. There are a total of five endorsements from three suburbs.
Shorewood
Village President: Paul Zovic
Village Trustee: McKenzie Edmonds
Village Trustee: Jessica Carpenter
Oak Creek
Mayor: Daniel J. Bukiewicz
Brown Deer
Village Trustee: Wanda Montgomery
