Quid Pro Quo Radio Show, a.k.a. WNOPE

I’ve been watching the racially charged rhetoric come out of the Abele campaign for a while.  For a guy whose campaign employs exactly one individual of color, it’s a lot to stomach.  Recently, Abele’s team figured out that they could, for a very low price, have their very own radio mouthpiece: Sherwin Hughes’ “The Forum” on WNOV.  Better yet, it would come with a built-in propaganda machine that wouldn’t challenge him on the MPS takeover, the Bucks giveaway, the Domes—none of it.

With school privatization contributions and Abele money, Sherwin’s show has kicked into full attack mode on anybody who’s even walked by Senator Chris Larson—Abele’s challenger-- on the street. I don’t know how much Abele gave Sherwin but he has no problem going all in, especially if the end result is to serve as a gossip-fueled community wrecking ball.  Is there anybody doing real community work that hasn’t been made fun of, unfriended and blocked on Facebook, or otherwise called out by the World’s Thinnest Skinned Radio Host?  Put something on his Facebook page to challenge him and I will 100% guarantee you he will send you a message trying to see if you are trying to damage his brand. Whatever Sherwin's brand is, it smells like hot garbage and community damage.

You have to go back a few years to get the connections here.  Abele staffer Michelle Bryant and Sherwin worked for Senator Lena Taylor in the past. With the possibility of Chris Larson's colleague Representative Mandela Barnes running for Lena’s seat, they can’t really go after him yet. Instead, they go after Larson and anyone who works for him.  (If you want a litany of uninformed accusations check out Mikel Holt’s recent column in the Community Journal.  He calls Larson a kingmaker and gets his back up about the Sandy Pasch race in 2014. The seat he’s complaining about is occupied by Rep. David Bowen, who was the target of Abele’s political manager Tia Torhorst’s campaign tactics that year. David wasn’t "quite the right color fit" for Shorewood, according to her. Why Mr. Holt has a problem with Bowen being the ultimate "king" in that race is never explained.)  People just don’t want what Abele is selling.  It's hard to find people who listen to Sherwin’s show these days. It’s turned into a whole program engineered by Miss Bonita from “In Living Color.” But I’m not one to gossip.

If pay-for-play radio is what Abele’s campaign has been reduced to after four years of performance, the county is in worse shape than he’s letting on. Time to do an open records request on those books, unless Abele’s worked with Republicans yet again to deny us our rights. Vote wisely and vote early, everybody.