Abele's Endorsements

During every election cycle, politicians and candidates scramble to get endorsements from various groups and individuals even though the importance of these endorsements to the voters is debatable.

Sometimes these endorsements can tell the voter very little.  After all, Democrats are going to endorse Democrats, Republicans are going to endorse Republicans.

Other times, they can tell the voter quite a bit.  They can sometimes confirm or deny allegations being leveled at the candidate.  They can also tell the voter if the candidate is being up front and honest about who they really are.

For example, look at the race for Milwaukee County Executive.

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has been trying to smear his opponent, State Senator Chris Larson, by implying that Larson was racist because he didn't pander to the sellout senator, Lena Taylor.  Abele also laughably tried to claim that Larson was in cahoots with the Big Banks and other special interest groups and not did not stand up for the people.

But when you look at Larson's endorsements, it tells a very different tale.

As the gentle reader can see for themselves, Larson is being endorsed by such prominent African American leaders such as Congresswoman Gwen Moore, the Honorable Vel Phillips, State Senator Nikiya Dodd, and State Representatives Mandela Barnes, David Bowen, LaTonya Johnson and Leon Young.

And those special interest groups?  Yeah, they include things like the Sierra Club, Wisconsin Jobs Now, Voces de la Frontera, several Grassroots groups and most of the major unions, including AFSCME, the Steelworkers, MTEA, AFT, ATU and the Milwaukee Area Labor Council.

Abele's endorsements, on the other hand, also are rather telling.

First of all, it should be noted that all of these endorsements are rather late coming in.  And when the gentle reader casts an eye at them, a pattern can be seen:

• Former US Senator Herb Kohl - who made a profit of hundreds of millions of dollars with the sale of the Milwaukee Bucks, a deal that went though with the help of Abele promising over a hundred million dollars from Milwaukee taxpayers.
• State Representative Peter Barca - why a state rep from Kenosha is endorsing in a Milwaukee County race is one thing, but records show that Abele gave not only Barca but his caucus group a lot of money.
• Former Governor Jim Doyle - yup, a lot of donations from Abele again.
• Mary Burke - not only do multimillionaires have to stick together, but Abele put a lot of money into her failed gubernatorial bid.

Yup, in other words, one could honestly say that it sure seems like Abele bought these endorsements, just like he's trying to buy the election.

Interestingly, Abele does not have one endorsement for a Milwaukee representative or senator.  He does, however, have a number of local municipal mayors endorsing him.  This isn't surprising, since Abele has been in deals with them to take over things like county parks.  As a bonus, these municipalities would also be given great chunks of county taxpayer money to run them.   It's also worth noting that most of these mayors are Republicans or Corporate Democrats.  

What is really striking about these endorsements is not who is on the list, but who is not on it.  Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is not endorsing his long time friend, even though just four years ago, they announced their bids for reelection together.  Not only does Barrett disagree with Abele robbing the poor to pay for the Bucks arena, but he recognizes that Abele has become so toxic that it could sink his own reelection bid.

I would be remiss not to mention that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which had once said that they would no longer make any endorsements, has endorsed Abele for some unfathomable reason not based on reality.  Then again, this is the same paper that repeatedly endorsed Scott Walker.

The gentle reader would be hard pressed to find someone supporting Abele who hasn't received something from him or was promised something from him.

Another interesting aspect besides the endorsements are the donations.  Not counting Abele's loan of millions of dollars to his own campaign, Larson is far surpassing Abele in donations.  For every person who donated money to Abele, 118 people donated to Larson.

Now which one of these two candidates is the one that is one of us working for us?  (Hint: It's not Boss Abele!)

Elect Chris Larson on April 5!

Outrage Grows Over Abele's Secret Placement Of Sex Offenders

Several weeks ago, I reported that Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele's plan to secretly place sex offenders in a south side home was blowing up in his face.  His hand-chosen appointees on the farcical Mental Health Board rubber stamped his plan without public input.  In fact, when one person, Dennis Hughes, did tried to speak out about it, Abele's people had him arrested.

What makes Abele's actions even more disconcerting is that he is still placed these offenders even though they were telling staff that they had plans to reoffend at the first chance they get.

On Friday, the community again expressed their outrage at Abele secretly placing the offenders in their neighborhood without even the courtesy of a notification.

"Our employees that are telling us that the sex offenders are being placed that when they were in the long-term care facility were openly talking about the fact that intended on assaulting children specifically a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy," said Hughes.

Residents also feel they've been kept in the dark about who is moving in.

"The concern here is we don't know where these mentally ill people have been placed in the community. There are group homes throughout Milwaukee County and we don't know where they are or who is housed in them," said Hughes.

"If we have sex offenders that are entering our neighborhood without our knowledge, the threat for our children has increased tremendously," said Lewis.

One of the neighbors, Karrie Jones, made the reasonable request that their be better notification and public hearings when sex offenders were being placed in neighborhoods.

The Abele administration flat out denied that request, claiming that they "will not hold public hearings ever to let a community know that we're transitioning clients into their neighborhood."

That must be a recent policy change.  I used to help people transition out of the long term care units at the mental health complex.  When a new group home was opening, it was standard practice to hold open houses with the neighbors to inform them about the group home, the type of clients that would be housed there and what precautions and safety plans would be in place.

Then again, we used to also not move the clients until a team of professionals determined that the person was ready to be reintegrated into the community, that an appropriate placement had been identified, that proper service and safety plans were in place and that the client had a chance to visit on numerous occasions to help make the transition smoother.

Those things stopped happening too.

Abele, his imperial self, finally deigned to issue a statement, which as you might have expected, simultaneously dismissed the concerns of the neighbors and blamed the county board for the unpopularity of his plan:
County Executive Chris Abele's office issued a statement to WISN 12 news saying today's committee hearing "is nothing but the board's latest attempt to stop the positive progress we have been making, which unfortunately also perpetuates damaging stigmas about mental illness."
Ah, so in Abele's elitist and arrogant mind, listening to the citizens is simply a political stunt.  Doesn't that say more about Abele than the citizens or the clients?

But there's more.  With all things Abele, there is always more.

Another new concern has arisen.

A year ago, WISN-TV reported how the state found a way around the City of Milwaukee's law regarding placement of sex offenders.  The state simply kept shuffling the sex offenders every three days to new homes so that they were technically not in violation of the law.

Could Abele be doing the same thing?  With Abele's secrecy and disdain for public safety, it's entirely possible.

One place we know that the offenders won't be placed, however, is in the Moderne, the high rise condo building where Abele lives.

Chris Abele's Peculiar Campaign Kickoff

It comes as no surprise to anyone that Milwaukee County Executive Emperor Chris Abele is loathe to give up his throne.  He and his wealthy friends have been cashing in on his reign and turning Milwaukee County into a plutocrat's playground.

It is also no surprise since Abele has already spent well over a million dollars on no less than seven oversized mailers and inundating the airwaves with his commercials and propaganda.

However, when Emperor Abele finally made his official campaign announcement, it was rather lackluster at best.  Abele chose to announce his campaign with a dull email late on a Sunday, repeating the same lies, obfuscations and fantasies that he had been spewing in his mailers and commercials.  Not even a campaign promise or an agenda. Just very general and meaningless platitudes.

Talk about anti-climatic.

But there is something else rather peculiar about Abele's announcement.

Four years ago, Abele and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced their candidacies together and immediately endorsed each other at the same time.  Now, Abele sends off a low profile announcement without any sign of Barrett.

Furthermore, Abele has already endorsed Barrett again but I have not heard that this has been reciprocated by Barrett.

Perhaps Barrett has realized that Abele - with his $80 million giveaway to hedge fund billionaires, giving away public assets for a song, taking over MPS schools and placing sex offenders into communities after promising not to - is much too toxic and is backing off from Abele.

It would be the politically wise thing for Barrett to do.