Chris Abele Suspending Values Tour

By Jeff Simpson

Capper has well documented, the exploits of current Milwaukee County Exec Chris Abele.  Anything that happens with him should come as no surprise. 

We pointed out recently how Leadership MKE, the political arm of Abele, is working hard to temper the coming blue wave. 

The fake Democrat Abele's group, led by GOP allies George Aldrich(Abele's Chief of Staff) and Andy Suchorski(Abele's Political director), have been attacking progressives in Milwaukee.

Now "Leadership MKE" (who the hell named that), has jumped in the Sheriff's race by strongly backing Richard Schmidt.  Yes, we live in a Democratic Republic and you can back who you want to back, but when the person you are backing believes this:

The criticism surfaced Monday about comments Schmidt made last year during a podcast interview. Schmidt told domestic violence victims who are Christians to submit themselves to the Holy Spirit, adding that God would restore their relationships.
Schmidt also failed to criticize the podcast host, a minister who said the victim should change, not the abuser. 

But wait there is more - like an exact quote:

“If someone is struggling, and their marriage is just a disaster ... get off God’s throne, submit yourself to that person and love that person,” Schmidt said. “If we’re Christian we submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit ... get off the prideful ladder, [and] God can bless that marriage and restore those relationships.”

Yes, if your spouse is beating you, you need to be a better person.   As the saying goes in right wing wacko land

Q. What do one million battered women have in common?
A.  They just don't listen! 

What does the Milwaukee County Exec Chris Abele. the guy who paid to keep the courthouse open so our LGBTQ friends could get married, one of the main funders of Emerge, do about this revelation? 

Doubles down to support Schmidt!

Abele has sicced his political hit team after Lucas and supporting Schmidt.

There is a saying that you reflect your values in how you spend your money.  Abele has shown his by going all in with Schmidt.   Which means the next move is Emerge's.

Abele is a huge funder of Emerge, and everyone needs money:

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, $900,200. Abele, who was first elected county executive in 2011, is also a businessman and philanthropist who traditionally supports Democratic candidates and groups. Abele’s 527 contributions went to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which backs lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender candidates nationwide, and Emerge Wisconsin, which helps elect women Democratic candidates.

EmergeWI has the following vision and mission:

Our Mission: To increase the number of Democratic women leaders from diverse backgrounds in public office through recruitment, training, and providing a powerful network.
Our Vision: To change the face of power, politics, and leadership in this country in order to have policies that are responsive to all Americans.

A great organization, dedicated to a great cause surely would publicly let everyone know that this was a bridge too far for them. 

Unfortunately no.   

When I contacted Emerge about it, I was told that he is just a donor and not on the board and that the money does not come with strings, so while they were disappointed they have no control over it.

Money ALWAYS comes with strings. 

Readers of CogDis, will remember, that when Diane Hendricks became chief fundraiser for the Donald, that I asked that my alma mater Beloit College remove her from the Board of Trustees(Here, here, here and here). 

I was given the same basic response from Beloit College, which can be interpreted as Money Changes Everything. 

But wait there is more.  Another person who has not weighed in on this horrible controversy is Kelda Roys, candidate for Governor? 

Why is this issue relevant to Kelda?  Because as a small business owner, she relied on investments.   One of her biggest investors?

Chris Abele! 

Research suggest that police officers have a much higher rate of domestic violence than the general population and since it is already very hard to get away and get help, what is the message you are sending to the community when the head acting law enforcement officer believes such incredible things?

While I admire Emerge WI and Kelda Roys for the positive difference they have made and are making in our state, their failure to publicly admonish Chris Abele in this instance, because he writes big checks, is very disappointing.

As Margaret Atwood says:

“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”

The Most Controversial Non-Controversial Political Ad You'll See This Year

Meet Kelda Roys:



Kelda is the most recent of 17 Democrats to announce their campaign to unseat Scott Walker, the wholly owned subsidiary of the Koch Brothers, and just released her introductory video.

Kelda is a former stat e representative. She became a small business owner when she was gerrymandered out of office.

The ad is pretty good. It keeps a positive note and shows that Kelda is the type of politician that listens and works with the people instead of dictating to and then hiding from them, like Walker is prone to do. It also shows that she was effective while in office and:

OMG! SHE'S BREASTFEEDING HER BABY!!

During the shoot, Kelda's four month old baby was starting to fuss off camera. Kelda's husband gave the baby to Kelda who started to feed her. She didn't make a big deal of it and she didn't miss a beat while she was talking.

That's because it wasn't a big deal.

But you wouldn't have known that from the right wing propagandists or the corporate media (but I repeat myself) which were shocked! - shocked, I tell you! - by this and/or started launching attacks against her.  I'm sure they think she should have stopped filming and run off to feed her baby in a bathroom stall.

Kelda explained it best herself by simply stating that she was a mother:

While filming, Roys says her four-month-old daughter Avalon started to get a little fussy.

"I just kept nursing the baby and thought maybe they can use the audio or something," she said.

But when she saw the video, she says she decided not to hide her motherly act.

"This is real life," she said. "I think so often women who run for office feel like they can only present a certain side of themselves to be taken seriously. But it's 2018 and I feel like the fact that I'm a mother just shows that I have an even greater motivation to make the state better."

Kelda got a relatively late start with her campaign, presumably because of the baby, and hasn't registered on many people's radar yet.. But this ad and her common sense and practical attitude is sure to change this quickly.

You can learn more about Kelda at her website.

Addendum: There has been no confirmation at this time that Walker is considering calling a special session of the legislature to repeal the ban on BPAs or to start a ban on breastfeeding.

MY Thoughts on Today's Primary

Ok some quick thoughts on the election....Tommy won and its time to introduce the new tommy to the electorate.  People need to know he is the older, crazier, meaner version from the old days.  He cant walk back the fact that he had to go crazy to win the primary.  

I also cant wait to see the "tea party" pretend that they like tommy all along despite all of the things they said about him.   I would guess we havent seen a flip flop like this since mitt got the nomination.  

Good to see eric hovde get humiliated, despite spending millions.  That speaks to the idiocy of rojo.  Wisconsinites had enough of spoiled rich lightweight brats...

Jeff Fitzgeralds showing says that after all the walker dirty work he did, he had zero support showing how much the money in the repub party care about pushing their agenda and NOTHING or NO ONE else

Mark Neumann's special brand of hate will hopefully never win another election again!  

Compare/Contrast this primary to the dems big primary in the 2nd Congressional district.  Where the more negative that Tommy went, the better his numbers.   In the Democratic primary, Kelda Roys went negative and she lost all of her support.   What was shaping up to be a close race, turned into a blow out.   I guess really bad consultants run deep in the Democratic party! 

Finally it was good to see all of the Scott "Scooter" Jensen candidates get beat.  Anyone that associates with him shows themselves to be the loser that Jensen is!   There is no room in the Democratic party for candidates who associate with the likes of Jensen!  


Your Thoughts??