The Crazy Season - The Coggs Edition

Some political wonks often refer to the time leading up to major elections as the "crazy season." The bigger the election, it seems, the worse the craziness gets. And with this year're recall elections raising the total number of elections to six, it's done gotten really crazy.

One example is Elizabeth Coggs, who must be really feeling nervous now that she understands that the state senate seat that belonged to her cousin, Spencer Coggs, wasn't simply going to be just handed to her.

Showing the stress from the race, she made a very unfortunate comment:

State Rep. Elizabeth Coggs, the Milwaukee Democrat running in the August primary for state senator, urged a gathering of mostly black voters Saturday to "vote for someone that looks like you."

Coggs only made things worse by snapping at reporters after the event. And still unable to leave bad enough alone, Coggs insisted on making things worse by issuing a press release defending her racist comment with more racism:

It’s funny how a complex examination of redistricting and elections can be trivialized and reduced to an out of context comment about "looks." Much has been made of a comment I made at a recent community meeting, when asked about the division within the Democratic Party. I have shared my concerns with the party and my view/opinion may not be popular with others. I understand the history of the battle for our community's representation, my mother Marcia Coggs was this state's first African-American State Legislator; her victory was not easy and it only came with the support of the community.

Every 10 years during redistricting there has historically been a lot of vigorous debate about representation, except this time, because of the secret and divisive process used by the Republican Party. A civilized debate could have been held in appropriate place such as caucus or on the assembly floor rather than a community meeting or through sound bites in newspapers. And in these particular debates the concerns of underrepresented communities could have been addressed.

In the 1980's there were four African-Americans out of 99 representatives for the state, and currently we have eight. That doubling of representation happened through thoughtful discourse, hard fought elections and even lawsuits requiring that districts be reconfigured to give communities of color the greatest opportunity possible to elect a person who best reflects the interests of the demographics of that district.

The Democratic Party itself recently fought a legal case against the map designed for the state and ultimately won, resulting in forcing the state to reconfigure south side districts. And it is my opinion that in this election cycle we could return to 1980’s level of representation if we do not vote and not to mention that this would be a disservice to our ancestors and the fight and struggle they went through to increase representation for our community.

Moreover, my comments were not aimed at any one person or district, just at reminding our community about the struggle those who came before us to get the representation levels we currently have and how important it is for us never to forget that. Ultimately, the Voters will decide who they choose to represent them, my hope is that no representation is lost for our community and the best people win so that we can work diligently to address the needs of our community.

Now I can see why her own cousin didn't endorse her to replace him.

I'm sure in her mind, Coggs wasn't trying to be racist, but desperation can make you crazy.

That said, congratulations and kudos to Mandela Barnes, Sandy Pasch (who the comment was aimed at) and Nikiya Harris for calling her out on it. This is why they are the leaders that we need to take us to a better future.

Three Emerge Wisconsin Alumnae Running For State Senate This Fall

From Emerge Wisconsin:

Emerge Wisconsin has trained 100 Democratic women to run for office.
Twenty-seven Alumnae are running this fall including three who are running for State
Senate: Senator Jessica King, Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Nikiya Harris and
Tanya Lohr.

“When Senator Jessica King won her election last year, we were very proud to have
her as our highest ranking alumna. Senator King has led the way for two more of her
Emerge sisters to follow in her footsteps.” Wendy Strout, Emerge Wisconsin
Executive Director.

Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Nikiya Harris, Class of 2011, is running for the
State Senate seat being vacated by Senator Spencer Coggs (SD 6).

Senator Jessica King (SD 18), Class of 2007, is running for re-election this fall. She
won her State Senate seat last year against one of the recalled GOP State Senators.
Tanya Lohr, Class of 2012, is running against the notorious Senator Glenn Grothman
(SD 20).

“Emerge Wisconsin is proud that our program has produced strong women who are
not afraid to take on the tough fights. Emerge women are proving that they are ready
to run, whatever the climate, whatever the seat.” Bethany Ordaz, Emerge Wisconsin
Board chair.

Launched in 2007, Emerge is the only organization in Wisconsin that provides
Democratic women with the comprehensive training they need to achieve their
political aspirations. Emerge Wisconsin is part of Emerge America, a national
movement and premier training program that addresses the under-representation of
women in office at the local, state, and federal level. There are Emerge affiliates in
ten states: Arizona, California, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New
Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Emerge was founded to create a legion of
Democratic women leaders for generations to come.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I do some volunteer work for Emerge Wisonsin, a fact of which I am very proud.

Congratulations Supervisor Elect Nikiya Harris

From Milwaukee County First:

Nikiya Harris has won the special election to represent District 2 on the Milwaukee County Board.

The seat was formerly held by Toni Clark, who resigned just before being convicted of a felony.

Milwaukee County First would like to congratulate Ms. Harris on her victory, coming the first time she ran for public office.

MCF would also like to congratulate Wallace White for a race well run and to the people of District 2 for having two such fine people willing to stand up and represent them on the Board.

Supervisor Elect Harris will be a strong asset to the Milwaukee County Board, her constituents and to all of Milwaukee county. She has expressed a strong desire to restore the transit system, the parks and the social safety net that has been allowed to deteriorate over the past decade.

We look forward to working with her in these efforts and in making Milwaukee County once again a place where people will want to work, to play and to live.

Nikiya Harris For County Supervisor

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a fairly decent article up about the race for District 2 County Supervisor.

The race comes down to Nikiya Harris and Wallace White.

I have had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Harris on a number of occasions. She is very proactive on many of the issues and is ready to start putting Milwaukee County back on the right track.

While she might not have raised as much money as her opponent, that only reflects Mr. White's ties to the business community. But for what she doesn't have in money, she has more than made up with energy. She has been actively campaigning day in and day out, going out and knocking on doors and talking to people to see what is important to them. That is a refreshing change than our current county executive and his supporters who dismiss the concerns and needs of the people for their campaign donors.

As mentioned above, I've had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Harris on a number of occasions. I asked her about the three big topics of importance to the county right now; BHD, transit and the parks.

Regarding BHD, Ms. Harris points out that there just isn't enough staff or services to meet the needs of the community. She also said that a large part of the problem is the constant privatization of services, which ends up being more expensive and less effective than county workers.

Ms. Harris also told me that she strongly supports the dedicated sales tax to support the parks and the transit system. She correctly points out that a healthy transit system is needed for a healthy economy and that people need to get to their jobs if the economy is ever to improve.

Regarding the parks, she pointed out her career with the Urban Ecology Center and her understanding of how important it is to maintain our natural areas. She said she found it very sad and upsetting that people were using the parks as dumping grounds to get rid of all of their garbage.

She said that she would like to get people out to the parks more to revitalize their value and importance to the community, which in turn would help put more pressure on our elected leaders in Madison to start paying attention to the people and not the special interests. She said that she would work closely with the Park People to develop more friends of the parks groups in her district.

Ms. Harris has the support of many of the County Board Supervisors, most notably Chris Larson and Marina Dimitrijevic, two of the most active, progressive and popular members of the Board.

She also has the endorsement from the Milwaukee Courier, who wrote:

Nikiya is called to public service to stand up for the needs of the people of her district. She is a dedicated leader who will be a full-time representative in a way that is honest, dependable.

In April’s 11-way primary, Nikiya Harris worked hard to distinguish herself in a crowded field. Her strong grassroots campaign hit the doors, winning the primary with a dominating 27 percent of the total vote. Now, she’s gearing up for the general election and working even harder, pledging to support secure funding for public transit for job access, to make our parks safe and clean, and to be a full-time Supervisor.

With all due respect to Mr. White, I concur and would say that Ms. Harris would make an excellent Supervisor for District 2 and would be a voice on the Board that is desperately needed right now.

Nikiya Harris' website can be found here.