St. Francis Soundly Rejects Racism, Sexism

I warned you last night that St. Francis could find itself with Judge Dreadful, aka Kyle Duerstein, who has made his fair share of offensive comments.

St. Francis responded in force to reject such hate:

Longtime St. Francis Municipal Judge Peter Hemmer kept his seat Tuesday in a contest in which nobody -- including himself -- was on the ballot.

Hemmer had declared he wouldn’t seek re-election to another two-year term. But when nobody else emerged as a candidate, Hemmer said he would serve if elected as a write-in candidate.

The final tally was 203 votes for Hemmer to 23 for Kyle Duerstein and 15 for Ellen Ferentz.

Congratulations to St. Francis.

Judge Dreadful: Coming To St. Francis?

St. Francis could be in a world of hurt by the end of the day on Tuesday if the voters there aren't careful.

It was reported that, as late as March 31, there were no contenders for the race for municipal judge for St. Francis. The current judge, the Honorable Peter Hemmer, had filed papers indicating that he was not running again. However, when no one else filed, Judge Hemmer said he would serve again if he received enough write-in votes.

However, I have learned just of late that there is another person running as a write-in candidate as well.

The other candidate's name is Kyle Duerstein, who is infamous for having made racist comments while serving as Speaker of the Student Senate at UW-Milwaukee:

The entry, dated November 12, 2005, reads: “If mainstream black anglo-hating racists can’t find a way to function in normal society and use the intelligence that God gave them, perhaps they ask to be held down and discriminated against, and placed back into slavery.”

In 2006, Duerstein wrote: “I know that a lot of black kids growing up these days do work hard” and “Unfortunately, it has been my experience that those folks are in the minority of their race.”

Duerstein is also known for wishing that a female student who disagreed with him be "raped and killed."

Zach at Blogging Blue has more on the issue, including some very sound questions on whether Duerstein is even qualified to be a judge.

But given the prejudicial and imprudent nature of the comments that we know Duerstein has made, I would say that he has already shown that he cannot be counted on for good judgment skills already.