Disgruntled Constituents Who Support Milwaukee County Board Incumbents To Protest LeardershipMKE For Favoring Challengers

A local group of constituents who support Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors running for re-election will hold a protest at the LeadershipMKE Southside office for spending thousands of dollars of advertising on challengers, which is actually legal.

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

March 25, 2018

Milwaukee, WI - The League of Progressive Seniors (LPS) and supporters of Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors running for re-election will hold a protest in front of the LeadershipMKE Southside office at the 1300 block of S. 1st Street on Wednesday, March 28 at noon, simply because the state registered independent funding source has spent over $1M of campaign advertising on challengers. The disgruntled group of individuals expected to protest on Wednesday say Milwaukee County government is not for sale and feel that the incumbents they are supporting might not likely succeed in getting re-elected to continue their status quo.
Janice Wilberg, is one of the founders for LPS and supports West's re-election. According to the January 2018 campaign donation report, Janice from Wilberg Community Planning, LLC  donated $250 to West.
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is the primary funding source including local labor organizations who have donated to LeadershipMKE as well. The LeadershipMKE office is located in the Milwaukee County Supervisor 12th District where Supervisor West is running for re-election and some of the people planning to protest on Wednesday at the LeadershipMKE office would like her to get re-elected. LeadershipMKE has spent more than $56K promoting West in the district, but not in a favorable way compare to challenger Sylvia Ortiz-Velez who is the preferred candidate to oust West, according to LeadershipMKE dot com. Both West and Ortiz-Velez are not affiliated nor have they received any campaign donations from LeadershipMKE, according to reported campaign records. Even LeadershipMKE has placed a disclaimer on their campaign advertising saying, "Paid for by Leadership Mke. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's agent or committee."

West posted on her campaign FB page that, "It's now up to $1,000,000 against me and others who are not afraid to stand up to Abele's lies, bullying and gaslighting." Ortiz-Velez confirmed during the Southside Organizing Center debate for the 12th County Supervisor District, that she has not received any campaign donations from any PACs and says that if elected, she will be accountable to her constituency and will work to represent and address the needs of the district. 

Currently, Supervisor West is facing allegations that she didn't circulate some nominations papers as she claimed, according to an Ethics Board complaint filed by Ortiz-Velez. An investigation by authorities into the Ortiz-Velez claim that West didn't circulate some nomination papers has been launched, according to a reliable source. West could face a felony charge, if found that she actually falsified some nomination papers by signing and certifying that she circulated the papers in question when she did not.

Also on March 3, Supervisor West contacted police at Milwaukee Police District 2 Station and complained that Felix Questell, a Southside outspoken constituent had allegedly threatened that he was going to shoot a certain individual. 

Questell posted a FB video alleging that West complained to police that he had threatened to shoot a person who Questell identified as a registered sex offender. Apparently, Questell also posted multiple FB posts that West allegedly had a relationship with Thomas James Schroder, 44, a registered sex offender who was released on February 27 from the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. 

Schroder was convicted on January 15, 2008 for 2nd-degree sexual assault of a child. The Milwaukee Police Department website on registered sex offenders listed Schroder as homeless, but the Wisconsin Department of Corrections sex offender registry has him as compliant.

West announced on Saturday that Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant and workers rights organization had endorsed her candidacy for re-election. It didn't take long for Questell to post on his FB account, "Shame on them." Other endorsements that West received for re-election were from Milwaukee Common Council members, José Pérez snd Tony Zielinski, Wisconsin State Senators Tim Carpenter (D) and Chris Larson (D), Wisconsin State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa (D), U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI), Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, Milwaukee County Judge Pedro Cólon, Milwaukee Municipal Judge Phil Chavez and the list of public elected officials goes on including multiple unions. As politics as usual play out, West if re-elected will most likely owe political favors for endorsements. West is seeking re-election for a fifth term.

So far, West has not responded to Questell's allegation that she called police and accused him of attempting to commit a crime by shooting Schroder, but she did write a FB posting about an address for senior living apartments located at the 1800 block of W. Becher, West wrote about her circulating nomination papers to get on the ballot, "...Senior and disabled apartment complex as were at least 3 other addresses I used to collect signatures. It is very possible that residents don't clearly remember who came to their door to get their signature. Knowing that, it is possible that the residents are confused..."

Editor's note:

On a March 21 FB post, West attempted to mislead her FB friends into believing that her opponent had failed to report LeadershipMKE donations to her campaign when asked several times, if either the opponent or West received any donations from groups that included LeadershipMKE who favors Ortiz-Velez over West during the SOC debate. Both Ortiz-Velez and West responded no to the questions. West knows that she has gotten equal advertising play by LeadershipMKE who also used photos of West, not as favorable compared to Ortiz-Velez and West hasn't reported it as a donation either, we should wonder why. In reality West and Ortiz-Velez haven't received any campaign donations directly from LeadershipMKE who has spent thousands of dollars on favorable advertising for those candidates challenging incumbents, which candidates are not required to report, if they haven't received any campaign donations or did not authorized for LeadershipMKE to advertise their campaigns on their behalf. West should stop misleading her supporters that Ortiz-Velez has received some type of donation from LeadershipMKE when in fact, the Ortiz-Velez donation campaign reports indicates she hasn't and the LeadershipMKE campaign reports on expenditures also confirmed that Ortiz-Velez hasn't received any campaign contributions from LeadershipMKE. West might have fallen for the misleading reporting by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (JS) report that claimed Ortiz-Velez was the beneficiary of the $56K that LeadershipMKE has spent on their own to promote the Milwaukee County Supervisor 12th District race, but the JS failed to mention that West was also a beneficiary, but in not so favorable advertising. The JS has failed to explained how Ortiz-Velez was the actual beneficiary when the election hasn't taken place yet to see, if LeadershipMKE had any real influence to oust West from office.

League of Progressive Seniors (LPS) on their Facebook page posted a false claim, which read, "The League of Progressive Seniors calls on the four candidates for County Board who have allowed huge amounts of money to be spent on their behalf by County Executive Chris Abele's sham Leadership MKE to publicly reject further Leadership MKE expenditures in their campaigns." Casey Shorts, Patti Logsdon, Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, and James Davies have not allowed for Abele and LeadershipMKE to spend on their behalf, LeadershipMKE independently is favoring the challengers over the incumbents that LPS is supporting and would like to see re-elected.