Sole Latino Wisconsin Rep, Zamarripa, Hits Partisan Redistricting

 State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa  

Virtually no local, public input; Latino community excluded
Milwaukee—Wisconsin's only Latino member of the state legislature blasted the Republican redistricting plan Senate Bill 148 (SB 148) expressing outrage that the scheme excluded public input on both the local level and communities of interest including Latinos.

"Seven days ago only one hearing was held on this massive plan that impacts every single citizen of our great state," said State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milwaukee, 8th Assembly District). "The GOP leadership allowed virtually no public input and passed this plan through both houses of the Legislature only one week after the public hearing."

Additionally, members of the Latino community in Milwaukee, who were able make it to Madison, on short notice expressed anger and disgust with the GOP redistricting process, said Zamarripa. "One Latino activist, Juan Carlos Ruiz, spoke passionately about how Latino’s of all political stripes came together on the local level to work on redistricting but were completely left out of the state process."

In order to satisfy their own thirst for a partisan monopoly, the majority party has thrown Wisconsin’s growing Latino community under the bus," said Zamarripa.

"On Saturday, it was reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Governor Walker wanted to work with Democrats," said Zamarripa. "A veto of the blatantly partisan SB 148 is an excellent starting point if the Governor is serious about working with Democrats."

Signs Point Positive in Milwaukee

By Keith Schmitz

I want to second Gretchen Schuldt's post on the good effects of Joesph Zilber's $50 billion kick-start gift to revitalize Milwaukee and Marcus White's appointment to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

From a personal standpoint as Chair of the Interfaith Conference Congregational Action Network, it has been both a pleasure and an inspiration. working with Marcus. Hate to see him leave considering how much he got done with Interfaith, but the resources and connections through the GMF will magnify Marcus' ability to effect change here in Milwaukee.

Two other things that auger well for the metro area.

Though it got some mention for their launch last month, the new Common Ground organization will be bringing together groups -- conservative, moderate, liberal, religious, social justice, labor, business -- to find common solutions to metro-wide problems.

Milwaukee has been notorious as a city that is way too splintered, and this movement will find issues and approaches that will encourage joint efforts across all spectrums. Very refreshing when you think of it.

The second is a national trend. More people are waking up to the idea that government does have a constructive role in bringing progress. Over the last 25 years we have seen the effects of limiting government's role as evidenced by our crumbling infrastructure, our falling behind in research world-wide and the idea that in our financial markets we have to have a referee to prevent chaos on the playing field, thanks to the sub-prime mortgage blow-up.

Also polls show that Americans are warming up to government financed health care.

Looks like Milwaukee might be heading in the right direction.

Rightwing Radio Versus Pedro Colón

by Michael A. Leon

You can tell a lot about a candidate by the enemies he or she makes.

In Pedro Colón (state rep., D-Milwaukee) run for the Milwaukee City Attorney’s race, Colón has gained the enmity of some of the usual suspects on rightwing radio.

Both Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling ripped into Colón Monday though not offering any argument against his candidacy.

Of course, Colón who lists among his supporters the Milwaukee DA, and the City’s legislative caucus, and US Rep. Gwen Moore, also gets an occasional hit from those upset with successful advocacy of a sexual harassment victim. Isn’t that a good thing?

And now Colón is campaigning for the City Attorney’s office advocating that he would work with other officials to flush out the law protecting Milwaukee citizens so that citizens might be better served by the actions of their government and the police. Isn’t that a good thing?

The naysayers are unpersuasive

Reads the Shepard-Express endorsement:

Colon’s ideas would take the city attorney’s office into the 21st century by working with other levels of government, especially on reducing crime and nuisance properties; training police officers to respect the rights of citizens while making arrests; fighting to fix the school choice funding flaw, which currently penalizes city taxpayers; finding fair solutions for residents who have had their driver’s licenses taken away; and personally advocating for the city when important lawsuits arise.

Amen to the uppity Wisconsin Hispanic efforts to make government serve the people it is supposed to serve.