Board rejects ballot language from Milwaukee candidate

[Chris_]

State elections officials narrowly rejected a Milwaukee Assembly candidate's attempt to run with the slogan "NOT the 'whiteman's bitch' " under her name on the ballot.

"I'm not making a derogatory statement toward an ethnic group. I'm stating what I'm not," Ieshuh Griffin, a Milwaukee independent told board members. "It's my constitutional right to freedom of speech."

The board staff ruled that the statement should not be allowed. With one member absent, the board voted 3-2 in favor of reversing that ruling and allowing the wording. Under board rules, however, four votes are needed to overturn a staff decision.

Board member Thomas Barland, who voted to allow Griffin to make the statement, said he thought it was not obscene and "not racial." But Roxanne Dunlap of Sussex, a citizen attending the meeting, told the board that she found the statement offensive and believed that a white person making the opposite statement - "not the black man's bitch" - would be sharply criticized.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/98941309.html

[thundley4]

Board member Thomas Barland, who voted to allow Griffin to make the statement, said he thought it was not obscene and "not racial."

I'll bet he's a lib.

[bijou]

Maybe there are better campaign slogans than "NOT the whiteman's bitch" for a black woman to proudly declare her political independence. But that's not how Ieshuh Griffin looks at the matter.

A community activist, Griffin's running for a seat in the Wisconsin Assembly as an independent, representing a Milwaukee district. And there, independents are allowed a five-word statement of purpose on the ballot to explain to voters what their candidacy is about. ...

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/07/ieshuh_griffins.php

[Chris_]

Dupe....merged......

doc