Saturday, April 7, 2018

Cesar E. Chavez Life-size Bronze Statue In Milwaukee Exploited For Political Gain And Endorsements

Editorial:

Unfortunately, a Cesar E. Chavez Drive landmark in Milwaukee's Southside was used for political gain and endorsements by public elected officials, unions and an organization, which has drawn criticism.

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

April 7, 2018

Milwaukee, WI - Last Monday, Voces de la Frontera Action (VDLFA) held a press conference along with U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milw.), State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milw.), Kim Shroeder, President of the MTEA and Dave Weingrod from the AFT 212 union in front of the Cesar E. Chavez lifesize bronze statue to promote their endorsements for candidates that they supported for the April 3rd election, which it's their option and right to do so. But, to use the Chavez's statue in the heart of the Latino community for political purposes and to support a certain candidate running for re-election to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors is a disrespect to the late civil rights and United Farmworkers Union leader.
Also hypocrisy at its best, these public elected officials, union representatives and VDLFA endorsed Wisconsin State Supreme Court candidate Rebecca Dallet, who accepted an endorsement by Milwaukee County Executive Director Chris Abele who financially backed Leadership MKE, an independent expenditure committee. 
The small group gathered at the press conference led by Christine Neumann-Ortiz from VDLF, a non-profit organization who also engaged in political false claims via e-mail targeted at Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, a member of her organization and candidate for Milwaukee County Supervisor in the 12th District, which they attempted to imply and mislead the community. Both union representatives also followed with the false claims made by VDLFA and VDLFA, but they didn't criticized Judge Rebecca Dallet for accepting Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's endorsement, nor did they target Felesia Martin, a candidate for the Milwaukee County Board who did accept Abele's support either, but they targeted Ortiz-Velez, even when she confirmed that she had not accepted any campaign donations from Abele, received no endorsement by him and did not consent for Leadership MKE to advertise favorable ads about her. Neumann-Ortiz and the union representatives did attempt to associate Ortiz-Velez with Leadership MKE by making false claims and failed miserably.
Also, Voces de la Frontera, a 501c (3) non-profit organization used its e-mail service to sent out the political propaganda from its sister organization Voces de la Frontera Action, a 501c (4) org in violation of federal law and their non-profit status, according to an IRS agent.
Least to add, Neumann-Ortiz also is using the latest results of the Ortiz-Velez win to generate donations by continuing to make false claims, but anyone with common sense would not support VDLFA and VDLF for engaging and spreading lies, hate and division among the immigrant and none immigrant communities, which is actually supported by their White liberal Board of Directors in control of both organizations.
Shame on Neumann-Ortiz, Kim Shroeder, President of the MTEA and Dave Weingrod from the AFT 212 for making the false claims about Ortiz-Velez and double shame on State Representative Zamarripa to exploit the Chavez statue and for using it for political exploitation and to promote blatant lies targeted at a Latina who was running for the Milwaukee County Board. 
The Chavez statue was funded and erected by businesses, donation contributors and members of the Latino Community to honor the Cesar E. Chavez legacy. 

As a result, the Southside predominantly Latino community including other members of a diverse community that reside in the district voted on April 3rd and reject Supervisor Peggy West's endorsements by Neumann-Ortiz, State Representative Zamarripa, Congresswoman Moore, Alderman José G. Pérez and the union representatives by electing Ortiz-Velez who received 58% of the total vote and won in 21 of 23 precincts in the Milwaukee County Supervisor District 12 race.

On Saturday, during the Joel & Jocasta program on NewsTalk 1510 AM radio, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director from Voces de la Frontera during an interview via the phone line, she said, that Leadership MKE spent $77,000 dollars on behalf of Abele to support Supervisor West's opponent and says Leadership MKE spent additional funds for their candidates to win. She stated, that "We didn't do much to mobilise the vote...it went his way..." also indicating that Leadership MKE did influence the outcome for ousting West from office.
To be fair, Neumann-Ortiz failed to add a disclaimer, that West's opponent was independent from Leadership MKE and didn't accept or consented nor cooperated with Leadership MKE and she wasn't Leadership MKE's candidate as Neumann-Ortiz wants people to believe.
Info.: State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milw.) received $1,000 in donations from Abele, according to her donation campaign report entry on Dec. 7, 2017, but it seems Neumann-Ortiz, Voces de la Frontera Action (VDLFA) and the White liberal Board at VDLFA haven't condemn Zamarripa for accepting donations from Abele.
Neumann-Ortiz has a problem realizing that Leadership MKE was not an influence in the Milwaukee County Supervisor District 12 race, but it was West's opponent, Sylvia Ortiz-Velez hard work and knocking at 10,000 doors to get her supporters to vote on election day.
Neumann-Ortiz should wakeup and realize that Ortiz-Velez's hard work actually paid off and not Leadership MKE, because Ortiz-Velez received 816 votes and the number of electors that voted on April 3rd doesn't reflect the $77K that Leadership MKE spent on the 12th district, according to Neumann-Ortiz.

Time to clean house at Voces de la Frontera!



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