Tag: Mandela Barnes

She wasn’t planning to attend the inaugural ceremony for Gov. And when Lt. Gov. “I’m not a terribly emotional person,” Holden said after the ceremony concluded. But she “finds it very moving” that the new administration “is going to try to make Wisconsin a state that will work together.” “I’m an economist,” she added. “I think good policy is not a partisan issue.” She noted that the state needs an educated workforce and that Evers, the state’s former schools superintendent, has worked in a field where “you can’t be partisan… and you have to work with everybody.” In keeping with his conciliatory tone since ousting two-term Gov. We’ve been indifferent to resentment and governing by retribution.” Walker was presumably one person Evers had in mind with this reference to the politics of resentment. That was left to Josh Kaul, who, after being sworn in as attorney general, declared that the inauguration was taking place “in atypical circumstances.” “Last month the powers of two of our state constitutional officers were diminished after the elections of those offices had been held,” Kaul said. Barnes, who is black, was sworn in after State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Secretary of State Doug La Follette. Godlewski, who started by noting she was a fifth-generation Wisconsinite, promised to revitalize the treasurer’s office. “It’s hard to believe we nearly lost this constitutional office but together we made our voices heard.” In April, Wisconsin voters rejected a measure to eliminate the treasurer’s office.

Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers has unveiled a panel to advise him on public safety and criminal justice, saying he views the issue as ripe for compromise with Republicans controlling the state Legislature. In a statement Monday announcing the panel, Evers and Lt. Gov.-elect Mandela Barnes also noted racial disparities in the prison system and said it’s time “to start prioritizing people, not prisons.” The new panel includes Dean Strang, who gained international fame for his defense of convicted murderer Steven Avery, whose case was featured in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer,” as well as former state Supreme Court justices Louis Butler and Janine Geske. Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney; Kelli Thompson, head of the state Public Defender’s Office; Matt Frank, former state Department of Natural Resources secretary and former assistant state attorney general; Milwaukee County Chief Deputy Sheriff Denita Ball; Rick Raemisch, former state Department of Corrections secretary and Dane County sheriff who now leads the Colorado Department of Corrections; Walter Dickey, University of Wisconsin Law School professor and former DOC secretary; Angela Lang, director of the Milwaukee-based Black Leaders Organizing for Communities; Jim Palmer, head of the state’s police union. The announcement Monday said the panel aims to “bring together people from all sides of the criminal justice system” to work on possible criminal justice changes. Spencer Black, a former state lawmaker and prominent environmentalist; Tom Hauge, a former longtime DNR wildlife management bureau chief who retired in 2016 after being threatened with a demotion for not being “customer-focused” enough; Preston Cole, who serves on the DNR’s Natural Resources Board; Former DNR state forester Paul DeLong; Dave Clausen, former chairman of the Natural Resources Board; Matt Krueger, who leads the conservation group WI Land + Water.

Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. But for Democratic organizers, civil rights activists and African-American elected officials, Mike Espy’s loss in the Mississippi Senate race on Tuesday cut deep. Their ranks include eight black candidates who won in majority white districts. But in some of the highest-profile races, mostly in the South, efforts to elect black Democrats came up short. Mr. Gillum, Ms. Abrams and Mr. Jealous would have been their states’ first black governors — and the only black governors in office in the United States. And had Mr. Espy won in Mississippi, he would have been the first African-American to represent his state in the Senate in nearly 150 years. It wasn’t a win but it was certainly a victory.” The outlook for minority candidates is likely to get clearer next year, when multiple black Democrats could be running for president. ____________________ 2020 Watch • John Kerry tells Harvard students that he’s “going to think about” running for president. • The Willamette Week reports that Senator Jeff Merkley has “quietly asked” state legislators to change a law barring running for two offices at the same time, allowing him to run both for senate and president in 2020. ____________________ What to read tonight • A new twist in the special counsel investigation: Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, admits in court to engaging in negotiations over building a Trump tower in Moscow well into the 2016 campaign.