Sees Great Injustice Because Felons are Barred from Public OfficeWhy Can't We Have Chicago-style Politics?
[Updated 6:30 P.M. Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008]By Michael HorneFormer
Alderman Rosa Cameron announced today, Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008, that she has embarked on a "civil disobedience campaign" and "civil rights protest" on an "issue of blatant discrimination."
What's the injustice?
Felons like herself can't hold public office.The convicted thief was sentenced to federal prison in February 2003 after pleading guilty to diverting funds from a community organization. According to Bureau of Prison data,
she was released in November 2003.
She describes herself as a "Community Specialist Consulting" but she really wants her old job back. She says she is "running a campaign to reclaim her old seat on the common council even though she has been told that she can not run because she is a convicted felon."
"Cameron considers the law preventing felons from both voting while they are actively on paper and holding office even after they have served their debt to society as
Jim Crow legislation akin to
Poll Taxes and
Literacy Test." The press release proudly notes that "Ms. Cameron is Off Paper, she is allowed to vote by the Wisconsin law, but can not hold office after serving her time."
Although Milwaukeeworld will grant that a literacy test could have proved quite an insurmountable hurdle for Ms. Cameron, there is a sort of logic to her constitutional argument.
- What right does the government have creating laws to protect the public from those who break laws?
- Why must the public payroll be reserved for those who have not violated the public trust?
- Why are asylums not run by the lunatics who reside within?
These questions are addressed by Ms. Cameron in her manifesto, in which she finds allies with such other pioneers of civil rights as
Henry David Thoreau,
Mahatma Gandhi and
Martin Luther King, who might be surprised to find themselves conscripted into this cause.
"Cameron said that if Civil Disobedience is needed to protest unjust laws, then she would have to be Civilly Disobedience (sic) and attempt to file for public office what she considers to be an unjust law as Martin Luther King did a few decades ago to help turn this country around. ... Ms. Cameron expressed shocked (sic) and disbelief that no one had started a civil rights protest on this issue of blatant discrimination before."
[What were Thoreau, Gandhi and King wasting their time on?
--Ed.]"Rosa Cameron declared that if denied the right to file her candidacy, she would run as a write in candidate because she believes so strongly in the issue of ending all unjust forms of Jim Crow legislation."
COULD USE THE MONEY TO PAY HER DELINQUENT PROPERTY TAX
It is hard to calculate the benefits to the public if Ms. Cameron would be able to regain her seat. However the steady income, plus whatever she could graft, would enable her perhaps to begin making tax payments. Not Poll Tax --
Property Tax.
Cameron
owes $4,851.68 for the year 2007, and is delinquent $4,851.68 for 2006. According to city records, her residence is in Willie Wade's 7th aldermanic district. But Rosie's gunning for the 6th district seat held by incumbent
Michael McGee, for whom she might prove to be a handy precedent someday.
As Cameron says, with the logic that ranks her with the political philosophers of the ages: "This issue should loom large with the constituent (sic) of the 6th district no matter which side you take on the issue of voting rights with the current alderman in jail."
Alas, Illinois law is much advanced over Wisconsin's in this matter, having no prohibition against felons holding office. Our state's ban can be found in
Article XIII Section 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution, amended in November, 1996 especially to tighten the laws against rascals like Ms. Cameron holding offices of public trust.
In fact, even if Ms. Cameron had been convicted of a misdemeanor on the counts brought against her in either a state or federal court, she would still be ineligible to run for office in Wisconsin since the charges involved a violation of public trust. As of this writing Rosa Cameron has not filed a form
EB-162, or Declaration of Candidacy. She has until 5 p.m. to do so. However, it probably is a crime for her to submit such a document, since in it she must swear that she is eligible to run and has not been convicted of any felony in any court in the United States of America or of any misdemeanor involving the public trust for which she has not been pardoned.
--Michael Horne
[Update: Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008, 4:32 p.m. -- Rosa Cameron is in the hallway at the very busy City Election Commission at this moment, staff reports. Will she file her papers in the next 28 minutes? Will the D.A. bust her if she does so? Stay tuned as milwaukeeworld stays late. 6:30 p.m. Ms. Cameron submitted her papers to the election commission this afternoon as threatened, according to Election Commissioner Sue Edman. She said she told Cameron she would not be on the ballot because of her felony conviction. "But she insisted I accept the papers," Edman said. In any event, "they were not notarized," as required by law. Ms. Cameron's bizarre political theater, unlike her earlier exploits, did not rise to the level of a crime, it appears. However, election commission workers had more important chores to undertake at the time she was performing her stunt. There were no television cameras present, Edman said. But a Journal Sentinel reporter was. -Ed.]
[Election Day is April 1st, 2008, which is when Ms. Cameron should have sent out her release, found below.
--Ed.]Cameron press release from Wispolitics.com
