Chair Message Paul Hambleton
In case you missed it, I am now officially a candidate for State Senate District 10. A big THANK YOU to all of you who signed nomination papers! Shout out also to Assembly candidates Alison Page, Danielle Johnson, and Terry Schoonover!
Completing the paperwork and gathering signatures was both exciting and nerve wracking. As I learned and worked through it, I had one of those “Huh?” moments where your eyes pop open.
As part of completing the process to get on the ballot, I had to complete a form called the Declaration of Candidacy, which must be notarized. (Thank you Carol Skinner for notarizing!) The form is pretty simple and says that “being duly sworn” I must swear that I meet age, residency, and other requirements “prescribed by the constitutions and laws of the United States and the State of Wisconsin.” Simple enough.
The form makes one item quite explicit: “I have not been convicted of a felony in any court within the United States for which I have not been pardoned.” I signed the document because I met the requirements and have never been convicted of a felony. I submitted it to the Elections Commission with over 800 signatures on Wednesday, May 29. What a relief it was to get that done! Thank you all again!
And then, as you know by now, the next day on Thursday, May 30, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony charges and will be convicted at his July 11 sentencing. As a convicted felon, he cannot run for public office in Wisconsin.
A few days after he becomes a convicted felon, republicans will choose Mr. Trump as their candidate for president at the republican convention July 15-18 in Milwaukee, in a state where a felon can't run for town board, school board, village or city council, county board, mayor, state assembly, state senate, governor, or any other elected office in the state. Huh?
I met several independent and republican voters as I knocked doors to collect signatures in May. They told me they were very uncomfortable with Trump and the MAGA movement. Some even signed my papers. We had respectful conversations about how to listen to each other and look for a better path. We talked about the need to bring people together to solve problems rather than divide people and make problems worse.
I’m running for State Senate. What are you going to do? Let’s move Wisconsin forward together!
