May
2006
Donovan Riley kicks off Campaign Website
Time will tell whether State Senate candidate Donovan Riley will put in the work it will take to win the east side / southshore district he’s hoping to snatch away from State Senator Jeff Plale, but he has kicked off his website. Riley has also managed to net Kathleen Hart as a campaign worker. Hart has a reputation for supporting progressives but has a dicey win-loss record.
As of yet, we haven’t heard that Riley has been out hitting the pavement and wearing out shoe leather. We’ll reserve judgement right now, but on the surface, it may make sense for Riley to get himself a nice St. Jude pendant. St. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes. If Riley doesn’t go out and actually knock on doors as though his life depended on it, we’ll likely not cover his activities much longer as glad handing and coffee clutches aren’t going to win him much more than a few friends.
Riley does seem to be good on the issues. On his website, he offers a few quotes which are clearly written to draw upon the core differences between his candidacy and Plale’s. Riley writes:
“The 7th District is traditionally Democratic. Its people deserve a traditional Democrat in the State Senate - a Democrat who will vote like one.”
“Citizens in our area are engaged and involved. We need a State Senator who is engaged with us, instead of lobbyists and special interests.”
“Our lawmakers have sold their common sense. Something is wrong when we prohibit life-saving research and call it ‘pro-life.’ Something is wrong when the only thing government can put in an empty pocket is a gun.”
“People are coming back to core values like economic opportunity, social justice, personal freedom and educational excellence that have defined the Democratic Party across history. I’m proud of those values. I won’t change them according to the political winds.”
That being said, Plale is vulnerable in his democratic stronghold district. His pairing up with the GOP on key issues that hurt democrats and sell out local interests have earned him the ire of many of the true dems in his district. Riley needs to get out the word on who he is and what he stands for if he has any hope of winning, but more importantly he needs to meet as many of the people he hopes to represent as possible. In that respect, Plale has a huge head start on Riley.
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Link: Donovan Riley for State Senate website
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan
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Link
Thanks for the article about the
website. Since it
went live in January, the site has served as a valuable means to
contact our supporters, provide information to inquisitive voters
and, of course, receive donations and volunteers.
You say in your posting, “As of
yet, we haven’t heard that Riley has been out hitting the
pavement and wearing out shoe leather.” Well, I would like to
let you know that in the past four months, “Donovan has
already been out working the doors in more than a dozen wards,
hundreds of doors in each ward” according to Kathleen Hart, who
has kept the candidate on a tight schedule. From the 39th
ward up on the north end of the district to the 255th down
by St. Francis, Riley has been wearing out his shoes at a prodigious
rate.
In communities and neighborhoods
directly affected by Jeff Plale’s misbegotten Mitchell Airport
Authority legislation (as
reported in Watchdog Milwaukee) Riley and volunteers have
leafleted hundreds of doors, attended meetings of concerned citizens
and addressed neighborhood groups. Riley has also been a presence at
rallies opposing concealed carry (Senate Bill 403) and, again, he and
volunteers are out this weekend in communities and neighborhoods
affected by the recent surge in gun violence to leaflet, share his
views and show his support for community groups working to end this
scourge.
Riley has certainly reached beyond
“glad handing and coffee clutches” with many fund
raisers, public appearances and other campaign activities. Those of
us working with him to take the Seventh District back for the
progressives who live here are committed to keeping up this effort
right through to the September 12th primary election. We
want your vote.
Thanks,
Nic Bernstein