November
2006
Recalling Thyself: McGee skips key budget vote as his constituents file recall petition
Demanding “quality representation for our tax dollars,” 49-year-old U.S. Army veteran Vianna Jordan delivered 2,300 signatures to recall Ald. Michael McGee Jr./Jackson yesterday, announcing as she did 10 reasons citizens of the 6th District need a new alderman. McGee Jr., in keeping with his usual reaction when disturbed by others, gave her two more.
First, McGee himself had signed the recall petetion against him. Then, after Jordan filed the paperwork at the city Elections Commission, McGee missed a crucial Common Council vote on Mayor Tom Barrett's lone budget veto. Aldermen overrode the veto without McGee (11-3), and his vote would not have blocked the Council, but McGee has no excuse for skipping out on his constituents on one of the most important budget votes.
By overriding Barrett, aldermen restored firefighter positions to ladder trucks that the mayor had cut to fund a pilot program to put cops in schools. The Council, which had already approved 40 new Milwaukee Police Department positions in this budget, decided that MPD had ample funds to start the school safety project.
One would think that an alderman who represents a district in which a student was beaten to death outside of his school, in broad daylight at 1st and Center Streets in front of other students, would feel compelled to represent the school safety concerns of his constituents. Does skipping the vote make more or less sense to McGee Jr. — who cuts himself in the mold of his father, the former alderman and leader of what he dubbed the New Black Panther Party – when it's considered that the beating occurred at afrocentric Malcolm X Academy? There's no need to bother with his answer.
McGee, Jr., is worse than tiresome, his antics only trivializing every issue he involves himself with. Local media aids and abets in a lurid, OJ-style symbiosis that makes mockery of it all, at once bursting and inflating McGee's small town persona. We’ve been guilty of it too here at Watchdog Milwaukee.
Nobody takes Jr. as seriously as they took his dad but, sadly, in 2006 Milwaukeee it's still easier to write about a McGee than it is to write the truth: When the sun goes down, much of the 6th District deteriorates to a phantasmagoria of crack-infested alleys, heroin deals near the District 5 police station, angry faces and street maulings, prostitution and drugs, more drugs, gunplay, murder, rage and despair.
Somebody’s got to be alderman when the sun comes up, and residents of the 6th District can do much better than McGee.
He offered no statement yesterday after Jordan filed the recall petition (and still hasn't), but expect Jr. at the elections commission in the coming weeks, challenging signatures and somehow challenging his very own, defying witnesses who saw him sign it. The 2,300 signatures Jordan filed are over 600 more than what she needs to force the election, and she does plan to run for the 6th District seat. She won’t likely be the only candidate and she’ll have to build more than an anti-McGee message, as strong as that message is.
ShareVianna Jordan’s 10 Reasons to Recall Ald. Michael McGee, Jr.
- Has become an embarrassment to our community
- Perjured himself in court about an illicit affair with mother of his child
- Arrested on charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and threatening to kill a woman
- Aide arrested for possession of guns, drugs and open alcohol
- Used slurs and epithets against LGBT community; unbecoming of a role model
- Has shamefully earned the public reputation of a scofflaw
- Lacks the rapport and leadership skills to be an effective leader
- Refers constituents to disreputable cronies in a conspiratorial hoax/scam
- Fraudulent use of alias names to avoid responsibility for accident damages
- Used constituent organizations to rally in defense of a shameful act
John-david Morgan
John-David Morgan, Watchdogging Campaigns
For once in a blue moon I actually agree with you guys on something!
If I lived in the district I’d run against him myself!
It is about time somebody comes forward against this man. Hopefully, he will wake-up and become a better person.
ViAnna Jordan Is “A Gathering Storm”, Files To Re-Call McGee/Jackson
By Alan Eisenberg, Associate Editor,
El Conquistador Weekly Newspaper
On Wednesday, November 29, 2006, ViAnna Jordan, a retired United States Army Staff Sergeant, mother of three children, and community activist, filed a 2,300-signature recall petition to the city elections commission. She delivered the petitions in a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift box with a bow and called it her Christmas gift to the city. After that she spoke at a press conference and notified the citizens of Milwaukee that McGee signed one of her petitions personally in her presence. No McGee supporters showed up. Then she passed out the petition page with his signature on it. She said, “And so he signed it. In the meantime, he was stating that ‘If you all want me out of here, I might as well sign,’” Jordan agreed. She went on to say, “There will be a time for healing and atonement,” As of now,” McGee has declared, “we are at war.” Michael McGee is encouraging his followers and the 6th District to go to war with the police; to war with the DA; to war with their teachers; and to war with each other. As a result of this kind of irresponsible rhetoric on the part of McGee and others, many of our youth are misdirected, and our youth are confused by our inappropriate role models, and have gone to war with themselves as well as with the system, killing each other in the process. McGee’s answer to this problem is “Don’t snitch!” She went on to say, I, ViAnna Jordan, disagree with McGee/Jackson. Now is the time for responsible leadership; I say this is the time for healing; I say this is the time for atonement; I say we must stop the irresponsible behavior of a few. There is a hard core group who would follow irresponsible words of disreputable leaders like McGee, but we need Peace in this city. We need to have McGee out of office. Even McGee knows this, that is why he signed my petition! Accept it as his confession. And we need to elect responsible leaders, because we must focus on the garbage pickups, cleaning up trash in the street, fixing Street lights that are out, replacing street signs that are not up, providing for a safe and secure neighborhood, and we must support our local law enforcement. These are all leading indicators that must be fixed before manufacturing & services industries will relocate to the 6th aldermanic district; we must focus on Jobs for the 21st century. She concluded by saying “It’s time to put an end to the violence, it’s time to begin again with new leadership, I thank you all for coming. Today, let’s start anew, out with the old and in with the new. A new attitude, a new spirit, a new sixth district, a nesixth district alderman. Have a blessed morning.” She also listed 10 reasons why McGee should not represent the Sixth District, including perjury, his arrest record and lack of leadership skills. The Sixth District includes parts of Martin Luther King Drive and the Riverwest and Brewers Hill neighborhoods.
For the past several weeks, an invigorated team of re-call workers have taken to the streets to obtain signatures on petitions to seek removal of Michael McGee as alderman of Milwaukee’s Six Aldermanic District. The most recent development is that Citizens For Responsible Government, have gotten involved and also took to the streets to seek signatures. A recent method employed by CRG representatives was to have some members present in the vicinity of election poll areas on Tuesday, election day, because legitimate voters visit the area and they were canvassed for signatures. The voters showed overwhelming support by signing the recall petitions. Those few that declined reported that when he was re-called, they would vote against him in the next election and also vote for ViAnna Jordan. A few reported that they didn’t want to put their name and address down because they feared retaliation by opponents of the re-call, but also indicated that they would vote for ViAnna Jordan in the privacy of the voters’ booth. Jordan’s reaction to these events this last week was, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
ViAnna Jordan just retired from the United States Army 12 weeks ago as a Staff Sergeant. She has stood against tougher foes than Michael McGee, Junior; she is not afraid to face a battle, or for that matter, a war. Although she’s 49 years old, she doesn’t look it. When you realize where she has spent her time during the last 20 years, you suddenly become aware that she is one tough lady, unafraid of McGee and his cohorts. She has had NATO tours in Italy and Turkey, and other overseas tours in Korea and Kuwait, which was part of the war in Iraq. She has been an information manager and specialist; she knows computers and is a true 21st century woman. She knows about terrorism and won’t tolerate it. She spent all of her years serving her country under the most difficult circumstances with top secret clearance doing classified work; she earned hazardous pay while under enemy attack and earned many medals. Frankly, she is fearless. ViAnna Jordan can be reached at 374-2237.