Update from district 2 – a little late, this is from last Friday.
BOWDEN CAMPAIGN UPDATE POST NON-BALLOT STATUS DETERMINATION
On this past Monday, the City Attorney and Clerk determined Colin Bowden was not to be on the ballot as an alder candidate despite getting all the requisite forms into the City Clerk’s Office by the 2nd of January, 2013. He made a mistake of not realizing the Clerk wanted the Statement of Economic Interests in by 5PM of that day and so apparently ran afoul of Madison ordinance.
While our campaign feels the interpretation of Madison General Ordinance by the City Attorney is at best misguided, we cannot procure the resources needed to legally fight back, and so we must suspend the electoral campaign effective immediately. Our team has come to this conclusion because a write-in campaign while seemingly courageous would need more time, more resources and more energy that we have a little more than a month before a contentious primary. The Council including the future District 2 Alder, needs to step up and make this ordinance more balanced and fair so people are no longer having to run against other candidates and the Clerk’s office.
For the future, this campaign will only be suspended; it does not end. We will work to inform supporters and residents of relevant issues like reducing our growing poverty rate, getting shelter and housing for all who need it, keeping people in power accountable for their actions while making those halls of power more accessible for all of us, and keeping our school food healthy and our lakes clean so our children can enjoy their childhood fully and with as little preventable disease and malady as possible.
A candidate for alder that can speak to these issues along with the necessary development in a broad vision would earn the backing of many of my supporters. For now, the search goes to find that candidate and support them, because at the end of the day, the point was never about Colin Bowden, but about reducing inequity, cleaning our lakes, holding people in power accountable, and making policy so every person has a better life. That is the sort of campaign that can never be suspended and it won’t be now.
Thank you all for your well wishes and your support. We will be back.
