MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee community activist Ieshuh Griffin is the first candidate to turn in 1,564 signatures to get on the ballot for the mayoral election, 1500 are required. Signatures from all potential candidates are reviewed and certified by the by the Milwaukee Election Commission before ending up on the ballot.
Griffin said she collected all the signatures herself by going to door to door and visiting in public arenas and talked to every person who signed her nomination papers.
She is the 12th person to declare her candidacy to replace Mayor Tom Barrett who resigned in December to become Ambassador to Luxembourg.
She is running to address the "injustice" she sees in Milwaukee. She's calling her 2022 run for mayor: The Poor People's Piece of the Pie Campaign.
Griffin has run for office before without success. In the 2012 mayoral primary, she received 1,148 votes.
She made national headlines in 2010 when she tried to run with the slogan, "NOT the 'whiteman's bitch'" under her name on the ballot for a state Assembly seat.
The state's then Government Accountability Board denied her request.
TheMilwaukee Journal Sentinelreported that she said, "I'm not making a derogatory statement toward an ethnic group. I'm stating what I'm not," Griffin told board members. "It's my constitutional right to freedom of speech."
This time around, Griffin said her campaign slogan is, "I'm the change you need and want."
The mayoral primary is February 15th, the top two vote getters in the nonpartisan election will face off April 5th. The deadline to turn in nomination papers is January 11th.
There are currently 11 other candidates who have also joined the race:
- Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson
- Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic
- Bob Donovan, former Milwaukee Alderman
- Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas
- State Senator Lena Taylor
- City Attorney Tearman Spencer
- Michael Sampson, Entrepreneur
- Nick McVey, Community Activist
- Sheila Conley-Patterson, Teacher
- Joel Paplham, Businessman
- Wenona Gardner
