Candidate touted on CNN has ballot issues
Charisse Daniels, a 29-year-old Watertown resident, was featured in a CNN story last year on women across the country who decided to run for office in light of the election of President Donald Trump.
That election, Daniels said, was an “absolute kick in the gut.”
“I knew the world looked different when I walked out that door,” said Daniels, who went through the Emerge America training program for Democrats. “This isn’t what I thought the world would look like.”
But before she changes things in Wisconsin, Daniels will need to get on the ballot.
And that, increasingly, looks like a major problem. The state Elections Commission has determined that Daniels turned in 201 valid nomination signatures to get on the fall ballot for the 37th Assembly District. Assembly candidates are required to file at least 200 signatures, giving Daniels little wiggle room.
The seat is held by state Rep. John Jagler, a Watertown Republican. No other candidates registered for the seat. But state Republican Party officials filed a complaint on Monday with affidavits from 15 people denying that they signed Daniels’ nomination papers. Five more said their signatures were forged and would attest to the fact. Seven others said the same but wouldn’t sign a sworn statement or promise to testify.
There were problems with three other signatures, including one that listed an address that was a vacant lot.
Daniels was the one who collected all of those 30 questionable signatures, according to the GOP complaint. Her campaign also submitted three duplicate signatures.
Daniels, who did not return calls or emails, will have three days to respond to the allegations. The Elections Commission will then determine at its June 11 meeting if she gets bounced from the ballot.
Reached Monday, Jagler said he turned up the problem on Daniels’ nomination papers when he saw the signature of David Block, a longtime supporter of his and donor. Jagler said he called Block, who responded, “I’ve never heard of her.”
The third-term lawmaker said he then noticed that many of the signatures looked the same, so he began contacting everyone who signed the nomination papers submitted by Daniels.
Some didn’t even know what nomination papers were; many did not know the Democratic candidate. A number were very angry that their signatures appeared on the campaign document.
Jagler called it a “strange day.”
He noted that she screwed up initially by raising campaign dollars without setting up a campaign account. She had raised $3,100 online before Republicans filed a complaint over this.
And now it appears Daniels didn’t collect enough nomination signatures, despite going through the 70hour Emerge America training sessions.
“No matter what they taught her in those 70 hours or whatever it was, I would think the first thing they would tell you is to make sure you get on the ballot or the rest is moot,” Jagler said.
Also on Monday, Mark Morgan, the executive director of the state Republican Party, planned to file complaints to try to remove from the ballot two of the 10 Democrats running for governor: Milwaukee businessman Andy Gronik and Rep. Dana Wachs of Eau Claire.
In drafts of his complaints, Morgan contended hundreds of the signatures submitted for Wachs included incomplete or faulty information. Morgan also maintained that some of those who gathered signatures for Gronik may not have been qualified to do so, including some who appear to be felons under state supervision.
Gronik spokesman Brandon Weathersby said none of those who circulated paperwork for Gronik were felons.
“These accusations go beyond the typical dogwhistle and red-meat politics we’ve grown to expect from Scott Walker’s political machine,” Weathersby said in a statement.