Big wins in Madison Wisconsin

By Deyva Arthur, Green Party of New York State

Ledel Zellers

Wisconsin Greens had two election wins this past April both in the city of Madison. Ledell Zellers won a position as Alder for Madison Com­mon Council and Dean Loumos won a seat on the Madison School Board with five candidates running for three available seats.

With issues around neighborhood development a priority Zellers has a lot of ex­perience to bring to the council. She has been active in the Madison community for many years. Since 2008 Zeller was ap­pointed by the mayor to serve on the Zon­ing Code Rewrite Advisory Committee. This committee helps guide the type of long-term development in Madison. Zellers also chairs the Downtown Coordinating Com­mittee, handling the operation, design, safety, maintenance and use of downtown Madison. She has been involved in her neighborhood acting as a member and president of the Capitol Neighborhoods (CNI) Executive Council for 11 years establishing a development protocol.

Loumos said in his campaign for Mad­i­son School Board, “For the last several years we have seen an attack against public education … [especially] with the election of an ideologically conservative driven Gov­­ernor in 2010.” Loumos has been a teacher for ten years in a residential drug treatment center as well as worked with local school students and with inmates in the Dane County Jail to earn a diplomas. In addition, Loumos was for 17 years execu­tive director of Housing Initiatives, Inc., an award winning non-profit housing agency that provides permanent housing to people who suffer from mental illnesses.

In other parts of Wisconsin Rae Vogeler, a former Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate was elected to the Oregon School Board. Voters of Fort Atkinson and White­water both joined Greens in the Move to Amend effort by voting overwhelmingly (84 percent and 77 percent) for the We the People Amendment, which calls for amending the U.S. Constitution to state that inalienable rights belong to human beings only and money is not a form of free speech and can be regulated in political campaigns (wethepeopleamendment.org).

CJ Terrell, Damon Terrell, Barbara Davis, Christian Hanson, Sarah Manski, Leslie Peterson and Hawk Sullivan all ran strong Green campaigns. Sarah Manski, who won her primary with 45 percent of the vote, withdrew from the race shortly after the primary for family reasons, yet still won a third of the general election vote from diehard supporters.

Dean Loumos, photo: madision.com