Candidate told her principle is offensive - WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

By Bob Schaper - bio | email | Twitter | Facebook

MADISON (WKOW) - The state's top election board says an Assembly candidate's ballot language is offensive. But she vows to take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

As a candidate for the 10th Assembly district, Ieshuh Griffin is allowed to have a statement of principle appear beneath her name on the ballot. But the Government Accountability Board says the one she chose went way over the line.

"NOT the 'whiteman's bitch.'"

That statement, Griffin says, sums up her political philosophy, which is all about empowering the low-income residents of north Milwaukee.

"It's a term the constituents identify with," she said.

But "whiteman's bitch" is also a term the GAB staff decided was offensive and defamatory, a finding that several board members questioned.

"I disagree with the staff's recommendations," Thomas Cane said. "I didn't find it particularly offensive. I didn't find it necessarily derogatory."

"Who does it defame?" Gordon Myse, chairman, asked. "Isn't she really saying, 'I'm not under the white man's influence'?"

"I didn't interpret it as racist," Thomas Barland said.

Only independent candidates get to have a statement on the ballot, and it has to be five words or less.

"She says a lot in five words," Barland said.

During her hearing in front of the board - made up entirely of white retired judges - Griffin said her statement was protected by the First Amendment.

"Freedom of speech also includes the freedom to dissent and the freedom to express the truth," she said.

Kevin Kennedy, who leads the GAB staff, compared the statement of principle to a license plate.

"This is a public document that get's put out for the voters," he said. "And our initial reaction was that this wasn't the type of statement contemplated by the legislature."

In the end the board voted 3-2 in Griffin's favor, but she needed four votes to keep her statement on the ballot. She says she plans to sue in federal court, and wants the election delayed until the situation is resolved.

"It's not about a person," she said. "It's the entity. The power structure. Every dollar bill shows a specific race."