Bice: State Elections Commission member wants to oust lawmaker over pro-Palestinian post

A member of the state Elections Commission, Ann Jacobs, is vowing to do everything she can to oust one of the two socialist members of the state Legislature.

The reason: His provocative Facebook posts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A day after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israeli citizens over the weekend, state Rep. Ryan Clancy, a socialist representing Milwaukee on the County Board and state Assembly, posted a chart on his Facebook page.

"Israel-Palestine conflict: The human cost from 2008 - 2023," says the chart taken from Al Jazeera News. "Palestinian deaths: 6,407; Israeli deaths: 308," with a year-by-year breakdown.

Clancy — who abstained Thursday from voting on an Assembly resolution denouncing Hamas' attacks — then added the single word: "Context."

The short post set off a minor firestorm.

Among those most upset was Jacobs, a leader in Milwaukee's Jewish community. She took a screenshot of his post and put it on her own page.

"My state representative wants more dead Jews," she wrote. "Apparently then Israel would be allowed to defend itself from the terrorists who have killed hundreds and wounded thousands. What actual democrat will primary this SOB? Because I will max out. I will host fundraisers. I will not stand for someone who endorses this terrible event."

Clancy responded by saying this was a "frustrating misinterpretation" of what he posted. He said Jacobs should have reached out to him directly if that is what she thought he meant.

"I'm very much *not* okay with the attack in Israel," wrote Clancy, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. "This is playing into the Republicans' hands and we have to be better than that."

That did little to calm the debate.

Jacobs fired right back.

"You are not better than that," she wrote. "Your post speaks for itself and I will let the world know. Apparently you are ok with the murder and rape and kidnapping of civilians until the # of dead equals your chart. It is disgusting and crystal clear. Embrace your hate."

Clancy answered, "You're not right. I'm asking for fewer deaths and atrocities, not to even the score. That's the point."

Jacobs' reply: "Bullshit."

Certainly, the war between Israel and Hamas, which has been deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has set off numerous debates on social media, even between traditional Democrats and socialists.

What's unusual here is a member of the state Elections Commission, which oversees such issues as ballot access and enforces state election laws, going after a state rep, someone who would come under its authority.

On Wednesday, Jacobs defended her comments online.

She said many in her community had thanked her for calling out Clancy for his "horrible words."

As for her role on the election commission, Jacobs said she is a political appointee. The panel is made up of three Republican and three Democratic appointees. Jacobs, a Milwaukee attorney, was named to the commission by a former Democratic minority leader in the state Senate.

"We have ruled on the nominating papers of friend and foe," Jacobs said. "So, for example, I very strongly endorsed (Democratic) Gov. Tony Evers, but also denied the challenge to the nominating papers of (Republican) Tim Michels. OK, so my personal views are my own. But the law is the law, and that's how we act on it."

Clancy, who was elected to the Assembly last year without a Democratic opponent, said he was surprised by Jacobs strong response to his post and doesn't know what was driving it.

But he said he didn't take her strong words personally.

"I don't hold any ill will against her for that," Clancy said. "I will say it's perhaps unusual for somebody in her position to call (for his removal), but I understand that tensions are high. Given what's happened in Israel and Palestine over the last few days, I don't hold anything against her."

But he added this, "I am just overall a little bit, I guess, hurt is fair. And I hope that folks can stop demonizing each other both on an individual scale on a larger scale because I think that's how we end up with the massive loss of life that we've seen flare up in the last few days."

But didn't Clancy start the heated back-and-forth by posting the chart from Al Jazeera News?

He said he was simply trying to provide context to the debate — even using that single word in his post. He added that he thought it was ironic that his one-word post was then taken out of context.

Clancy said he has been to Israel and Palestine on several occasions and wrote his master's thesis on the importance of one-on-one contact and shared values and experiences between individuals, especially young people, in solving the tensions in the Middle East.

But the second-term Milwaukee County supervisor, who has drawn heat for his past comments critical of police, declined to say whether he favored trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict via a two-state solution — an Israeli state for Jewish people and a Palestinian one for Palestinians — or some other framework.

"That's not for me to say," Clancy said, "and that's not a cop-out answer."

Uh, but it certainly sounds like it.

Closer to home, Clancy also declined to weigh in on some of the incendiary posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, by the Milwaukee chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Said one such post: "Our government gives billions of dollars a year to Israel in high-tech military equipment and uses our veto power at the UN to shield Israel from accountability. As US citizens, we have a duty to speak out. To stay silent is to be complicit in war crimes and ethnic cleansing."

Clancy said he does not hold a leadership position in the local chapter of the DSA and wouldn't comment on a post he hadn't seen.

Pressed on the issue, he did say that he condemned Hamas for its multi-prong military operation on Israel that included rocket attacks, fighters dropping from paragliders, and ground assaults on civilians in their homes, on city streets and at a music festival.

"I was explicit in saying that those those terrorist tactics have no place," Clancy said. "They are absolutely unacceptable."

Jacobs said that is not the message she got from his Facebook posts.

She said she was especially upset when Clancy likened some of his critics to former President Donald Trump and his backers.

"Well, that was just sort of the icing on the cake," Jacobs said. "I'm a much better looking blonde."

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: State elections official calls out lawmaker over pro-Palestine post