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Badger Blogger has a summary of all the drama going around. In the early hours following Michael McGee, Jr.’s arrest, he appeared to have pulled a Martha Stewart. From the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday:

The [federal] complaint says that for at least the past year, McGee has traded his power for cash, extorting from $500 to $2,500 from each of several business owners.

Calling himself the “gatekeeper” for new businesses in his district, he told one owner his help would cost “a pretty penny” as he demanded a bigger bribe, the nine-page criminal complaint says.

A few bribes of up to $2500? Sure, there are probably more that have not come forward, but we’re talking about a man making $71,506 a year. Add to that the fact that he seems to be able to do just about any ridiculous thing he wants without truly upsetting his constituency, and you’d think the guy was crazy to risk it for a few grand.

Of course, Martha Stewart never extorted or threatened people into making her popular, which the state charges clearly suggests is the case here:

[Milwaukee County District Attorney Chisholm] said McGee and two other men - Little Stewart, 52, and Dimitrius Jackson, 38 - originally planned to kill a man suspected of burglarizing Stewart’s home but later settled on a “beat down,” which would involve a payment of $1,000 instead of the original figure of $3,000.

Perhaps the constituency wasn’t so in love with McGee as it was afraid of him. At this point, the community should be disgusted at the way that he extorted the very people he claimed to be supporting, including the a few of the Loves, one of the most successful and ambitious business families in the inner city of Milwaukee.

If they are not, blind loyalty may be as much of a concern in the district as corruption and bribery.

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