The MAGA Takeover of Madison

This morning, when I opened Instagram, I was shocked to see a post by a friend of mine, saying that a woman we both know is being harassed. That woman, Brandi Grayson, is the founder of Madison's own Urban Triage, a non-profit org which helps people get affordable housing (and so much more than that). In my experience, Ms. Grayson is a community builder and tireless advocate for underprivileged people in the Madison area. I've donated to her -- more than once, I think. I also did some pro bono editorial work for her once, editorial work on some grant applications. Grants and contracts are repetitive, detailed, and very technical. I don't think I did a very good job, to be honest. But I tried, because non-profit work is hard, scrappy work. You do your best to serve your under-served clients. It's not like being the U.S. President, who can do insider trading in between rounds of golf, and still have the support of every MAGA lawmaker.

Well, I took a few hours today to look into the issue further. I respect Ms. Grayson and the work she does.

I'm also really tired of these double standards.

So let's jump in: Do you know who this guy is? He's one of the 37 supervisors elected from districts in Dane County. I hadn't heard of him until today. This is the first article Safari returned when I googled him: https://madison365.com/sin-is-the-root-cause-of-homelessness-dane-county-supervisor-says/ .

Two seconds in, I'm like ummmokayyyy this Weigand dude is obviously a white Christian religious extremist from up in Marshall, Wisconsin. He's one of those Sean Duffy types, who thinks all the resources should go to rural areas full of Christian white breeders. He and his wife and six children apparently also believe that the Devil makes people homeless, not the lack of affordable homes or the long history of housing discrimination. I haven't done a deep dive into Jeffrey's internet history yet, but I had to read a little about him because he's currently leading a public campaign to attack and slander Brandi Grayson.

Let's back up a sec: A few days ago, the website Channel 3000 published a story claiming that procedural rules on the Health and Human Services Committee of the Dane County Board had been overlooked and possibly violated. According to this story, contracts over 100K need approval by the full Board, not committees, as has sometimes occurred. Well, fine, they should clean that up. I know nothing about it. It sounds like a small procedural issue, the likes of which occur on the Board of my village almost daily. To keep it in perspective, it pales by comparison to what the MAGA regime does pretty much every minute of every day now in post-democracy America.

Which makes it doubly important to point out, that the "news" story on Channel 3000 wasn't really much about the committee rules at all. It mostly targeted an organization that received some contracts from that committee: Urban Triage. Moreover, it targeted Brandi Grayson herself. Not suprisingly, perhaps, Weigand the Sin Man is quoted in it extensively. Almost as if he's the one who fed them the story! He is big mad that his very important resolution to audit Urban Triage -- it's not clear why he wanted to, other than the sin problem -- didn't pass last year. But Jeffrey must feel vindicated now, because Channel 3000 did some public records requests on his behalf or coincidentally. And they found a few little discrepancies in Urban Triage paperwork that they have now turned into "news."

According to the man who wrote the piece, Jason Cuevas, Ms. Grayson has misrepresented so many facts!

Someone told him about this, he claims (without actually providing facts).

"A Madison resident," Cuevas claims, "gave Channel 3000 a recording of a conversation from January with County Executive Chief of Staff Carrie Springer and Deputy Chief of Staff Aaron Collins where he alerted them to the resume issues."

We don't know who the elusive Madison resident is. But in a section entitled "Questionable Vetting," we learn more about some of the so-called resume issues. Cuevas writes that according to the application documents submitted in June 2023,

"Urban Triage Founder Brandi Grayson's resume states she has been the founder and CEO of Urban Triage from "July 2016 to Current Approximately 6 years." Her LinkedIn, as of March 20, states she was founder and CEO since July 2018."

Cuevas does not explain why having a few lines wrong on a resume or on a social media site proves malfeasance. Pointing out these errors doesn't relate even obliquely to the Board of Supervisors' protocol issue. Nor do they speak to why Urban Triage allegedly needed to be audited in the first place. All it does, to my mind, is clarify that neither Weignan nor Cuevas are as interested in promoting good government as they are in slandering Brandi Grayson.

Well. I am a trained journalist so I did some digging.

First, Jason Cuevas isn't even a journalist. He's listed on the channel 3000's website as a "content manager":

1. 

   
   

Second, it's not clear that Jason Cuevas ever has been a journalist. Before landing this channel 3000 job, Jason Cuevas apparently worked at an organization called StatePoint media, an "online editorial service" that pushes content in exchange for advertising; its business model is... saving writers time and money?

2. 

   
   

   Third, and most important, Jason Cuevas is a hack. I don't know if he's a nepo baby or a liar, but he's not careful. I got all of the above information from the man's own LinkedIn page which is -- wait for it -- full of errors. That's right, this man was willing to go on record complaining about a woman's LinkedIn page -- to justify passing an entire resolution to audit her finances -- but didn't bother to make sure his own resume -- On LinkedIn no less! -- was accurate. Further, it appears from LinkedIn that he stopped working at StatePoint media in July of 2023, after which point, he was a freelance editor at various "article services." He now lists himself as an "assignment editor" at WISC-TV (which, for the record, is also inaccurate per the above screenshot of the actual website).

   
   

   

   
   

   It gets better! Out of curiosity, I called that old employer today. To be exact, I called the number listed on the website. Guess what? Jason Cuevas not only still has a voice mail box. It's still active. You can leave him a message! It's 800-397-1077. Just put in the letters "CU" in the phone directory. It's all public record. Left to answer: Does he still work there then? Is it a clerical error, or has he misrepresented his employment history?

   
   

   Jason Cuevas knows that LinkedIn is habitually inaccurate. He knows it's a networking site, not a resume service. So then, why is a Madison-based news website publishing misogynoir hit pieces in support of a religious extremist on the County Board, based on a flimsy set of examples and total double standards?

   
   

   Why, indeed.