“I think this is an overwhelming indication that the people of the 6th Senate District wanted new direction and leadership for the future,” Coggs said. “I plan to stay in touch with (this) district. It’s a very caring community. They like a representative who’s very hands-on.”

Coggs said he will relinquish his seat in the Assembly if he is elected in the general election for the 6th District which includes Marquette campus.

He said he decided to give up that seat and run in the George recall after a June 19 budget vote in which George voted in favor of the budget. Coggs said he was upset George voted for “such an anti-Milwaukee budget.”

Coggs said June 19 is Junteenth day, “the date the last of former African-American slaves found out they’d been freed as news traveled west in Texas,” and he said he could not believe George would vote on that day for a budget which proposed a $37 million loss of revenue for Milwaukee Public Schools, because MPS serves mostly black students.

No other party had a candidate in the recall primary, so Coggs will run un-opposed, Kennedy said. Voters did, however, write-in candidates representing the Republican, Libertarian, Wisconsin Green and Constitution parties.

George cannot get his name on the ballot in the general election, but he can run as a write-in candidate, Kennedy said. He said write-in candidates “hardly ever” win, but said the current Oconomowoc mayor beat the incumbent mayor as a write-in candidate.

George could not be reached for comment.