Wisconsin isn’t the only place that is having spring elections.
Here in Champaign, Illinois we have elections, too.
- Mayor
- City Council
- Park District Commissioner
- School District
- Community College Trustees
- Regional School Board Trustees
I have no idea who to vote for, and I don’t have time to do all the research. I hate these stupid “non-partisan” elections.
Even the mayor’s race isn’t simple (as in vote for the Democrat) and they don’t fucking list the party on the ballot.
For mayor, I could vote for Democrat who was mayor until 2015, but he is a sexist pig who told all sorts of lies and crazy stories about his (now former) girlfriend/partner, or I can vote the for Republican who I knew for years from the farmer’s market, and I liked her a lot as a person until I realized she was a Republican when she ran for Judge quite a few years ago. She is pro-choice and she has been our mayor since 2015. But vote for a Republican? Ugh. I understand from a jackal who also lives here that she has a good VoteBuilder score, but I have no idea what the hell a VoteBuilder score even is.
🐇
So let’s use this thread for anyone to talk about, ask about, and share about their local races. Surely there are jackals that who are more tuned in to local races who can help the rest of us?
I’ll link this in the sidebar for easy reference and continued conversation over the next 30 days before the elections.
raven
I thought you lived in Urbana!
gene108
Good friend of mine is running for a judgeship in Court of Common Pleas in Centre County, PA.
If you know anyone there please pass it along.
https://amp.centredaily.com/news/politics-government/article271276277.html
WaterGirl
@raven: Nope. I live in Champaign, but my heart belongs to Urbana.
WaterGirl
There’s another Champaign jackal who is running for something. I hope she will chime in. I don’t know her nym, and I’m certainly not going to use her name.
Barbara
@gene108: I do know people living there! I will pass it along when I get the chance.
raven
@WaterGirl: Me too!
Mai Naem mobile
I am of two minds of the “you can’t afford to vote for a Republican” and the “vote for the best person.” Illinois is such a blue state could she even win a congressional seat in a college area? I would hate to think you give her legitimacy voting for her in a mayoral race to then go for something bigger and more consequential. That’s how they say many of the RWNJs in Congress started – school boards, planning commission stuff – basically small potatoes politics.
lowtechcyclist
Thank goodness Virginia’s elections aren’t until the fall.
Brent
I hear you on the conflict. It would be very hard to vote for the Democrat in your context. The problem is that politics is much more about coalitions within parties than it is about individuals or individual ideas, right? I may like a Republican, although that is certainly rare, but a vote for a Republican is not just a vote for him or her but an incremental increase in power for the party of hate and regression. A win for a reasonable person won’t likely make the party more reasonable. It will just give the unreasonable party more power to do what it always does. This is just one of the reasons why the two party system is so terrible. It forces choices like this.
Kent
As a counterpoint. Nonpartisan elections allow a much wider variety of people to run for office in one-party dominated places. Like in Texas for example. Running with a D next to your name would be the kiss of death in many suburbs. But in a nonpartisan election you can just run without kissing up to the local GOP party hacks and maybe get traction if you are good on local issues. I mean they can still figure out where you basically stand on issues, but at least you avoid all the lizard-brain party line voters. In a nonpartisan election they actually have to read your positions
Also, party line votes are MUCH more important for legislative races where control of a legislative body is at stake. For municipal elections? Not so much. It isn’t going to make a difference in who controls the Senate or House, for example.
Barbara
@lowtechcyclist: There is a special election on March 28, and you can still write postcards for it (basically, mail them within the next week). https://postcards4va.com/ is helping with a postcard campaign. I assume Bagby (the Dem) is favored given the district, but I didn’t want anyone to think there is nothing coming up soon.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: Champaigne is in a district that Springfield Democrats drew to be a safe Democratic seat, and the new Democratic Congresswoman, Nikki Budzinski is a very capable and energetic politician. This Republican lady might run for Congress in the Illinois 13th CD but she won’t win.
WaterGirl
@Kent: You make a good point. On the other hand, for nearly all of the races I listed above, a lot of people just don’t vote because they don’t have a clue and they don’t have time to do the research for, say, the school board, if they don’t have kids.
On the other hand, school boards are doing so much damage these days, they damage much more than the schools.
Barbara
@WaterGirl: Yes, and it can be very difficult to suss out the crazies among those who are running. You have to kind of keep a look out for neighborhood chat boards with people willing to decode the language that is often couched in terms that confuse rather than enlighten. Another way to figure it out is to see whether, even if non-partisan, a party (or well-known party members and officials) are backing or endorsing a candidate, and also, what organizations they have participated in. Those are often clues to what is going on — someone who has never been involved in anything who decides to run for the school board should be carefully vetted.
KBS
You should definitely vote for meeee!!! (Running for City Council in Champaign.) My website is here. I can give you my recommendations for all those races if you like, and you can feel free to ignore my advice if it doesn’t suit you
In general, I’d say that if you have any connections with the local party, those folks may be able to give you advice about who to vote for even if the race is non-partisan. And if you know anyone who’s currently serving in any local government position, they’ll often have the inside scoop on who’s actually doing progressive things, regardless of party label. Finally, I will say that here, conservative voters are far more likely to vote in the municipal elections. I’ve been advised by many people to not identify as a Democrat so as not to turn off the older voters!
patrick II
This is a little off the local races topic, but…
Ezra Levin was a guest on Rachel Maddow last night (Mon, 3/6). EZRA is one of the founders of “Indivisible” and one of “A pair of former Democratic congressional staffers who started a google doc” which expanded into a
guide for putting pressure on congress and influencing policy and elections.
“Indivisible ” has now grown to more than 7, 000 groups across the country with a primary goal of winning back the House. The Indivisible organization now has an updated guidebook — “Indivisible, a Practical Guide to Defeating MAGA”.
https://indivisible.org/democracy-guide
As an important part of their election strategy, Indivisible plans to go after the 18 Republican congressmen who represent districts that Joe Biden won. Those reps hope to win again by keeping their heads down on the policies they vote for.
Conversely, Indivisible hopes to give their district voters a heads-up over the extremist bills they are voting for, one had a 94% agreement with MGT.
The segment was at 42 minutes. It might be of interest to some here.
WaterGirl
@KBS: I couldn’t remember your nym! Just your name.
I would definitely take advice on all the other races – you and I have already had an email conversation about Mayor, and I am really torn there.
You can either share it here if you like – I think one of the Jens lives in the area, too, and maybe others – or you can send me email. thanks
WaterGirl
@patrick II: Do you mean MGT (I don’t know who that is) or MTG (Marge)?
dc
Are there no local political organizations that research and endorse candidates for local elections? There are a few in my city and between their endorsements and the local weekly’s endorsements, I make my decisions.
Barbara
@dc: Local candidates around here prominently display the backing and endorsement of well-known people. They don’t identify them as officials, but most people know, for instance, who their state rep is.
patrick II
@WaterGirl:
Don’t get old.
No, I meant MTG.
Anyhow it seems like a good group with common interests and some inside DC knowledge that perhaps we might try and contact.
H.E.Wolf
Don’t know if it will be helpful, but just in case: The League of Women Voters of Champaign County has a YouTube channel with recordings of the LWV-sponsored candidates’ forums for most/all of the spring races. It’s linked on the main page of their website… it’s possible the video(s) might be worth skimming.
https://www.lwvchampaigncounty.org/
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf: Thanks. One of those looks like an hour plus, but the others are much shorter and will probably be useful. I appreciate the link.
patrick II
@WaterGirl:
Here is the video of Rachel and Mr. Levin:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZMXWIvYf1I
Geminid
@KBS: Good luck!
Geminid
@WaterGirl: You’re always looking for good stuff to watch while you work out, and here you’ve got a chance to watch a League of Women Voters candidate forum! That hour plus might extend your workout some, but you know what they say: no pain, no gain.
dc
@Barbara:
What’s nice about the organizations I’m talking about is that they interview candidates and research their pasts and positions (and post all that material for those interested). So their endorsements are informed. You just have to know the priorities and values of each organization to judge whether to support their endorsements or not.
Betty
@gene108: Sent the endorsement to family there.
patrick II
I haven’t thought very much about running for local office since I know so little about running a town, or part of a city, or whatever. Which just got me thinking — are there any courses, remote or otherwise, that might inform one about issues that come up in local office (mayor, councilman, etc.)? I am too old now, but I would have been interested once in something so that I would not have walked into an elected office and asked — what do I do now?
rikyrah
Mayor of Chicago – April 4th
Early Voting begins Monday, March 20th
In all 50 Wards and the SuperSites!
Redshift
@Barbara: i thought we had one more in the cascade of special elections. Thanks for saving me the trouble of looking it up. 🙂
KBS
@WaterGirl: Happy to share my recs here:
Mayor – Deb Feinen
City Council – Me, Matt Gladney, & Will Kyles
School Board (this is the incredibly important one!) – Amy Armstrong, Jamar Brown, AJ Zwettler, and Betsy Holder. The rest of them are using a lot of words like “discipline” and “back to basic education – math, science and reading”. At least one of them is talking about “neighborhood schools”, which got the district hit with an incredibly expensive consent decree years ago because it caused ridiculous amounts of segregation.
Redshift
@patrick II: My first thought was Run For Something, but it looks like they just train people in how to run, not how to do the job. But I feel like it must exist.
UncleEbeneezer
@patrick II: Many of the Indivisible chapters that were birthed by the 2016 election and Women’s March, are no longer active. We had like five of them in and around Pasadena, but I think ours is the only one still standing, and we are currently taking a long break since we are all exhausted and it’s become very difficult to get people to show up and found that writing postcards was much easier (especially during Covid). I’m guessing that 7,000 figure is probably down to under 1,000 by now.
KBS
@patrick II: My city has a course called City Government 101! I’ve never been able to take it because I had a conflict, but I’ve heard it’s good.
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: for the school board, see if they have Facebook pages. We had someone run recently who I knew fairly well years ago and was excited to see her name until I looked at her campaign page and she talked about critical race theory and every other red flag. YIKES. Fortunately, she lost.
thruppence
The Denver mayoral election is the big deal around here, with over three dozen (!) candidates vying for a place in the race. I live in a nearby suburb, so can’t vote, but I should see if there’s someone I could get behind.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Sorry, I am into politics, but I’m pretty sure a league of women voters video would shorten my workout, but a lot. :-)
I am no on the last episode of season 4 of Line of Duty, now that’s a gripping show for the treadmill!
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Were you surprised that the current mayor didn’t make it past the primary?
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: have you watched Servant of the People yet? It’s on Netflix. I watch the original with English subtitles and get sucked in for hours.
Princess
@rikyrah: How do you think the Chicago election is going to go?
WaterGirl
@KBS: Thank you for those!
Do you know about any of these?
WaterGirl
@Manyakitty: I have not. Is it a comedy or a drama?
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: it’s the comedy that made Zelensky president. Admittedly, it’s jarring to see a peaceful Kyiv, and Zelensky looks so much younger, but there’s no missing the charm and humor. Definitely worth a few episodes. Also, I find the theme song catchy AF.
Oh yeah, the original is in Russian.
teakay
Local races are really important if you are concerned about local impact. The right wingers have been diligently attempting to stack the cards in their favor by running candidates with fairly extreme views at the local level. At least in our area, the school board is critical in determining the school curriculum. And our democratic mayor and city council majority are initiating lots of green policies from planting more trees to increase the canopy and making it a little harder to cut down mature trees willy nilly, to installing solar panels, and reducing the government’s carbon footprint. They are also requiring new apartments to dedicate 10% to affordable housing and offering grants to lower income homebuyers in the name of improving equity. I could go on, but this is just off the top of my head. The League of Women Voters hosts forums which are broadcast on the local cable channel and the local paper gives candidates the chance to share their views and the policies they’d institute. It takes a little work to ferret out all the information, but generally the people who run for these positions are motivated to initiate change, and I want it to be good change. If you don’t have the time, chat with neighbors, especially those with kids in the school systems. I no longer have kids in the school system, but I want other people’s kids to benefit from the same great public school education my kids received. And I want to maintain the value of my property since people move to my town for a quality education for their kids.
KBS
@WaterGirl: Park district has 2 candidates for 2 seats, so it doesn’t really matter. I have all kinds of thoughts about the park board overall, but I’m not wasting my energy since it won’t make a difference. Regional board is one candidate, one seat, so that won’t make a difference either. (I don’t have a strong opinion on that one anyway.) I have heard varying things about the community college race. I believe all the candidates are Republicans, but some may be worse than others. One friend recommended Ragsdale, and another strongly recommended against Littlefield. I don’t have any personal knowledge so that’s about all I can offer–sorry!
phein63
The local excuse for a newspaper is running their Election Questionnaire for Champaign mayoral candidates today. Not much to learn, maybe, and certainly not worth $2.50 (!), but the incumbent certainly reads like a competent human being, while the former guy is just about what you’d expect from a case study in narcissism. The third candidate I don’t know well, but he seems better suited to a staff position than a leadership position. On our side of Wright Street, we don’t have much at stake this go ’round.
Madeleine
@patrick II: Members of Indivisible also received an email today with information and links about what they are planning.
Uncle Ebenezer is correct about inactive local Indivisibles. I worked on the Michigan team for BJ’s do something initiative last year. One of my jobs was to ID organizations we might work with. Lots of Indivisible groups had sites in MI but it was clear that a significant number were silent. BUT I found the groups we worked with through a contact at one of the Ann Arbor Indivisibles, which is very active.
I’m in NYC and, given the strength of the Democratic party here, primaries are sometimes the real election. That means they are something like non-partisan elections. One way that I learn about candidates is through the canvassing done at the local farmers market, where the candidate or their volunteer meet-and-greet. And local Democratic clubs and party officials are easy to contact.
GrannyMC
Someone might ask the local Dem party for a voter guide. If that doesn’t work, ask the Republicans and do the obvious.
narya
@Redshift: Let’s go Brandon!
smith
In Chicago, the mayoral race boils down to the cops versus the teachers. Paul Vallas, a lawnorder type, has strong ties to the police union and promises to be the tool of the FOP. Just what Chicago needs — more racist cops turned loose with no accountability. But the theme of this year’s election, at all levels, has been that hordes of criminals have invaded Chicago, and are out to get you, so Vallas, unfortunately, has a good chance.
His opponent is Brandon Johnson, a county commissioner whose strong showing in the first round is probably due to the backing of the Chicago Teacher’s Union. As previous mayors have found to their sorrow, you don’t cross the teacher’s union. He’s decidedly more progressive than Vallas, so will get my vote. In general, if I have to choose between cops and teachers, I’ll take the teachers every time.
WaterGirl
@phein63: Our local newspaper is a right-wing rag.
Years ago I told them that I wouldn’t get their paper if they PAID me to take it.
prostratedragon
@smith: My hope rests in the fact that Vallas only got 36 percent of the vote (I think) in a crowded field, where most of the other candidates seemed to be much closer to Brandon Johnson than to him. That endorsement from the odious, Jan6-insurrection-supporting FOP president won’t necessarily help Vallas.
phein63
@WaterGirl: Our kids had the paper route in our neighborhood for a dozen years, so we had a subscription. For some reason, we still get access online, but they include so little information that it’s rarely worth it.
I don’t think “right wing” accurately describes it. “Limbaugh lite,” “Fox news wannabe,” openly dishonest.
Shana
I would suggest contacting the local Democratic party to see who they’re recommending. We have technically non-partisan school board races where I live but every candidate is endorsed by one party or the other. And candidates ask the local committees for endorsements.
Also, I’ve forwarded this post to my younger daughter who is going to law school in Champaign since I’m sure this hasn’t been on her radar.
WaterGirl
@phein63: I haven’t read it in so long… sounds like it has gotten much worse. Though I wouldn’t have thought that possible.
WaterGirl
@Shana: Good ideas!
beckya57
@WaterGirl:
I’m a Champaign native! I was always on the Champaign side over Urbana, even though my dad was a prof at the U and I went to Uni High, which of course is in Urbana. Hi neighbor!
WaterGirl
@beckya57: Waving! You’re not still here, though?
jackmac
@WaterGirl: The collapse of local media has never been more evident with the poor or non-existent coverage of local school board and municipal elections that are scheduled for next month. Up in my fringe Chicago suburban hometown there is a stealth slate of right-wing school board candidates on the ballot but I’ve been hard-pressed to find any information about them. They seem to be relying on right wing social media and selected and restricted events to get the word out. They had scheduled an upcoming event featuring Darren Bailey’s loony running mate (Stephanie Trussell) and some anti-grooming activist who also claims to be a gay man.
Champaign-related but off-topic — the Illinois high school boys basketball finals — America’s Original March Madness — returns to U of I Assembly Hall (I’ll always call it that) starting Thursday. In previous career as a sportswriter many years ago I enjoyed covering the finals, especially the teams from smaller communities where the entire town would turn out in force to support their kids. Pure Americana!
WaterGirl
@jackmac: Good reminder for me to not take my usual route when I have to go across town on Thursday morning.
Pretty much anywhere I go normally includes Florida/Kriby. I hope I remember by Thursday! :-)
jackmac
@WaterGirl: Hoops on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. For your sake I hope U of I is on spring break.
WaterGirl
@jackmac: Good to know. I have to head to Urbana twice on Thursday and then again on Saturday
No idea when Spring break is.
raven
@jackmac: My and my old man used to go to every game when there was only one class. I’m so old I watched Isaiah Thomas play in it.
raven
@WaterGirl:
March 11–19
raven
@jackmac: The Cobden Appleknockers!
jackmac
@raven: Tiny Alden-Hebron team won the 1952 single class state championship and is forever honored with the water tower in town painted like a giant basketball!
jackmac
@raven:
Freeport Pretzels
DeKalb Barbs
Monmouth Zippers
Hoopeston Cornjerkers
and the cuddly Fisher Bunnies
beckya57
@WaterGirl: no, I live in Tacoma WA now. Much prettier scenery! CU is a nice place though.
Betsy
@patrick II: every state is different. But you could check out the website of the league of cities in your state.
Betsy
@patrick II: Or you can just go to the municipal website of your city and look at several months of previous council meeting minutes. That in itself will educate you about typical issues that come up. Usually there are transcripts (and videos) of meetings, going back years but just a few may give you the flavor.
sab
@Manyakitty: David Palmer ( fictious) would have been an excellent president.
Manyakitty
@sab: maybe dead thread, but will look him up.
raven
@jackmac: My old man was the coach of the Benton High Rangers in 1951!
Kosh III
In Tennessee, the Regressive Party has a super-majority in the Legislature and a Theocrat for Governor. they are busy bashing and bullying Nashville.
There is legislation which will pass to cut the Metro Nashville Council in half, abolish run-off races, defund the Convention Center funding and other meddling.
Nashville is the state economic engine.
Cutting the Council in half will cause chaos and lawsuits, The Election is this fall.
Personally I like a large Council, I am on a first name basis with my Coucillor and several others. The districts are small enough to know them as a person and not a name.
Plus our mini-skirt wearing Governor just signed a bill criminalizing Drag.
Meanwhile the national D party ignores our dilemma and doesn’t help on elections–even those that are winnable.