Politics: Some city council speculation (UPDATED 2x)
Now that this election cycle is done, we have to worry about who is running for what in the City of Peoria. Some of the following are based on inside info. Some is based on rank speculation. I’ll keep it updated as we go along.
MAYOR
Jim Ardis: He won’t tell me whether he is or isn’t going to seek re-election. I think he’s pretty sick of the attention it’s put on his family, and the constant criticism can’t be pleasant. His big issue back in 2005 was crime, and can run for re-election on the progress that’s been made in that regard.
George Jacob: He’s been on the council for four years, and he can run for mayor without having to loose his seat. He’s a personable guy, and not prone to exercising his ego from around the horseshoe. He attends a lot of neighborhood events and seems to have spent some time learning the players. He would be the Chamber of Commerce candidate.
General Parker: He’s the husband of Peoria City Hall employee/Peoria School District 150 Board member Rachel Parker. He’s got a beef with the city over minority hiring.
George Shadid: As mentioned earlier, the former State Senator is fulling over a run.
1ST DISTRICT
Clyde Gulley: His often rambling questions and commentary leads some council watchers to come to a less-than-flattering opinion of him. But he’s smart, just not a great communicator. A lot of people are assuming that he isn’t going to run for re-election. But he tells the Journal Star he is.
Randall Emert: He’s a postal worker who blogs under the handle Emtronics on his blog, Peoria Anti-Pundit, from which he announced his intention to run. He lives in the 1st District, but one would think he’s running for election from the 2nd District, considering the venom he directs at 2nd District Council member Barbara Van Auken. He was urged to run, although I would imaging his angry white male act would wear rather thin rather quickly in the First District. He got into the race after being told Gulley would not. Oops.
Robert Johnson: A resident of the River West neighborhood, he’s been very critical of the Peoria City Council’s decision to give Club Apollo a 4 a.m. liquor license. Johnson has governance experience as a member of the Peoria Park District board of trustees. He told the Journal Star he isn’t running now that Gulley is back in.
2ND DISTRICT
Barbara Van Auken: She told the Journal Star she’s running. She retired as an attorney. She ran on the related issues of keeping Fire Station 11 open, and on repealing the hates garbage tax that funds cops and appears on water bills. Some people blame her for the fact Station 11 is still pretty much doesn’t fight fires and that we still have the garbage tax. She also benefited a backlash against the then-incumbent Marcella Teplitz.
Marcella Teplitz: I’ve been told that it’s a certainty that she’s running. I’ve also been told that she absolutely is not. She lives on my block, and I’ll have to ask her next time I see her.
Paul Wilkinson: He’s the leader of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association, and has been critical of Van Auken. He’s not running. I’m guessing he’s going to back one of her opponents.
C.J. Summers: He’s my bud. He’s a blogger. He’s a member of the Heart of Peoria Commission. He’s unhappy with Babara Van Auken for a variety of reasons, including her recent decision to forgo seeking funding for West Main Street improvements. He says his candidacy is “potential, but unlikely.”
3RD DISTRICT
Robert Manning: He absolutely refuses to tell me if he’s running for re-election. It’s a choice he and his family will make, he says. Manning was NOT a Chamber of Commerce candidate in 2005, as they endorsed his opponent, incumbent Gale Thetford, who I understand lives and works in Chicago. Manning is liked and respected by neighborhood groups.
Beth Akeson: She’s a member of the Heart of Peoria Commission, and lost a race for Peoria School District 150 board. She drove staff crazy with her requests for information.
4TH DISTRICT
Bill Spears: Like Manning in the 3rd, it’s 50/50 whether incumbent Spears will step up to the plate again.
James Polk and Patty Polk: He’s a former council and she’s a former candidate. I’ve heard both names mentioned for runs.
Mike Weisehan: He works for Lippman’s Furniture — which recently abandoned Sheridan Avenue Road — and is involved in the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce.
Bill O’Brien, who I believe owns or works at the Elephant’s Trunk, is also mulling a run.
Mike McKenzie: The president of the Peoria Library Board of Trustees is said to be considering a run.
FIFTH DISTRICT:
It’s a mystery to me what anyone is thinking up there.
UPDATE: Brad Carter, an East Bluffer who helped create the Jackson Corner neighborhood association and has been a candidate for city council in the past, will probably run if Manning doesn’t. Gale Thetford, whom Manning defeated in 2005, is not working and living in Chicago. Angela Anderson finished third in the primary in 2005, and also lives outside the area.
ALSO: A Democratic friend of Shadid tells me that health and family issues will probably keep Shadid out of the race.
UPDATED 11/11:
- General Parker is not runnng and says he never bought campaign materials.
- George Jacob pays dues to the Chamber of Commerce, but is not the ‘Chamber’s candidate’ for anything.
- Randall Emert is no longer a candidate at all. He’s going to concentrate on other things.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Hmmm, maybe I could run.
My platform would be: “you deserve bad government”.
I wonder if that platform will be a winner?
November 7th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I’ll bet you were writing this at the same as Monday’s Word On The Street was being written.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I think you meant Patty Polk
November 7th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Ryan: Thanks for the catch. I noticed the typo while writing this and thought I had corrected it.
PI: I started gathering information on this Tuesday night. I didn’t have time to write it until today. Honestly, I was rushed to get it in when I noticed John Sharp’s article on the Web now.
I beat him to the punch on the Shadid thing, and had more details. He beat me to the bunch with an overall survey. He had details I didn’t and I had details he didn’t.
And I’m speculating here, but I’m thinking John’s article might have been originally intended as fodder for WotS, but a decision was made to get in online before then. If so, kudos to the JS.
November 7th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Also, not a big deal, but it’s Sheridan Road, not Avenue. FWIW.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Re: 2nd district . Marcella won’t get back in, so it is best that she remain on the Council’s alumni roster. Unless CJ decides to run, I don’t see anyone else giving BVA a serious challenge.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I don’t think Manning was elected in 2007, was he? That was the year of the last at large election.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
You’re right 11Bravo,it was four years ago that Manning beat incumbent thetford by a 3-1 margin.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Caleb Matheny of Sigma Nu is not running for 2nd District?
I would think as ‘oppressed’ as they are by the residential neighbors, and all the staunch support they got in the blogosphere that surely he or someone from that ‘house’ would step up to the plate.
November 8th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Mahkno — What “support they got in the blogosphere”? Oh, you mean when we criticized BVA for confronting Sigma Nu while intoxicated, disrespecting the Bradley police, and generally making a spectacle of herself? I wouldn’t characterize that as “support” for Sigma Nu.
November 8th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Sigma Nu got a huge pass and you know it. Moss-Bradley got slammed for their flier, which compared to ones I have seen elsewhere is perfectly normal, but not in Peoria; NO. The whole West Bluff got slammed for wanting to have quality neighborhoods. The blogosphere fell for the distraction hook line and sinker.
Matheny has got to be feeling pretty smug with himself. He should run for office. He has media savvy. He can turn a chronic disturbance problem into victimhood. Masterful!
A couple weeks ago there was a little blip in the Bradley Scout police blotter quoting some of these loud mouthed rude kids crying they were being ‘oppressed’ by the police who were doing normal nighttime patrols.
November 8th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I would like to see Paul run for Council at large . He is very smart and he really cares. He would be a team player , not just his personal agenga ..
November 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
They got a pass, if you want to put it that way, on that one incident and that one incident alone. No one thinks these frat houses are full of little angels. The point was that BVA’s actions hurt the West Bluff’s cause rather than help it precisely because she became a “distraction.” It was actually worse than that. Her “testimony,” as it were, was unreliable because of her impaired judgment.
And as for the flier, you have to admit the part about the red cups equaling underage drinking was pretty ridiculous. I’m all for setting high expectations for the Bradley students on how to conduct themselves in our neighborhoods, but I think that can be done without being paternalistic or presumptuous.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Billy, 1st, Gulley changed his mind. That is his right. I had it on good info he wasn’t running (Billy, you know the source) As for my “angry white male act” I don’t know what you are talking about. Yes, I am angry at the way this city council has direct the city and the way the 1st district has been completely ignored for years. Color has nothing to do with it but thanks for inciting it. A lot of people of all colors are angry.
As for BVA, well, drunk, waving her hands around, swearing, poking fingers at police officers, calling police officers “something” less than they are, abandoning Ren Park, using her office as a badge of authority, telling the Arbor folks that she’ll get them another arbor at the other end of Rebbecca (at taxpayers expense) , failing to staff Station11 as promised, failing to make Sheridan Rd 2 lanes as promised to different neighborhood groups, promised to rid us of the Garbage Fee and didn’t, what’s not to love? Out of all of the council members, she is the worse second only to Nichting. Both are huge egos and do things simply for votes. How about doing something for the city of Peoria?
You stoutly defend different wrongs in this community, like Big Al’s yet you seem to kiss her a$$ at every opportunity is beyond me and frankly beyond some others. But hey! Thanks for the great intro.
November 8th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
FWIW, I’d probably vote for CJ if he ran. Just a data point.
November 11th, 2008 at 11:17 am
PAP, you backing off running for the 1st? Say it isn’t so.
November 11th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Mahkno, sorry it is so. Other things have come up and my family feels I need to direct my attention there and besides, I want Peoria and the 1st District to have the best representation they can get and I don’t think I am the person to provide that. (Nor is Gulley) I really do feel I would tell someone to “F” off and the whole council meeting would come to a halt. Then you bloggers would really have something to blog about.
November 11th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Randall: You’ve had some interesting and thoughtful posts recently. You can influence the debate by continuing to do this.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
“I really do feel I would tell someone to “F†off and the whole council meeting would come to a halt. ”
I would salute you if you did that!