Peoria Pundit

From Citizens for Responsible Spending:

Greetings to all!

Peoria County voters today is your day to vote! Your vote counts. Each and every vote counts. This rare occasion to cast your vote in a binding referendum to raise or not to raise your taxes.

We encourage you to contact all your family and friends in Peoria County and then have them contact their family and friends in Peoria County and so on and so on to get out the vote today.

Citizens for Responsible Spending (CFRS) advocates for your NO vote.

Wrong plan. Wrong funding mechanism. Wrong time.

A better block can be built.

Additional information, telling ‘the rest of the story” is available at our website — www.nomuseumtax..org. By clicking the media link, there are recent press releases available for viewing and printing as well as a printable flyer.

It is your community, your voice, your money and your decision..

Happy voting!

Cordially,

Karrie E. Alms
Chairman, CFRS

Let me make something very clear: I am probably going to vote for Jim Ardis.

I think the incumbent Ardis has done a better job that any of his recent predecessors. I’m a bit miffed at some of the votes he’s taken in favor extending TIF’s undeveloped green fields, and with his recent support for District 150 school closings. But he lived up to his promise to making resident’s safer.

So I’m probably going to vote for him.

But I want the option of NOT voting for him. Politicians do a better job when voters have the option of tossing them out on their ear.

And right now, challenger General Parker is the only alternative.

But because of convictions on his record, it’s doubtful he could serve. If he wins, Ardis could easily challenge the results and probably win. And Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons is sending threatening letters to Parker telling him to drop out.

So, the best thing that could happen would be for Pat Quinn to issue Parker the pardon he has been seeking. Parker isn’t trying to hide anything, as far as I can tell, so it’s not like Peorians are being mislead about his past. And I rather doubt the guy is out stealing cars. He’s no threat to anybody.

Frankly, I find the idea of a council candidate selling $5,000 “platinum sponsorships” far more offensive and a much better threat to good government than having a former juvenile delinquent running for mayor.

And I have a libertarian disdain for the idea of kicking underdog candidates off the ballot. Early voting has started, and kicking Parker off the ballot would nullify votes already cast.

Gov. Quinn can be contacted here.

Here’s a list. Plan accordingly.

Monday, February 16th, 5:30pm
Neighborhood Alliance
Prince of Peace Church
711 E. Arcadia-located at Arcadia and Wisconsin, behind the Kroger’s store.

Wednesday, February 18th, 7:00pm
Uplands Neighborhood
Bradley University-location to be announced

Wednesday, March 4th, 6:30pm
Moss Bradley Neighborhood
Westminster Presbyterian Church
1420 W Moss Ave.-located at Moss & Malvern Ln.

Wednesday, March 11th, 6:30pm
Warehouse District Candidates Forum
WTVP Studios
100 State St-located at State St. & Water St.

Spotted on my morning commute:

A rather large sign for Patrick Nichting, candidate for Peoria City Treasurer, in front of an office building on West Main Street across from Peking Restaurant.

An even larger sign for Dan Irving, who’s running for Nichting’s current job representing the 5th District on the Peoria City Council, was spotted on the big hill at the intersection of U.S. Route 150 and Northmoor Allen Road.

Meanwhile, the Journal Star is reporting that voter turnout is expected to be low for the Feb. 24 primary election.

Here’s why we know about WHAT happened to Peorian Sam Polk two years ago: He tried to vote on election day, but was told he wasn’t registered.

Here’s what we know about WHY it happened and WHO did it: Nothing. It drives me crazy when I encounter this “mistakes were made” attitude. Something bad happened, but no one is being held responsible. Dumping a long-time voter from the roles is an act of God is no like a hurricane or Earthquake. Somebody either messed up or somebody did something nefarious.

Mary Harkrader, quoted extensively in the article, was one of the election commissioners at the time. The article links what happened to Polk with nationwide efforts to tamp down Democratic turnout by kicking voters in mostly black neighborhoods off the voting rolls. Polk is a 73-year-old Black man who has lived in the same North Peoria neighborhood for 18 years and never had a problem voting.

Harkrader, a Democrat, isn’t likely to want to see fewer Democratic voters.

But the executive director at the time was Jeanette Mitzelfelt. She’s a Republican. She was fired by the election commissioners in December 2006, a month after Polk was denied the right to vote. The reasons were never made clear, although I speculated at the time it was because they weren’t happy that Mitzelfelt — an appointee of a bi-partisan board — was running for partisan political office, the Peoria County Clerk’s job.

I’m wondering how responsibility Harkrader and other commission members put on Mitzelfelt for what happened. As executive director, she had more day-to-day control over voter rolls than anyone on the commission.

In my City Beat column in this month’s Community Word, I speculated a bit on upcoming Peoria City Council elections. I wrote:

In the 3rd District, there’s a chance Bob Manning won’t run because he wants to spend more time with his family. Fourth-district councilman Bill Spears almost didn’t run last time, but ended up running for the state legislature two years ago. Barbara Van Auken is almost certainly going to run for re-election in the 2nd district. And more than one person has discussed the possibility of running against her, but I’m not at liberty to say who they are. Randall Emert, an employee of the U.S. Postal Service and a volunteer at Manual High School, is on the record on his blog and elsewhere that he’s considering running for Clyde Gulley’s 1st District seat.

Apparently, there’s speculation by people in a position to know that Gulley isn’t going to run. Last time around, Gulley faced four opponents in the primary, but he easily dispatched June Moore and Frank Lewis, then faced Greg Banks in the general election.

I would think Gulley would be hard to beat. A decision to NOT seek re-election would bring out lots of candidates.

Blogs played a role in the last election, as they gave voice to dissenting opinion that wasn’t showing up in the mainstream media. Blogs also played a fact- and fairness-checking role. There are more blogs now. And more people are aware of them. So, I predict that no matter who runs, blogs and bloggers will have a BIG impact.

About a month ago, I wrote about a change in Illinois law that would lessen the likelihood that municipalities would have to hold primary elections. I was critical, because it also increased the possibility that someone could get elected to the Peoria City Council without a majority of the votes.

As it turns out, because the City of Peoria has home rule powers, it’s possible to retain the previous system by referendum. The Peoria City Council is likely to vote on whether or not to do just that at next week’s meeting.

There is a concern among some on the council about the possibility someone can get elected with a plurality, rather than a majority, of the vote.

My theory is that incumbents benefit from having multiple challengers because it splits the “throw the bums out” vote. We could also see people getting into races specifically to do just that.

From the council packet:

PRIMARY ELECTION LAW.

Last year the Legislature amended several statutes which address the question of when a primary is to be held in a nonpartisan municipal election. The change provides that offices are uncontested when not more than four persons to be nominated for each office have filed nominating papers. In other words, if two, three or four candidates file for mayor, there would be no primary. Only if a fifth person filed a petition or filed as a write-in candidate would a primary election take place. In the case of at-large councilpersons, only if twenty-one candidates filed would there be a primary election to reduce the field to twenty. As you are aware, prior to this change, which was effective November 9, 2007, there would have been primaries had more than two candidates filed for mayor and more than ten candidates filed for at-large council positions.

Article 7, Section 6(f) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 provides in part as follows:

A home rule municipality shall have the power to provide for its officers, their manner of selection and terms of office only as approved by referendum or as otherwise provided by law.

This section of the Constitution means that the City could only change the aforementioned state statute by referendum. Should the Council desire, it could pass a resolution putting this “change” (back to the way it was last election) to a referendum. The Council must act at least sixty-five days before an election to put a question on the ballot. The last regular council meeting to place a question on the November 4th ballot is the August 26th council meeting.

The purpose of the change to the state statute was to save money. The Election Commission estimates that the cost of a city-wide primary is approximately $75,000.00.

I’m conducting an informal survey of council members. I suspect there’s support for a referendum. I also suspect they would be swayed by what they hear from constituents.