Entering its last legs of its race the 2012 Illinois Primary Election is anything but predictable. Sure, on the Democratic ballot there’s more local offices with no candidates than there are contested races but who knows who will emerge from their caucus for the November general election. Local Republicans are slugging it out (Smith vs Campbell) much like at the state and federal levels (Johnson vs Syverson), (Kinsinger vs Manzullo), (Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, Paul). There are few sure predictions including what impact a relevant presidential contest in an Illinois primary will have on historically anemic voter turnout.
County Board District 6 (Tobias, Brown, Roman – [D] pick two) is an interesting contest. Craig Roman made it clear that a big reason he is running for the board is former chairwoman Ruth Ann Tobias’ approval of the mega-landfill expansion without properly communicating with her constituents. Tobias made a stunning statement at the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum at the Egyptian Theatre regarding her vote on the landfill expansion.
We needed to figure out a way to enhance the jail to expand it just because sending all those prisoners was you know very expensive in time and its dangerous to move people about. The public did not want to have a public safety sales tax and so we worked with Waste Management to talk about expanding the landfill.
— Ruth Ann Tobias, February 23, 2012
The sworn testimony during depositions and hearings was that the expansion of the county jail had nothing to do with the county board’s approval of the landfill expansion. The nexus of the appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court by Stop The Mega-Dump organization is that the landfill siting proceeding and the expansion of the jail were connected projects, proceeding on tandem timelines, with the jail expansion driving the outcome of the siting proceeding. On an issue of such environmental magnitude of expanding a landfill from one to 17 counties (including Cook) the outcome should be driven by scientific research not the need for a bigger jail. When rules of ex-parte communications all but sequester county board members from their constituents “worked with Waste Management to talk about expanding the landfill” sounds bad. It just plain smells bad.
But as a member of Stop the Mega-Dump, I digress.
Senator Christine Johnson and Senator Dave Syverson (35th District) are victims of the state Democrats policy of “if you can’t beat them redistrict and make them beat each other.” The political capital to consolidate power was there and the Democrats took it. Never mind that there’s enough of them in Cook County to elect the sitting Governor despite the other 102 counties in the state rejecting him. Johnson or Syverson will be knocked out of their Senate seat March 20. The attack ads from both candidates have been fast and furious as of late.
Those who’ve followed local politics long enough might remember a young, brash Clay Campbell when he debated then State’s Attorney Ron Matekaitis (D) at the DeKalb County Farm Bureau in Campbell’s first attempt at the office. Matekaitis sat calmly through attack after attack by the young challenger.
Campbell, meet your ghost of elections past, Sean P. Smith. By the televised DeKalb County League of Women Voters Candidate Forum (at least the 4th face-to-face debate between the two) Smith had gotten under Campbell’s skin. Smith continues to attack Campbell alleging improper campaign donations. This race could get nasty at the end.
The biggest surprise of this campaign season so far for me was how well the League of Women Voters’ forum ran. This was a rather historic event on a couple of fronts. The DeKalb County Chapter only recently reconstituted due in large part to the diligence of Kay Shelton with help from several volunteers. The forum was the first ever televised on cable Channel 14. It was a live broadcast. It went without a hitch. Murphy’s Law exempt. Shelton, Lynn Fazekas and Jennifer Verbic deserve special kudos. As does Kate Schott, managing editor of the Daily Chronicle, who served as moderator. The City of DeKalb’s IT department and Public Works Director TJ Moore should be commended for their work and professionalism in helping to inform voters.
The most pleasant surprise was how articulate and thoughtful this group of local candidates are. That’s good for moving forward. Two of the younger, brighter candidates for the 90th District seat in the Illinois House — Tom Demmer and Liandro Arellano Jr. — gave the most stark answer a politician can give for running.
“We’ve got to pay the bills,” they said.
The challenges are great indeed.
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