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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: Suburban mayoral campaigns shouldn't cost this much
Inflation was perhaps the most pivotal issue on the ballot in November 2024, as we all know. But it wasn't just the cost of everyday goods that was rising. Local politics got awfully expensive in our most recent campaign cycle, culminating with April 1 general municipal elections. Wanna run for mayor of a Chicago suburb? If this year's consolidated election is our guide for the future, the tab in many cases will run well into the six figures for the most high-profile suburban races. And that's striking when you consider what the top elected official in a suburb actually does. Mayors — or village presidents, as they're called in many suburbs — oversee local services, manage the budget, and serve as a community representative at ribbon cuttings, among other duties. Local mayoral races aren't traditionally supposed to resemble high-stakes congressional battles — but judging by the last election cycle, they increasingly do. We knew the village president race in Orland Park was hotly contested, but we were still stunned to see what those campaigns spent in the first quarter of 2024: over $580,000. For a village president race. In a town of 57,000. Orland Park Mayor Jim Dodge ran as part of a slate of candidates called 'Orland Park for All.' Dodge and his associated committees spent about $190,000 in the months leading up to the April 1, 2024, election, according to State Board of Elections data. Dodge's opponent, former Mayor Keith Pekau, had a slate of his own called People Over Politics. Pekau and his associated committees filed reports showing nearly $400,000 in spending in the first quarter of the year, and pulled in donations from many local individuals. Notably, People Over Politics also recorded a nearly $15,000 donation from conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein of Lake Forest. But what did all of this money get the people of Orland Park? A bitter, ugly local election that saw former neighbors become bitter political enemies. And that's the problem we fear is taking shape: Municipal races aren't supposed to be referendums on the hot-button issues animating Washington. Local politics should be different. These candidates are running to serve their neighbors. That closeness, both to one another and to the people they hope to represent, has traditionally encouraged a higher level of civility and respect. Additionally, when it's expensive to run for office, fewer people do it even if they may be a good candidate. That's bad for local democracy. The need for so much cash also heightens the risk of business interests like developers gaining more influence over local officials. Orland Park's wasn't the only big-bucks local race. Skokie's mayoral election was costly, too, with candidates spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a Tribune analysis of election filings. And in Evanston, Mayor Daniel Biss — who now is running for Congress — and his opponent, Jeff Boarini, spent nearly $200,000 in the months leading up to the April 1 election, according to reporting from the Evanston Roundtable. As people close to state and local politics have told us, one of the drivers behind the growing cost of running for local office is that increasingly politics — even practiced at the local level — is a business. Twenty years ago, say, a friend might have volunteered as an unpaid campaign manager and handled every aspect of a race. Good old-fashioned door-knocking is free. Today, it's more common, even in small campaigns, to hire paid staff and invest in media buys, mailings or other professional services. 'The nature of campaigns nowadays is you are competing with everything, and there is a lot of competition for people's attention,' Dodge said. 'You have to have enough communication to get through all of that.' That's fair. But it's still a shame that it's led to the kind of polarized and high-cost local politics we're seeing more and more today. The cottage industry developing around local politics doesn't seem to be doing much to improve the quality of community discourse, even if it does help candidates get the word out — and it could be deterring good candidates from running for office. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@ Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
More than $1 million spent in Orland Park, Tinley Park mayoral campaigns
When he ran for a full term as Orland Park's village clerk in 1991, James Dodge figures he spent about $3,000. Flash forward to this past spring's mayoral election. In the months leading up to the April 1 election, Dodge and his political committees shelled out nearly $190,000, according to state campaign finance reports. He defeated Keith Pekau, who was seeking a third term and running with his own slate of candidates. Pekau, through two election committees, spent almost twice as much as Dodge, campaign filings for the first quarter show. And it wasn't just Orland Park with big election outlays. Tinley Park mayoral candidates Michael Glotz and Michael Maloney, spent more than $700,000 January through March, according to state finance filings. Voters and elections have gotten more complicated, with candidates competing for the attention of potential supporters through a variety of media and messages, Dodge said. 'You are competing with all the advertisements and messages everybody is exposed to every day,' Dodge said Thursday. 'You are trying to break through with your message.' That means ads on cable television, data acquisition to find out voter demographics, messages on social media across different platforms and the reliable standards of yard signs and mailers, Dodge said. 'The nature of campaigns nowadays is you are competing with everything, and there is a lot of competition for people's attention,' he said. 'You have to have enough communication to get through all of that.' It costs money and involves paid workers for things such as photography and media production, a monitored online presence responsive to voter question. Even the old standby mailer has gotten pricier over election cycles, Dodge said. 'Nowadays even an oversize post card costs about 70 cents each to deliver to each home,' including the cost of design and printing, he said. 'If you are sending it out to 10,000 homes you are looking at $70,000.' During that same first-quarter period, the candidates and their election campaigns in Orland Park took in contributions of more than $400,000, according to state campaign finance filings. Tinley Park also saw significant amounts of money spent, and earned, in the weeks prior to the election. Incumbent Mayor Michael Glotz and challenger Michael Maloney took in more than $200,000 during the sprint to Election Day, according to records. Glotz won a second term, defeating Michael Maloney April 1. Through his own mayoral election committee and the One Tinley Park committee, which fielded candidates for trustee and clerk, Glotz spent more than a half-million dollars in the January-March quarter, disclosure statements show. Glotz responded to text messages Wednesday and Thursdays to arrange an interview, but never did commit to a time to respond to questions. Tinley Together, which Michael Maloney headed as the mayoral challenger to Glotz, took in about $182,000 in the January-March quarter and spent $177,000, according to state filings. The mayor's Friends of Michael Glotz took in $20,100 in the first quarter, but spent $149,000, with contributions including $72,000 to the One Tinley Park committee. One Tinley Park fielded Glotz and candidates, and the committee took in more than $190,000 and spent close to $385,000, according to state electoral board filings showing first-quarter income and spending. Both mayors listed expenses for photography, signs, printing and campaign help. In Dolton, one-term Mayor Tiffany Henyard received a pittance in contributions during the home stretch of the campaign. Trustee Jason House easily ousted Henyard, locking up 88% of the vote in the village's Democratic primary. In the April 1 general election, he received more than 95% of the vote over Independent mayoral candidate Casundra Hopson-Jordan. During the first quarter, House's Friends of Jason House, recorded receipts of a bit more than $31,000 and spent a little more than $45,000, according to state finance reports. Spending included outlays for consulting, text blasts and mailings. He headed the Clean House ticket, which also featured candidates for trustee and clerk. State electoral board records did not show any filings for that committee. Henyard's Friends of Tiffany Henyard showed total receipts of $1,000 and no expenditures during the January-March quarter, according to the report filed by her Friends of Tiffany Henyard committee. Filings showed the committee ended the election with just under $90,000 on hand, although debts totaled $58,000. All of the debt is comprised of loans Henyard has made to her campaign dating to January 2021, with the most recent loan, for $25,000, coming last November, according to her committee's most recent report. In Orland Park, Dodge's Dodge for Mayor committee took in $55,200 in the first quarter, and spent more than $34,000 during that period for things such as research and marketing, according to the committee's recent state filing. He headed the Orland Park for All committee, which recorded first-quarter receipts of $119,000 and expenses over the same period of $138,000. The money went for things such as advertising on Google, printing, renting office space and mailings, according to the committee's quarterly filing. Pekau's Keith for Mayor committee recorded first-quarter intake of $46,600, and expenses of $165,500, according to state filings. The committee transferred $120,000 in February and March to the People Over Politics slate Pekau headed. People Over Politics saw total receipts in the first quarter of more than $187,000, and that included nearly $150,000 in transfers from Pekau's mayoral committee and money chipped in by candidates on the ticket. People Over Politics recorded expenses in the first quarter of a bit more than $230,000, with money going to things such as phone polling, printing, consulting, advertising and yard signs, according to its quarterly filing.
Arab News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
New suburban Chicago mayor promises equal rights for Arabs ‘disrespected' by predecessor
ORLAND PARK, ILLINOIS: Jim Dodge, who on April 1 won the election to become mayor of Orland Park in suburban Chicago, unseating a predecessor accused of disrespecting and bullying local Arab Americans, vowed that those residents will now receive 'the respect they deserve as community residents, business owners, taxpayers and families.' In an interview with Arab News, he said that every resident deserves to receive the same level of respect 'regardless of their race, religion or national origin,' and irrespective of any particular issue they might want to raise. Dodge's comment related to a confrontation during a village board meeting on Feb. 5, 2024, between the former mayor, Keith Pekau, and 75 members of the Arab American community who asked him to support a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The board had passed a similar resolution on Ukraine a few months earlier but Pekau responded to the Gaza request by brushing it aside, criticizing the residents and telling them to 'go to another country' if they did not like living in America. When Arab Americans attending the meeting protested against his comments, Pekau ordered them out of the chamber, paused the meeting until they were gone, and then reconvened with no members of the public present and continued to berate the community over its request. Dodge described Pekau's response to the residents of the village as 'inappropriate' and 'disrespectful,' adding: 'We are all people who live in Orland Park and we want to see the best things for our community, for our families and for our children. It's about attitude. That's not what we saw at that meeting. 'Nobody should be prejudged because of their race, religion or ethnicity. Orland Park has a strong and vibrant, diverse community of residents and they all deserve respect, regardless of the issues. Arab Americans are no different than any other community we have in Orland Park; Irish, Polish, Hispanics, many others — everyone should be treated with respect and that is what I promise my administration will do.' Pekau's abusive response motivated Arab Americans in the area to make an effort to increase voter engagement in the run-up to the elections. More than 1,000 Arab Americans subsequently registered to vote, which played a part in removing Pekau from office. Dodge, who received 9,539 votes in the mayoral election to Pekau's 6,960, said what Arab Americans had experienced was similar to the experiences of other communities in the village under Pekau's brand of leadership. 'Together, they all brought this important change,' he added. Dodge, who held his first board meeting last week, said one of his first priorities will be to restore the village's committee system, which Pekau dismantled, that allows residents to participate in policy decisions and engage with officials directly on a variety of important issues. He added that he would meet with leaders from all communities to ensure they can engage in this way. Arab American community leaders welcomed Dodge's 'open-minded approach to government and inclusion.' Mohammed Jaber, who serves as a board trustee for High School District 230, which contains three high schools with a large proportion of Arab students, said the approach promised by the new mayor was exactly what Orland Park and its Arab American residents need. 'The most important thing is to be involved and work with one another for the betterment of Orland Park,' Jaber told Arab News. 'It doesn't mean that everyone agrees on an issue, it means that our officials listen and consider the positions and ideas we have as constituents, especially since we are 25 percent of the tax base. That in itself is a major change from the past administration.' Lena Matariyeh, who won a seat on the Orland Township Board of Trustees in another local election on April 1, said past experiences with Pekau and other nonresponsive local elected officials had shown Arab Americans the importance of being actively engaged with local elections and speaking out on community issues. 'What happens in our local communities, like Orland Park, truly matters,' she told Arab News. 'Change begins at the grassroots level and when we come together, regardless of background, we can help shape the future we want to see. 'The recent elections showed an inspiring level of engagement from the Arab American community, and many others who are stepping up, getting involved and making their voices heard. It's about ensuring that all communities feel represented, respected and included in the decisions that impact their daily lives.' Hassan Nijem, president of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, praised Dodge for his commitment to respecting all residents, including Arab Americans. 'This is significant that a mayor of a major suburban city has said that he rejects the disrespect the former mayor showed to our community,' Nijem told Arab News. 'Our community came together and we got involved to make change happen, and we did that. We are looking forward to being actively involved in local government issues, to being heard, and to participating in forging the future of Orland Park, which has a large Arab American community.' Arab Americans need to develop stronger voices in their communities, and the wider country, if they hope to increase their ability to help bring about peaceful, positive change in the Middle East, where their origins lie. Arab American candidates won 18 of 36 election contests in the Chicagoland suburbs last month, a feat that surpassed previous voting achievements. Orland Park has more than 58,000 residents and is the largest municipality in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago.
