Victory 2011: It’s all in the numbers.
The elections for Mayor and the Naperville City Council are over and the votes have been tallied and when all the dust settled, it was a victory for the Citizens of Naperville.
Of major importance, the two weakest and most detrimental links in the Naperville City Council (Richard Furstenau and Councilman Jim Boyajian) will no longer be part of the Naperville City Council. Councilman Richard Furstenau was soundly defeated in the field of ten candidates finishing in sixth place. Of the five candidates who finished in front of Fustenau, three were non-incumbents. In fact Furstenau came in closer to last place than he did to second place finisher non-incumbent Steve Chirico. The citizens of Naperville not only spoke loudly via the voting booth, they shouted their collective displeasure towards hypocrisy. When a councilman professes to be the voice of financial conservatism from the dais, yet in the courtroom inflicts financial discomfort to the city he represents, then those words and actions don’t match. The citizens of Naperville spoke, and their words matched their actions on Election Day.
And soon-to-be ex-councilman Furstenau still doesn’t get it; after the elections while being interviewed on Naperville’s NCTV Furstenau said, “I want to take a look at the votes and precincts and it looks to me like there were some strange things going on with the voting, but I haven’t had time to analyze all the numbers yet.” Well the good news for soon-to-be ex-councilman is that he now will have plenty of time on his hands to ‘analyze all the numbers’, and frankly there aren’t many numbers (votes he received) to analyze.
Councilman Jim Boyajian chose not to run for re-election, which is without a doubt the best decision he has made while being a member of the Naperville City Council. We anticipate one of soon-to-be ex-councilman Boyajian first tasks will be to follow in the footsteps of the tinman in the Wizard of Oz by looking for a ‘heart’. No longer will the Naperville staff at City Hall have to be subjected to verbal ‘beat downs’ during council meetings.
Two of our four endorsements for Naperville City Council were successful; first place finisher incumbent Grant Wehrli, and second place finisher Steve Chirico. Our top choice for Naperville City Council was Patty Gustin who finished fifth just a few hundred votes behind non-incumbent Joe McElroy who finished fourth. The top four vote getters will join the ‘new’ Naperville City Council.
Fortunately for Councilman Bob Fieseler, Naperville has yet to establish districts or wards, because if Naperville did have ‘the will of the people’ in place by having districts for this election he would also be an ex-councilman if he went one-on-one with newly elected Steve Chirico. So the fact that Bob Fieseler was trounced by a non-incumbent doesn’t speak well for Councilman Fieseler’s election results.
Though we did not endorse Mayor George Pradel, it was absolutely no surprise that he was re-elected for a fifth term over our endorsement and second-place finisher Doug Krause. What is interesting is that Mayor Pradel did not win with 70% of the vote as he did in the last election; this time he clocked in with 65% of the vote which is still a mandate, but he was less successful in this election. This may be due to a number or reasons including, 1) Naperville’s decline in the rankings of most favorable cities to live in, 2) Naperville’s decrease in population (this is never a good thing), 3) major budget problems, 4) citizen-voter dissatisfaction with the liquor commission decisions which is headed by Mayor Pradel, and 5) support of the Smart Grid.
It’s all in the numbers, and by any measure Naperville Election 2011 was a victory for the Citizens of Naperville.
