Watchdog has endorsed city council candidates four times; 2011, 2015, 2019 and now 2023. Most have won their election, most have been good selections, and some not so good. I’m convinced that endorsing a candidate does not ensure a victory, but not endorsing a candidate can have a negative effect on that candidate getting elected.
In an at-large campaign, it’s like a stampede where the top four vote-getters get elected. It makes no difference if the candidate gets the most votes or the fourth most votes, the end result is the same. What do they call the candidate with the fourth most votes? They call him or her ‘council member’.
The only difference in campaign materials is some candidates send more than others, and some send no materials or very few. Most mailers frame the candidates as the best thing since sliced bread. Most have pictures of their families; it makes it more difficult not to vote for them.
The best campaign slogan I ever saw was Indiana governor Mitch Daniel’s yard sign in 2004, ” My Man Mitch”. How simple is that! He won the election. It was the first time an incumbent governor lost an election in Indiana since 1892. I’m not saying ‘My Man Mitch’ is what did it, however here it is and I still remember the tag line.
Choosing candidates to endorse this time has been more difficult than in past elections; more vitriol and animosity. So rather than making my endorsement sound like just like another campaign flyer, I’m going to keep it simple (Occam’s Razor); here we go:
Patrick Kelly – with a name like that he could easily be elected Mayor of Chicago.
Allison Longenbaugh – she got edged out in the last election. You’ve got to like her perseverance, and she is the candidate with the best hair style.
Nate Wilson – finally somebody with common sense and a sense of humor.
Nag Jaiswal – only person ever elected to the city council with the first name of ‘Nag’.
To the best of our knowledge, none of the above have warrants out for their arrest.
Check out Benny White’s hone in Naperville. He lives in a million dollar home (which is fine with me) but check out his property tax bill at DuPage County assessors website. Guess what he and his wife Kim pay annually in property taxes? ZILCH, NADA, ZERO! He sat on district 204 school board and now wants to be Mayor of Naperville and he pays nothing! Does he look disabled to you? He doesn’t to me. If you know the VA you know how easy it is to make up some nebulous health issue you can’t prove or disprove and bingo you’re 70% disabled! $20,000 a year in property taxes wiped out! Picked up by the rest of you chumps in 204 and Naperville! Sweet gig, if you can get it. Don’t vote for Benny, he’s not qualified and hell he doesn’t pay a DIME in property taxes in the city he wants to run. Sickening.
So in your opinion, a man who honorably served his country for 20 years, elected to school board, twice elected to city council, endorsed by police, firefighters and the Daily Herald is unqualified in your opinion. I strongly disagree and recommend when you consider his qualifications, Benny White for Mayor is the right choice.
Mark Urda, look at the rating Ms. Duckworth got for right arm. Duckworth would be very upset if she saw two able-bodied vets that CLEARLY can earn a living scamming the VA system like White and Holzhauer are doing. It’s damn shameful and they should be embarrassed.
Benny white lives in Will County you dope.
In your March 4 post you correctly pointed out that Tiffany Stephens did not participate in the League of Women’s Voters forum thereby denying the voters of Naperville the opportunity to judge her qualifications to be mayor. I find ironic on the other hand you endorse two council candidates (Wilson and Jaiswal) who also did not participate. Better choices are Ashfaq Syed and Jodi Trendler both who did participate and have long records of community involvement and service. Completely agree with choices of Kelly and Logenbaugh both of which are outstanding candidates.
Too much vitriol coming from the mcbroom campaign. He had a recent mailer trying to scare voters of naperville that if he’s not elected naperville will radically change. These are the same tactics he used when he led Awake illinois.
I’m a vet in Naperville and it’s common knowledge that vets can game the system. Benny White used to have all kinds of pictures on his Facebook page of him running and riding his bike around Naperville with Mayor Chirico. He’s apparently scrubbed all of this pictures from his Facebook page.
It’s harmful to vets that truly deserve this exemption when someone like White and local attorney Barry Greenberg (a former Republican Naperville Township Clerk) shift their tax burden onto the rest of us.
https://dupagepolicyjournal.com/stories/640312672-on-950k-naperville-home-mayoral-candidate-white-has-property-tax-bill-of-0
Veterans qualify for this if they are 70% to 100% disabled and they need to prove it. Good for him to be able to take advantage of this since he served so many years in the military. He will continue with that leadership when he is mayor for all of naperville.
Veterans qualify for this if they are 70% to 100% disabled and they need to prove it. Good for him to be able to take advantage of this since he served so many years in the military. Benny is a great man, thank you for your service Mr. white
Turns out Ian Holzhauer is running the same scam as Benny White. He pays zero in property taxes too. The guy was a JAG I highly doubt he ever saw combat. These guys are all scamming the system meant for truly disabled vets. It should disgust every veteran.
Sometimes the disability is not visible in a veteran. And I am not talking just emotional or mental disability but also physical.
I worked with a guy for almost 10 years that had no problems keeping up with me (10 years his junior) and had no signs of physical injury other then scares, but he was classified 70% disabled by the VA because of all the grenade shrapnel he got in Vietnam that he was still carrying around.
Just because you can not discern the nature of the disability does not mean it does not exist.
And it is local governments that decide what kind of property tax exception they will provided property owners, not the VA.
If they are going to give churches, which are increasingly involved in politics (telling parishioners how to vote, having politicians give political “homilies/sermons”) during what is suppose to be church worship of God, then I have no problems with Veteran property tax breaks.
***Disclaimer – Yes I am a Veteran, but not a disabled vet***
One of the biggest scams going on now.
https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3247586