Fourth In, Fifth Out

The NCAA Tournament just concluded, and as always there was a last team invited into the tournament (68th) and a first team excluded (69th). The Naperville city council election had its own ‘last in’ Nate Wilson, and ‘first out’ Meghna Bansal, the vote difference being just 74 votes as of this posting. Official election results will be certified April 18th.

It also happened in the 2021 city council election when 4th place finisher Jennifer Bruzan Taylor received a mere 51 votes more than the 5th place vote-getter Allison Longenbaugh (7741 votes to 7684). To think that knocking on just a few more doors could have overcome the 51 vote deficiency would have made the difference. To Longenbaugh’s credit, she didn’t quit her quest to get elected, and this time came in 2nd place behind incumbent Patrick Kelly.

In Bansal’s case, again knocking on a few more doors, could have made the difference, or answering a Naperville Sun questionnaire could have provided her with a victory. She was the only candidate of the 11 not to answer the survey. Sometimes it’s not what you don’t do that makes the difference.

The mayoral election saw Scott Wehrli win with 53.07% of the vote (15,915), while Benny White garnered 44.8% (13,436 votes). If Benny White would have gone with ‘Benjamin’ White rather than ‘Benny’ maybe some voters would have seen him more seriously (Benjamin Franklin vs Benny and the Jets). Some folks do vote based on name only, but probably not enough to make a difference this time around.

Tiffany Stephens pulled 2.13% (638 votes), which makes one wonder why she even bothered to get on the ballot. The Joe Biden strategy of campaigning (stay in the basement) didn’t work for her. Maybe her intent was never to win, but simply to say she ran for mayor in Illinois’ fourth largest city and came in 3rd place. That in itself should open a lot of doors for her.

Eleven city council candidates, four winners. What do you call the person coming in 4th place? You call that person ‘council member’.