Tuesday will mark the 100th day in office for Mayor Scott Wehrli and some people are still griping about the results of the election. Does anybody remember the name of the third mayoral candidate in addition to Scott Wehrli and Benny White?
Scott Wehrli received 15,915 votes (53.07%), Benny White gathered 13,436 votes for 44.8%, and Tiffany Stephens garnered 638 votes for 2.13%. Some folks are irritated that Stephens entered the race, thinking it skewed the results for Wehrli. It didn’t. Even if White would have received Stephens 638 votes, he would have totaled 14,074 votes for 46.93 of the total vote, giving Wehrli a 6% victory.
No matter how she got the votes, or who supported her candidacy, the end result would have been the same. It’s time to move on and show support for Mayor Scott Wehrli until if or when his leadership tells us otherwise.
Sure but won’t change the fact that republicans fully funded a 3rd candidate with hopes of Wehrli winning and attacked a veteran candidate. As much as you want voters to forget, they won’t. payback at next election will be interesting.
What republicans did this past election was an embarrassment. Better be careful speaking out against Scott Wehrli or he will send you a cease and desist to silence you. Kinda how he did to silence Benny White for something he never did.
The local Ds did all the dirty work this cycle? Who filed the petition challenges? The Ds. Who sent the Naperville Forward attack mailers? The Ds. Who’s Governor sent attack mailers in the school board race? The Ds.
The only arguably negative the Rs appear to have pursued was letting the electorate know some officials were not paying real estate taxes. That’s not negative. Ds not liking politically inconvenient facts don’t make those facts off limits.
Agree with you Bob. Local Rs are dirty and slimy, they proved it this election. I was also shocked at their attacks on local military veterans and their backing of a sham candidate.
We attacked a tax cheat.
Nope, you attacked a disabled military veteran and you all looked foolish doing it. Had no impact on the election as everyone knew naperville citizens would never elect a black man as mayor.
There was nothing wrong with the property tax credits taken advantage of by elected officials. It was the VA that verified and documented their disability, as it has done for hundreds of thousand of other veterans. When you say they were not disabled you are not attacking their credibility but that of the VA. Just because they are elected officials does not mean they can no longer take advantage of any benefit available to any other citizen. There was not conflict of interest here and no corruptions. Just a very sick attempt to use the service of two veterans against them.
Benny is not a tax cheat. He severed our nation and qualified for disability benefits per the rules of the program. It’s only those who didn’t serve that are mad about this benefit given to veterans. Now he is serving our community as our city councilman.
Unfortunately what happened in this last election was the Republicans supporting Wehrli were willing to go negative in their parties National campaign to win no matter what the cost, even in local none partisan elections.
The other side simply was not willing to go low to win.
This is why we need Rank Choice voting in Naperville city elections. This system has many pros over the current vote only for your first choice voting system. One of which is it results in hurting candidates who go negative or do not act to prevent their supporters from going negative. So it is a election system that adds a cost for negative campaign which does not exist in the current election system (if going negative carries no cost or liabilities then it is very tempting to go low, especially if your only focus is win the election).
This reintroduction of partisan politics into local elections clearly demonstrate a disrespect for the decades of struggle by both Democrats and Republicans to remove partisan politics from local election because of the corruption it created at the local level. It was partisan politics in local election that created the infamous political machines of our past, like the Penrose, Pendergast, Cameron, Hall, run by a single, all powerful boss. These type of political machines are the root of all corruption in government.
The GOP clearly cares more about winning no matter the cost that they are willing to return to the corrupt political machines of our past in local elections to build the base they have failed to build at the National and even State level to once again control election outcomes.
For any party that constantly complaints about government corruption and keeps making promises to clean up this corrupts to reintroduce this type of proven corrupt political machinery into our elections speaks volumes as to their true intents.
I’ve seen the change in local conservatives behavior once a very vocal city council member lost his seat. Look behind much of the slimy comments and shady faux news articles and you’ll see him behind them.
The other side didn’t want to go low? Who filed the petition challenges? The Ds. Who sent the Naperville Forward attack mailers? The Ds. Who’s Governor sent attack mailers in the school board race? The Ds.
The only arguably negative the Rs appear to have pursued was letting the electorate know some officials were not paying real estate taxes. That’s not negative. Ds not liking politically inconvenient facts don’t make those facts dirty.
Challenging a candidate’s petition is not going low. It is a valid process to use when questions come up about a candidate’s eligibility to run. In fact it is the only process to do this. In fact this process has been used by both Republicans and Democrats in previous elections with varying degrees of success.
The property tax relief received was not illegal, it was not abusive and it was legitimized by the VA and county officials. The efforts by Republicans to portray this as a negative or even as a corrupt act by misrepresenting the situation, claiming these veterans had “gamed the system”, is going low because is was a defaming comment they was completely unsupported by any of the facts of the situation.
Yet you never condemn Mike Madigan for doing the same thing you accuse Republicans of doing. You are a massive hypocrite along with the rest of your Democrat friends. Benny wasn’t qualified to be dog catcher. His fake Doctorate didn’t fool anyone.
We do condemn madigan, that’s why I condemn naperville conservatives. You are the hypocrite as you see madigan do it so you’re fine with right wingers doing the same. Republicans decry madigan style politics, yet employ similar tactics.
Jim you are spot on. Local republicans won’t even use their name when commenting here.
I have never discussed Madigan on this forum. But if you had ever read any of my posts on other forums you would know I was not a fan of the man. Your comment makes you look bad and uninformed as to my actual position on this and many other issues.
As to Benny’s degree it was issued by an accredited college, for an accredited degree program just like that of several other colleges around the US. Just because you think this college and/or this degree program is a joke (your opinion) does not change these facts.
Naperville conservatives doing what they do best, playing the victims. They get called out for what they do then they resort to whataboutism.
Local Democrats took the unprecedented action of hiring a prominent election lawyer to file petition objections against local candidates in a non partisan race. A long-standing game played in Chicago races the kind of which has never come to Naperville until the Ds brought it here.
Then Governor Pritzker took the unprecedented action of dumping thousands in attack mailers against local candidates in our local non partisan race. Against Ron Amato of all people…long time volunteer and very moderate Republican.
Then Councilwoman Sullivan’s Naperville Forward took the unprecedented action of sending attack mailers , at least $20,000 worth, against local candidates in a nonpartisan race. she was nearly censured over it.
Then the Naperville Fireman union took the unprecedented action of spending many thousands of dollars pushing Democrat candidates in our local non partisan race. No union has ever been involved in our local races as much as they were.
Then congresswoman underwood took the unprecedented action for a federal officeholder in naperville by running social media ads in support of local candidates in non partisan
But yeah – despite all of the above – local Rs should feel bad because a few thousand dollars was given to Tiffany Stephens (a pittance compared to what either Benny White or Scott Wehrli received) and for pointing out that Naperville has two sitting councilmen that pay no real estate taxes on their homes (something neither bothered to disclose while voting on everyone else’s tax levy). As an aside, it’s not “just a Right wing attack” if it’s true…both appear in above average health yet have received full tax exemptions for severe disabilities. tens of thousands of taxes taken off their homes and pushed on to everyone else. why?
Local Democrats brought this hyper partisan environment to our local politics. Don’t blame local Rs for finally waking up to it.
Excellent piece. You nailed it. Democrats in Naperville are extremely hypocritical, especially when they lose. Wonder why Jim Haselhorst didn’t point out any of your points? Never mind, I know why. It would destroy all his arguments
This action was not unprecedented. Candidate petitions in local Naperville elections have been challenged in the past. So your claim is blatantly false.
In fact the only course of action available to anyone that has questions or concerns about a petition filled with the clerk is to challenge it.
All the clerk does is make sure the required number of signatures are present and that the candidate has signed the form saying they meet all the requirements for candidates. The clerk does not validate signatures or any of the information on any of the forms filled.
So if a person believes any of the signatures are invalid or any of the information provide to prove eligibility is wrong then their only recourse is to challenge the petition. How they go about this is left to their discretion, but if they are serious they have a lawyer present their case, provide the documentation and testimony need to support their challenge. Yes, you can do it yourself but its like representing yourself in a court of law.
As to unprecedented actions. Lets look at what the far from moderated Republicans Wehrli and Coyne started doing several years ago in the council elections. Funding negative mailing and in the case of Wehrli transferring the fund from his fail state election into a new PAC targeting liberal candidates in local elections.
The process of turning local non-partisan elections into partisan elections really did start with the local Republican township parties not inviting any candidates they viewed as “liberal” to participate in any of the events or other election related activities they were hosting. I know it was not this way when I ran for mayor, but as one previous post points out this really started when on prominent local Republican lost his election.
I also know from my past election runs that the Democrat township parties have always been welcoming to all candidates in local non-partisan election. Inviting all candidates listed on the ballet to participate in their events. I know this undeniably happened in the last election and every election previously since I started becoming more involve in them a couple of decades ago.
As to my party affliction. As I have repeatedly stated in the past I am an independent with no party affliction. Yes, my positions on some issues (like the 1st amendment) tend to align more with liberals but my positions on other issues (like the 2nd amendment) align more with conservatives. So I get attacked regularly by both sides of the isle.
My voter registration has shown both Republican and Democrat affiliations in the past. I am not sure how this happens since I have never told them this, but it may have something to do with which primary election ballet I chose in the last election.
I do not hesitate to support the efforts of either party on a particular issue that we agree upon if I can, which is how I ended up serving as a Precinct Captain for one of the local Republican township parties in support of eliminating the Naperville Township Road district. I was also very involved with the local Democrats in helping get adult dispensaries approved. Again, if it is an issue I support then it does not matter to me which party is involve, I will help them in their efforts.
But hey if you want to imply I am a Democrat go right ahead, you will be joining the radical left that insists I am a Republican.