The local Democrats got their way. Their objection to kick the relatively unknown African American candidate, Farid Shabazz, off the ballot worked. They paid a lawyer to go into City Hall and succeeded in removing the underfunded and lawyerless Shabazz from the ballot. What bullies.
The same stunt was tried last cycle with underfunded African American mayoral candidate Tiffany Stephens. In Stephens case, she found some help and was able to hire a lawyer to defeat the liberals objection. Shabazz wasn’t as fortunate.
It is an odd look isn’t it? Progressives have long prided themselves on supporting minorities and encouraging their involvement in politics. Sadly an ugly truth is revealing itself both locally and nationally.
The Democratic Party only supports minorities who follow the script. There is nothing, and we mean literally nothing, scarier to the Democratic Party or its diehards than are minority candidates who question the Party or – gulp – engage independent of Party orders.
We believe the chances are absolutely ZERO local activists would have filed objections to either Stephens or Shabazz if either were white. But because they were both minorities, they are viewed as variable, a threat to their machine and to the political power they’ve been clawing for over so many years.
This vile game of use and abuse and of applying race as a political weapon is running on life support. Every minority group we have took one giant step toward the political Right this past November. Here’s to hoping even more minorities engaged politically in Naperville and around our country, with or without the blessing of the Democratic Party.
If Farid Shabazz happens to read this, please consider moving forward with running as a Write In candidate. Winning this time was always a long shot. Go through the process of forums and campaigning as a Write In and try again next cycle. The community needs to hear from everyone, not just proxies for our partisan political parties.
While I agree with the position taken by Watchdog, I hasten to remind Watchdog that the Republican party, especially its MAGA populist wing, approaches this argument with dirty hands.
For the record as one if the objectors, we made this objection because people have the right to know who they are voting for and Shabazz not properly disclosing his name changed denied people this right. Mr. Shabazz is on record on owning this mistake and plans on running next cycle which after the ruling I encouraged him to do so. Now for the case of Ms. Stephens, all you have to do is research campaign donations to see her campaign was largely funded by Safe Suburbs..This was clearly an effort to draw votes from Benny White and combined with the Property Tax smear campaign was successful in defeating him. It is because of these tactics local Democrats are now being more observant about potential candidates. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on you. I am not suggesting Shabazz was another Safe Suburbs ruse, rather their past actions put a spotlight on his petitions resulting in his disqualification. So if you want to blame someone, then it rightly belongs with Kevin Coyne and Safe Suburbs, snd was not about race it was partisan politics.
Why are you race baiting? Mcdaiels is white and he got booted from the ballot because he couldn’t fill out the paperwork properly.
Completely agree Mark. A PAC doesn’t not give someone almost $10,000 because they feel bad about the candidate. That’s safe suburbs 2nd largest expenditure ever in the history of their pac. Only a fool would believe it was because they were “disgusted” at the way the candidate was treated.
Watchdog I respectfully request that you remove Mark Urda’s ridiculous misstatements above. I don’t even know who Farid Shabazz is and I can assure you Safe Suburbs has never interviewed him. Tiffany Stephens ran for council years before I was involved in politics and she ran for mayor on her own. Our PAC did give her help but that came AFTER she was already a candidate and largely out of disgust with how she was being treated and she was truly pro police. Our PAC did not endorse her and she was never “our” candidate. If Mr. Urda wants to recklessly toss around allegations that are untrue please let him do it from his page, not yours.
Now who is in favor of censorship? You post shows your true character and colors.
And your post shows why your political ilk is fading into oblivion. You are more than fine with fake news and disparagement as long as the fake news and disparagement coincides with your political ideology. As an aside, if you are ok with lies being spread about people then you are the one with the character issue.
Mark, in his comment on this post, never said when your PAC made the contribution to Tiffany Stephens only that it was one of the largest she received. His comment also does not claim you endorsed her candidacy.
So it is clearly you that are spreading false statements. And exactly what “fake news” and disparagement did I make in my two-sentence comment that you are referring to? Did you not ask the administrator of this page to delete Mark’s comments about statements he did not make? Is this not censorship?
Again, it is you that are the one who is okay with letting false statements and disinformation stand as being “free speech” and labeling any moderation of these statements as censorship. Funny how offended you get when this same standard is applied to you.
Agree Jim. Kevin Coyne is in the wrong here and seems very emotional. Surprised those claim who want free speech are so quick to have speech restricted when they don’t like the speech. Seems like a nerve was struck. Mr. Coyne and his PAC fully funded a candidate, but they don’t “endorse” that candidate and they don’t like it when it’s brought up.
You and your PAC will not silence naperville citizens/tax payers.
Kevin if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck. Also I specifically stated that I was not implying Shabazz was a Safe Suburbs ruse but Stephens evidence is clear. Quack, quack Kevin
Kevin I am SO glad to hear you take this position! I expect that you’ll follow suit on all the pages you run and either remove (if you’re able, like Facebook) or encourage the poster to remove (like X) if someone makes ridiculous misstatements! Your buddy Kurt Dorr has been making them about my family for years (as have others of your followers) and I’m thrilled that you will finally be doing something about it.
The process used in reviewing the petition by this candidate to appear on the next ballot as a city council candidate is the same process Naperville has always used.
Any registered voter in Naperville can challenge any candidate petition in Naperville if they believe it does not meet the standards required by the election laws. This is the right of every voter. To call them bullies for exercising their legal and Constitutional rights is political propaganda.
What happened here is nothing new or unusual. It has happened several times during my 30+ years in this city. What is new and unusual is arguing the basis for this challenge is racial in nature rather than sticking with the facts of the case.
The facts are simple, the election board reviewed this candidate’s petition and determined it did in fact fail to meet the legal requirements as set forth in our election laws. This candidate’s race was never part of the election board’s review or consideration, just the details of his petition.
To say or imply the race of this candidate should be the basis for granting this candidate a “pass” for failing to meet the election law standards every other candidate had to meet is the same kind of race based “favoritism” the right is always accusing the left of trying to force on them.
The election board determined this candidate’s petition violated several election laws, invalidating this candidate’s petition and making him not eligible to be on the upcoming ballot as a candidate. He is still able to submit candidate petitions for future elections and has not been, in anyway, banned from participating in future elections.