SOUTHERN ILL.—The April 9 Consolidated Election 2013 looks to be a mixed bag this year of a handful of hotly-contested mayoral races countered by some communities that have no one running for that office at all.
Further, the selections for town/city council, aldermen, trustees, etc., as well as road districts, township positions, library boards and board of education officials are generally equally as slim and in some locations, nonexistent.
There are a few ballot questions in the southeastern Illinois area, mostly having to do with public safety tax and, in one instance (Albion), asking whether the citizens want to allow the sale of liquor within city limits. As well, the long-awaited new ballot selection, for Xenia Fire Protection District (affecting Clay and Wayne counties) appears on those two ballots, after much contention last summer to ensure placement and oust the current administration, which has been highly questionable with the peoples’ money.
This leaves the potential for an extremely low voter turnout, in what is actually a very important election, as the problems that have become so manifest in American government always start at the bottom and crawl up.
Still, it’s hard to get people to the polls when there’s no one to vote on.
Therefore it might be fairly predictable on a county-by-county basis as to where the numbers will be high and where they will be dismal, as presented here by the few places that actually have contests in the southeastern Illinois area.
Mayoral (and in some locations, village president) races have emerged in Lawrenceville and St. Francisville (Lawrence Co.), Elizabethtown, Cave-in-Rock and Rosiclare (Hardin Co.), Shawneetown (Gallatin Co.), Bellmont (Wabash Co.), Olney and Noble (Richland Co.), Fairfield (Wayne Co.), Browns (Edwards Co.), Carmi (White Co.), Flat Rock, Palestine and Robinson (Crawford Co.) and Raleigh (Saline Co.).
Alphabetically, here are the ballot highlights from counties across the region.
Clay County: Electing fire district trustees
The big story coming out of Clay County this election season is the appearance on the ballot of those to be elected to the Xenia Fire Protection District.
This comes after an incident a year ago in April, wherein the entire fire department walked out because of the irresponsibility in handling money, equipment, grants and other matters essential to the running of the department of Daniel Edgington, whose name happens to not appear on the ballot…nor do either of the other two trustees who were on the board when the walkout occurred.
Instead, five names appear for the five trustee positions—five because the ballot initiative last year (November) also increased the number of trustees from three to five, so that power would be more spread out instead of consolidated into a small number of trustees.
The five are Shane Kanitz, Randy Hockman, Burl DeWayne Wesner, Joyce M. O’Donnell and Williams P. Moorman.
This ballot appears not only on the applicable Xenia coverage locations in Clay, but also on the Wayne County ballot, as a northwesternmost section of Wayne is covered by that district.
Contested races in Clay exist in:
Clay City, where three village trustees will be selected from four candidates: Mike Delonshaw, Dan Patridge, Rod Franklin and Charles E. Felty.
Xenia, where two are vying for village clerk: Dawn Cazadd and Jenny Gould; and five seeking four seats as village trustee: Suzie Hosick, Bill Bradley, Thomas J. Henson, Frank Edwards and Velma Akes.
Many township races have a “select four” of five or more slates, including Larkinsburg, Blair, Harter, Bible Grove and Clay City.
Crawford County: Many mayoral races in the burgs
The distinction of mayoral races in almost every town in the county marks Crawford’s ballot features.
The city of Robinson has a face-off between two candidates, Lon M. Smith and Roger E. Pethtel (incumbent); village of Flat Rock has incumbent Larry Keeler seeking to keep the seat against challenger Brandi Weger; and village of Palestine’s mayor Pat Schofield finding her mayoral seat challenged by independent candidates Candy Carter and Earnie M. Mendenhall III.
There is only one contested race on the city council in Robinson: Ward 2 is sought by Karen S. Bowman and Nikki Aldrich.
Trustees in Palestine are the only ones that will see three selected among five (other villages have just enough—three—to fill the slate regardless): Harry Gene Purcell, Lloyd S. Dunlap III, Ricky A. Stork, George Harrison and Williams L. Snyder are the five seeking three seats on that board.
Townships in Crawford seeing races for the slate are Hutsonville, Martin, Prairie and Robinson.
Appearing on the ballot for the portion of Crawford to which the Casey-Westfield School District No. C-4 applies is a select-four of six: Alan Hutton, Jeff Gowin, Casey Overbeck, Terri R. Cox, Curtis E. Carver and Robert L. Dougherty.
In Oblong School District No. 4, it’s three of four: Chad Pusey (Oblong police chief, who continues the strange and ongoing southern Illinois trend of police officers getting placed on school boards), Danny R. Swaner, Todd Musgrave and Michael Higgins.
In Palestine School District No. 3, three of five will be selected for school board: Susan J. Hawkins, James L. Bush, Tara R. Vennard, Matt McCoy and Shari L. Eckert.
Hutsonville School District No. 1 sees a contest of four vying for three seats: Tina Callaway, John P. Cody, Mike Knecht and Chad Guyer.
And Red Hill School District No. 10 has a placement on the ballot, where there’s a four-of-five contest: Ashley Ryan, Roger Kissen, Dixie Purcell, Bob Christy and Jim Legg.
A library trustee race in Palestine exists, with Rhonda Kaye Eller, Robert L. Bowen, Terrie L. McDaniel and Robert F. Taylor seeking three seats.
Edwards County: Sour grapes forces races in Albion
The big story on the Edwards County ballots is the situation in Albion, where last month (February) mayor Ryan Hallam and city clerk Gary Mason resigned in a huff over questions arising about operations in the Albion fire department/rural fire protection district, particularly where it involves abiding by the Open Meetings and Freedom of Information Acts…which the department, run by Kent Nale for years, has been under the mistaken impression it doesn’t have to abide by them.
As a result of this, the backlash landed a couple of firefighters/firefighter supporters on the ballot running for alderman.
Om Ward 1, incumbent Kevin Savage is challenged by Rochelle Thomason (the firefighter sympathizer) and Arrol Stewart.
In Ward 2, Robert (Randy) Speir is facing former sheriff Scott Meserole, a sympathizer.
In Ward 3, David Works is being contested by Dana Mosson…who happens to be the person who was toting his kid around in a fire truck to the Edwards County High School prom in 2012, which action prompted all the questioning of proper and responsible use of fire department funds and equipment.
There are no candidates on the ballot for city treasurer and city clerk; those will have to be appointed by the new mayor with the advice and consent of the council.
The new mayor will be Steve McMahel, who was mayor before Hallam came to be in office (1997-2001). Hallam resigned rather than face McMahel, who was said to have been poised to send Hallam a whooping at the ballot box.
A ballot question for Albion is “Shall the prohibition of the sale at retail of alcoholic liquor be continued in the city of Albion?” This question confuses most people, worded according to statute, and so it needs to be clarified in this way: If a voter WANTS alcohol sales in Albion, they need to vote NO. If a voter DOESN’T WANT alcohol to be sold in Albion, they need to vote YES.
There’s a contest for village president in the little burg of Browns; longtime incumbent Harry Duncan is being challenged by the errant Todd Bailey. Conventional wisdom has it that Todd needs to stick to music; but one can never tell with voters these days.
As usual, the village of Bone Gap has no one running for president or trustee; only village clerk: Cheri Sutherland.
And in West Salem, the only contested ballot race is for that of two for library trustee, a coveted position there for some reason. Three seek it: Elmer Ellsworth Lytle, Mary Jane McKinney and Kelsey Adam Schilt.
Gallatin County: One serious mayoral race, little else
In Gallatin County, where there’s usually quite a bit of interest in public office, that doesn’t seem to be the case this go-round.
The city of Shawneetown will see a three-way race for mayor: Terry W. Williams, Robert Boon and David Barker.
No other municipalities in Gallatin have a race for village president, but they at least have candidates interested enough to take the job: In Equality, the perpetual (and perpetually annoying) Frank Sisk; in Junction, Melinda K. Robbins; in New Haven, Kevin J. Edmonds; in Old Shawneetown, Chris Oldham; in Omaha, Dennis M. West; and in Ridgway, Rebecca Mitchell.
In Equality, three trustees will be selected from six candidates: Billy C. Moore, William L. Barnes, Jermaie Sandor, A. Garrett Wargel, John Wren and Bill Springer.
In New Haven, Amy Lashley, Zella Medlin, Brigitte Browning and Matthew Edmonds seek three trustee seats.
In Old Town, James Back Jr., Kenny Oldham, Derek Chandler and Nell A. Moore-Rosser seek three trustee seats.
In Ridgway, Mike Kitchens, Bud Kimbro, Arthur Brown, Anthony Drone and Ardon Smith seek three trustee seats.
Two townships have contested races for four seats each as township trustees: in beleaguered Equality Township, Pat Frohock, Terry Wood, Cletus Wargel, John Wren and Don Collins are running for four; and in Shawnee Township, Rhonda Twitchell, Vulenia Johnson, Kimberly Bryson, Misty Hazel and Sandy Willis seek four seats.
In Equality Township, Jimmy Bayer is being challenged for his position as highway commissioner by former Equality mayor Lee Parker.
And harkening back to the debacle in 2009 in Equality Township and irresponsibility in such offices, the position of township supervisor is being challenged by three: David Casey, Doggie Poshard and Bill Springer.
Gallatin County authorities are once again using the threat of increasing property taxes as the reason to vote for the public question on the ballot county-wide, that of the public safety tax, which failed just last year, and which has been severely abused in other counties in downstate Illinois…so it’ll likely fail again, and taxes will likely be raised, which they are under PSTs anyway in most situations.
Hardin County: Oh Heck NO
As if residents in the village of Elizabethtown weren’t abused enough for many years under the Heck Rose administration—this coming to an abrupt end in 2011 with Rose’s resignation—they’re now faced with having to put up with his belligerence and cluelessness once again.
Yes, Eddie “Heck” Rose is on the ballot in E-town along with incumbent Bertis Cook for village president. And it’s not that Cook is doing such a bang-up job with the presidency, but villagers have expressed that he’s a damn sight better than Rose ever was, and they’re wondering why, if he resigned a year and a half ago stating it was for health reasons, would he once again put his health at risk by wanting the position?
Perhaps Rose feels he’ll be propped up by his sister, Sandra (“Sandbags”) Rose Conkle, who is another perpetual ballot name for village trustee, along with, this time, Bruce Hemphill and Rebecca Barnard, three for three on the slate.
Contested races in the little county’s other burgs are for mayor (village president) in Rosiclare: Roy W. Tolbert and James (Rusty) Warren; and for Cave-in-Rock, Perry Foster and Marty Kaylor.
Rosiclare also has a hot ballot for city commissioner. Vying for four seats are Bob Winchester, Margo Stoker, Bryan Keith Stone, Robert Brazell, Ricky Williams, Donald Wayne Lane, Brett Oxford, Wesley Atkinson and Waylon Hayden.
The beleaguered Hardin County School District is seeing seven candidates vying for four seats: Ricky D. Williams, Jimmy Stunson, Diana Kumorek, Natalie J. Vaughn, Christy L. McClenahan, Jerry D. Fricker and Bobby (Tubby) Ramsey.
The likelihood that at least one of those getting kicked off that slate—Jimmy Stunson—is a very good one.
Jasper County: Very low number of contested races
While there aren’t a lot of blank spots on the ballot in Jasper County (as there are on ballots in Edwards, Richland, Saline, etc), there aren’t a lot of contested races, either.
Mayoral candidates in towns and villages are running uncontested. In Newton, it’s Mark Bolander; in Hidalgo, Jason Kirby; in Ste. Marie, Jack Thompson; in Wheeler, Robert Flowers; and in Yale, Sanford B. Andrews.
There are only two communities with contested races for trustee seats: Wheeler, where three must be selected from candidates Joyce Jones, Gerald Short, Charles R. Emmerich and Edward Schmidt; and Yale, where four must be chosen from five candidates, Jamie Smith, Jerald B. Andrews, Jerry D. Middleton, Phillip E. Wagner and Nicholas Huddleston.
Township trustee races exist in Crooked Creek, Hunt City and Smallwood.
The same school board selections for Oblong District 4 exist for some Jasper residents: Chad Pusey, Danny R. Swanger, Todd Musgrave and Michael Higgins, of which voters must choose three.
Lawrence County: Where’s MAX??
The most significant feature on any of the ballots in Lawrence County involves the absence of a name—Max Schauf.
In 2013, for the first time in 12 years, Schauf’s name doesn’t appear on the ballot, but it’s not because of his federal charges, unfortunately. Apparently, the current Bridgeport mayor made the decision before he was federally indicted back in early November 2012 that he wasn’t going to run for a fourth term, likely because either A—he could smell the change of sentiment toward his administration and the problems it’s caused for the taxpayers of Bridgeport or B—he decided he’d (allegedly) raked about as much money out of the city coffers for his personal use as he could get away with and determined he was in good enough shape to let that little habit go.
It wasn’t good enough for the feds, however, who indicted him on three counts of Mail Fraud for allegedly taking said money to cover his own bills, and one count of Obstruction for allegedly telling his sort-of (ex) son-in-law to lie to the feds if they came around questioning.
While that case is dragging through court in Benton, Schauf is conducting business as usual sans the alleged thievery…and another Bridgeport man has stepped forward to run for mayor: Brad Purcell. Purcell ran unsuccessfully for county board this past November, but he faces no challengers for this office, so come May, he’ll be Mayor Brad Purcell.
Contending for the seat of Alderman in Ward 1 this election is former Alderwoman Robin Wirth; she faces challengers David Hammel and James W. Hamilton, but will probably slide easily to victory in this ward. No other offices in Bridgeport are contested.
In the city of Lawrenceville, the mayoral race has prompted much heat, particularly against incumbent Brian Straub, who’s been under fire from challenger Don Wagner openly for more than a year. The two will face a third contender, Ed Brumley, for the seat of mayor.
Wagner, on the mayoral ballot, of course isn’t running for his current position of city clerk; vying for that are Janice Laslie and James Rodney Nolan. Being that Janice Laslie has adequately pissed off every water user in Lawrenceville who has ever been late on their bill and had their water shut off (due to an incident in late 2010 wherein she and her husband Bruce ran up over $3,000 in late water bills until someone took notice of it, but never had their water shut off), Nolan is probably a shoe-in; the real question is whether, if Straub loses, whomever gets the job will finally get rid of the Laslies from the public teat in Lawrenceville.
One contest for Alderman exists in the ’ville: Ward 3, where David Courtney is challenging incumbent Don Goff…and will probably prevail, as Courtney is a proven leader, having held a position on the county board for a number of years, until about 2005.
The city of St. Francisville has a mayoral race: incumbent Stan Williams is being challenged by Don Ravellette. No council races are on the ballot, but at least all spots have a candidate.
And on the Red Hill School District No. 10 ballots impacting that area, there’s the same four-of-five as on the Crawford ballot in select locations: Ashley Ryan, Roger Kissen, Dixie Purcell, Bob Christy and Jim Legg.
Richland County: Mayoral races include the nutcase
As usual every two years, the poor Richland County ballot in some form or fashion carries the name of the ubiquitous nutball that everyone wishes would just disappear and take the smell with him: Brian James O’Neill II (deux, junior, etc).
This year, it’s the mayoral race, where O’Neill (who is not handicapped except by his own making; and he’s not some poor pathetic disabled person, but is instead a socially-awkward reject who makes himself even more so by being deliberately abrasive, obnoxious and repulsive, including not bathing) is once again going to receive his traditional 11 votes unless some of the people within the city of Olney wise up and stop giving the idiot the time of day.
Incumbent mayor Mark Lambird is once against seeking the office, challenged this year by attorney Ray Vaughn.
It has, however, been disclosed that Vaughn is nothing but a patsy for former mayor Tommie Fehrenbacher, who, over two terms, managed to alienate a huge chunk of Olney with his behind-the-scenes manipulation of properties and sweetheart deals from which he personally benefitted. Because of this, Fehrenbacher found he couldn’t be a viable candidate against Lambird, and so he put up Vaughn as his front-man. To this end, Vaughn, and Fehrenbacher’s errant kid, Morgan, have been sitting with their heads together at recent city council meetings, lobbing questions and snide comments toward Lambird at every opportunity.
Fortunately, it’s a sizable consensus of Olney citizens who are appalled enough that already, one attorney is pretty much running things in their city—Larry Taylor, who is not only the city attorney but now the city manager following the resignation of Randy Bukas some time back. So the thought of Vaughn as mayor, to this consensus, is rather unappealing. The fact that he’s so closely associated with Fehrenbacher strips away his favor the rest of the way, so it’s likely going to be Lambird for another four years.
Two council seats are up for election this go-round: Gary Foster and Bob Ferguson are looking to keep their positions on the council, but they’re being challenged by Jeremiah Brown and John McLaughlin, both of whom have run solid campaigns with a lot of exposure and may unseat both incumbents. This would be to the relief of many, as Foster has proven to be belligerent and disagreeable, not in the favor of those he represents, but for his own motives, especially when it comes to the city’s fire department.
And if anyone can term Olney “poor” on account of the presence of O’Neill, who isn’t qualified to hold a decent conversation with a sane person let alone an office, Claremont certainly can use the qualifier as well: only one person is again seeking the office of mayor there, and his immigration status still has not been put to rest, despite questions by Disclosure to someone who should know—the village’s legal counsel, Bart Zuber. John Joyce, who at least during the last election (2009) was on the ballot illegally as he was at that time an illegal immigrant from Ireland, still hasn’t been challenged by anyone who at least can challenge it, that being only someone in the village of Claremont. This, once again, is the apathy shown by voters, who just want to go about “letting someone else do it,” and in the case of Joyce, no one can complain about any alleged illegal status (on the ballot or otherwise) unless it’s one of the couple dozen registered voters of Claremont, this according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. So there he is, and no one runs against him, until someone in Claremont wakes up or develops enough sense to challenge/complain about the situation.
There is a mayoral race in the village of Parkersburg in south Richland County: K. Darlene Clark and Tom Hanna will each be seeking the office. For village clerk in P’burg, there’s actually a race: Sandra K. Reich versus Kelly Hanna.
And, in the village of Noble, a mayoral race between Richard Clark and John Mason is on the ballot.
A handful of Richland County townships have contested races for trustee: Madison, Noble, Olney and Preston.
A ballot question has raised the hackles of residents in Richland: the proposition for a special county retailers’ occupation tax for transportation purposes. This is yet another one of those “sales taxes” that authorities, who can’t handle the public’s money properly, places on the ballot with the threat that if it doesn’t pass, property taxes will have to be raised. However, the last sales tax increase, and worse the Public Safety Tax, went into effect and taxes were raised anyway. Further, the PST, imposed in 2001, was sold to the public as ONLY supposed to be utilized until the county’s new jail was built; then, it was promised, the PST would end and stop being collected. The jail was completed a couple of years ago…and the PST is still in effect, and the county STILL can’t manage the money it brings in. So voters are encouraged to send a message to the county stewards by voting “NO” on the sales tax question, and tell the county stewards to be a bit more responsible in their expenditures…including telling David Hyde to stop charging people who use force to defend themselves, some in their own home, so lawsuits won’t strip the county coffers dry.
Saline County: Trustee races in some villages
A few trustee races are the highlights of the ballots in Saline County; other than that, there’s not a lot of big draws for the various burgs down south.
The big race is in Galatia, where eight candidates are vying for three seats on the village board. David L. Grant, Rickey Cates, C. Larry Kukla, Cheryl Beers Stallings, Brandon Murphy, Eric D. Davis, Raymond E. Hutchison and William Braden are on the ballot for these positions.
A next big ticket for a little village is the race for mayor in Raleigh. Charles Maloney is facing James W. Agin for that seat. Also in the village of Raleigh, four candidates are seeking three seats on the village board: Vince Talkington, Athel Wiseman, Ron Maloney and Jean Ellis are contending for the three spots.
Townships in Saline County that are seeking challenges for four seats each are Galatia, Raleigh and Harrisburg.
One office in Harrisburg Township that has the dander ruffled on many a voter is that of Township and Road Commissioner.
Democrat Bob Smith is challenged by Republican Bob Holmes. Harrisburg residents are aware that Smith, police chief of the city of Harrisburg, doesn’t live within Harrisburg city limits as state statutes require a police chief to do. Two-year mayor Eric Gregg hasn’t rectified the situation yet, by either changing the regulations as to the statute, or forcing Smith to move into town.
These same residents who take issue with Smith’s residential status have a problem with him holding, and even running for, this public office…and are stating that they’re going to get out in force and ensure that Holmes prevails in this particular race, hoping to send a message to others who are abusing the taxpayers’ dollars with such violations.
A ballot question on ballots for Harrisburg Community Unit School Dist. 3 asks if the district shall be authorized to issue $29,000 general obligation alternate bonds of the district to demolish, reconstruct, renovate, alter, repair and equip all or a portion of the Harrisburg High School buildings and improve the sites thereof, as provided for by the resolution adopted by the Board of Education on September 25, 2012. The bonds are payable from one or more of the following revenue sources: collections distributed to the district from those taxes imposed by Saline County, and general state aid, unless those are insufficient to pay said bonds, in which case property taxes upon all taxable property in the school district without limitation as to rate or amount are authorized to be extended for that purpose.
If the city hadn’t entered into TIF districts—which are coming to a conclusion in April—this question might not even have had to be asked. Voters might hold off approving the sale of bonds, pending what might happen with the TIF district when the agreement ends and taxes get more evenly distributed following its conclusion.
Wabash County: The saga of the Cheeseboy in Bellmont
While there’s not a whole lot of ballot activity in Wabash County, there exists one election that has come to the forefront, once again because of the corruption of the person currently holding the office—that of village president in Bellmont.
The strange little former Wabash Emergency Management Agency second-in-command dude, Colby “Cheeseboy” Rigg, remains village president of Bellmont up until the newly-elected one is seated in May, even though in 2011, Rigg, in a snit of rage, scrawled “I quit!!” on a piece of paper and left it on the desk at city hall. That, unfortunately, wasn’t enough to remove him from office, and so there he is until either Ed Bowman or Larry Sloss prevails in this election.
However, Bellmont won’t be any better off if Bowman is elected: he’s the old guy who put Rigg in place in 2008 with his own resignation after his son, serial killer Greg Bowman, was finally hemmed up on charges of killing a girl in Missouri. Bowman set in motion the factors that got Rigg in office in the first place; then, when Rigg was charged last summer (August 2012) with multiple felony Theft counts from the county’s E-911 agency, it only compounded problems already present. So the common sense candidate is Sloss; but it remains to be seen which way Bellmont voters will go.
The board in Bellmont will be composed of Mike Berberich, Shawn Dorney, Peggy Walling, Shane Vaughan and James Stoneberger, as they are the only ones running, but most are incumbents and have done a fine job in the absence of their errant village president.
Wayne County: Mayoral race highlights county seat town’s ballot
In Fairfield, every four years since 2001, someone has challenged Mayor Mickey Borah’s office, and every four years, he wins by a landslide. That’s likely because the people of Fairfield believe Borah’s doing something right, and in the last couple of years, he’s not only shown this to be the case, but he’s been through some personal ordeals that have proven the mettle of his character as well.
This election year, he’s challenged by Chuck Griswold, a well-known and well-liked Fairfield guy who will no doubt give Borah a run for the money…but odds are still on the incumbent mayor to prevail.
There are four ward races in Fairfield as well: in Ward 1, it’s Ralph Barbre versus Tom Tucker; Ward 2, Jim Griffith versus Clifford Reever; Ward 3, Ron Rush against Steve Robinson and Ward 4, Phillip Williams against David Fletcher.
Capable Fairfield city clerk Tina Hutchcraft faces no opponent in this year’s election.
The races in the rest of Wayne County’s municipalities/villages are a mixed bag. No contenders are running against village presidents in Cisne (Roy Atwood), Golden Gate (Robert Chapman), Johnsonville (Robbie Brashear), Sims (Dava Austin) and Wayne City (Scott Clark). There are no candidates running for village president in the villages of Geff, Keenes or Mt. Erie. In fact, there are no candidates on the ballot at all for Keenes or Mt. Erie, showing again that apathy has taken a firm hold in rural southern Illinois when it comes to public office.
Contested races for trustee will be held in Sims, where five—Stephanie Harris, Michael Elliott, Nicholas Elliott, Donny Robertson and Billie Moyer—are vying for three seats on the village board; and in Wayne City, where six—Robert Jason Anderson, LaDonna McKinney, Benny Garner, Diana Wood, Kimberly Cooper and Timothy B. Piper—are also vying for three.
Township races for boards of trustees are only being held in Elm River, Indian Prairie, Mt. Erie, Orchard and Zif townships.
The Wayne County ballot features the same five names—Shane Kanitz, Randy Hockman, Burl DeWayne Wesner, Joyce M. O’Donnell and William P. Moorman—on those in the far northwestern corner of the county for Xenia Fire Protection District as Clay has on theirs in that district.
White County: Fierce mayor race?
It’s been a somewhat civil contest so far in the city of Carmi where the big ballot draw, as it was four years ago, is again that of mayor.
Incumbent David Port is facing challenges from Bill Mears and Jeff Pollard. However, Port has had a relatively smooth past four years since the mayor before him, Jimmy Gaines, created so much turmoil in the city with his bad habits (not the least of which was issuing derogatory comments about people and entities he didn’t like, from a barstool downtown). Whether Port has been an effective mayor or not is therefore less indicated by what he’s done than by what he hasn’t, so the prevailing sentiment is that he’s probably going to take the nod this election. People enjoy it when there’s an absence of grief and consternation in their city government, and Port has certainly provided that, to his credit.
A big-ticket item in Carmi is also that of city clerk. Four candidates are vying for the position: Harry Fey, Brian K. Allen, Dee Blazier and Irma O’Dell.
Carmi city Aldermen offices up for grabs this election are in Ward 3 (Stephen Winkleman versus Doug Redman) and Ward 4 (Keith Davis versus Leon Groves).
In Crossville, village president Henry Feldman is running unopposed for a second term. However there will be one of four on the ballot that won’t make it to village trustee, as three will be chosen from Konnie R. Harrington, Stephanie Martin, Jeff R. Spencer and Melody Nelson.
No contested races appear for village president on any of the rest of White County’s ballots in the villages of Burnt Prairie (Carroll Dozier); Enfield (Tom Harbour); Mill Shoals (Tim Isaacs); Norris City (Roy Kissell); Phillipstown (Stan Maurer); Springerton (Curtis Rush); and New Haven (Kevin J. Edmonds).
The village of Maunie has no candidates on the ballot for any office (village president, clerk, treasurer and trustees); and, as part of New Haven lies in Gallatin, a White County ballot will be produced that reflects Gallatin’s New Haven ballot and the trustee race there: four-for-three—Amy Lashley, Zella Medlin, Brigitte Browning and Matthew Edmonds.
Township races to be found on White County ballots will be in Mill Shoals, Enfield, Carmi, Indian Creek, Phillips and Emma townships.
The Grayville School District has a selection of three school board representatives from five from the incorporated areas—Robert Armstrong, John Stockton, Stephanie Hatcher, Charles Turner and Chad Alldredge—and two from unincorporated areas, Vanessa Fullop and David Kleinschmidt, on the ballots.
On nearly every ballot
On almost each ballot in each of the previously-mentioned counties will be selections for trustees to certain community college districts.
For Illinois Eastern Community Colleges (Frontier in Fairfield, Olney Central, and Lincoln Trail in Robinson) are William C. Hudson and John D. Brooks. For Southeastern Illinois College (in Harrisburg) are Pat York and Jimmy D. Ellis. For Lakeland Community College (in Mattoon) are David Storm and Bruce Owen. And for Rend Lake Community College (in Ina), it’s Larry A. Manning and the ever-offensive Benton attorney Bryan Drew. Unfortunately, each are “vote for not more than two,” so everyone named will be selected, regardless of how many votes they garner.
The same goes for the largely-unnecessary regional boards of education, which also has trustees, none of which have contested positions in this election, and probably which local citizens/taxpayers need to see about getting their representatives to do away with, as they take up much space and money on this year’s ballots.