Candidates for Office in Champaign County

Democrats run for every or nearly every office open in each election. In Illinois, county and state officials are elected with the federal officials in the fall every two years. Municipal and school board elections are held in the spring. The next election is the General Election on November 4, 2008. If you are willing to help candidates with any of these races, contact the campaign directly, or please let us know using our volunteer form. You can also check your voting registration status at the county clerk’s website.

United States Congress

Steve Cox, Representative, 15th District

Steve CoxSteve Cox was born June 26, 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee—the second son of Margaret and Jim Cox. Cox’s distinguished career with the U. S. State Department began in 1964 with the humble position of clerk. Both his work and his schooling at George Washington University abruptly halted when he heeded the call of the military draft to serve in the U. S. Army from January 1967 to January 1969. His service included a year in Vietnam, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star medal for meritorious service. With his honorable discharge from military service, he resumed his career with the State Department. August 1971 Cox joined a restaurant development business in which his father was a partner. He trained as an operations manager and later became a construction coordinator. Cox completed an Associate of Arts degree program at Spartanburg Methodist College May 1980. He returned to federal service with the State Department December 1980 as a Passport Examiner. He became a Computer Equipment Analyst March 1983 and a Computer Specialist (Database Manager/Administrator) November 2000. When he retired in August 2003, his job title was Information Technology Specialist, responsible for managing quality assurance and monitoring data submissions for the Records Services Division with its links to domestic regional agencies and processing centers stateside and over a hundred consular posts worldwide. His work garnered many outstanding performance awards, including the Meritorious Honor Award (1998), the Superior Honor Award (2003), and the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award signed by Colin Powell (2003). Following retirement in 2003, Cox and his wife, Nancy, moved from the Washington, D. C. area back to Nancy’s hometown of Urbana, Illinois. Since then, Cox has been involved as a volunteer in service organizations such as a Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and Meals on Wheels, as well as serving as an elder at McKinley Memorial Presbyterian Church. Although Cox was prohibited from being politically active when he was a federal employee, since retiring he has called, e-mailed and visited congressional offices in Washington, D. C., to express his opposition to the course our government is following on the war in Iraq. He is committed to making positive changes in Congress and our government.

Illinois State Legislature

Naomi Jakobsson, Representative, 103rd District

Naomi JakobssonNaomi Jakobsson was elected to the General Assembly in the fall of 2002 to represent the 103rd Representative District. She was re-elected to the General Assembly in the fall of 2004 and 2006. She formerly served as Champaign County Recorder for 12 years, Interim Director of Domestic Violence Shelter, and the Executive Director of the University YWCA. Naomi received a BA in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1977 and a MA in Teaching English as a Second Language in 1979 from UIUC. Naomi taught English as a Second Language in the Urbana Schools and also taught at the Intensive English Institute at UIUC. Naomi and her husband Eric have been active in adoptive services and parent support groups through the adoption of six of their eight children. They have eleven grandchildren. Naomi’s Legislative assignments are: Adoption Reform; Appropriations-Elementary and Secondary Education; Appropriations-Higher Education; Higher Education,Vice-Chair; and Human Services, Chairman.

County-wide Offices

The Democrats have a full slate of candidates for Champaign County’s county-wide offices. The group includes established incumbents as well as newcomers. Each of these candidates will face Republican opponents in the Fall 2008 election, so if you can spare an hour to help turn out Democrats, please let us know.

Tony Fabri, Auditor

Julia R. Rietz, State’s Attorney

Julia RietzJulia Rietz was elected Champaign County State’s Attorney by an overwhelming margin in November, 2004. A 1993 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, she began her legal career as a prosecutor in the State’s Attorney’s Office, prosecuting cases ranging from traffic to homicides, and focusing on child abuse and neglect. From 1999 through 2004, Julia was in private practice as a partner at Beckett & Webber in Urbana, focusing on family law. Among her accomplishments as Champaign County State’s Attorney, Julia has created processes within the State’s Attorney’s Office to decrease the backlog in criminal cases and ensure that decisions are made with a focus on justice, helped create the continuous jury term process, created the Delinquent Court Cost Recovery program which is on track to bring in $100,000 in revenue to the county in its first year, made innovative use of state forfeiture statutes to forfeit houses and property from area drug dealers, spoken and taught at each of our area high schools, Parkland, and the U of I about the justice system, led the effort behind the successful collaboration between the Children’s Advocacy Center (of which she is the Board Chair) and the Champaign Urbana Public Health District, and personally prosecuted major felony cases involving child victims. Julia lives in Champaign with her husband, Al Johnston, a 20 year veteran of the Urbana Police Department, and their children, Alice and Rachel. She is proud to have brought respect and integrity back to the State’s Attorney’s Office, and looks forward to continuing to serve Champaign County.

Kimberly Hooper, Clerk of the Circuit Court

  • campaign contact: 1907 Juniper, Mahomet, 714-1089
  • campaign email:

Danis Pelmore, Recorder of Deeds

  • campaign contact: 304 Foxwell Ct., Champaign, 202-1077

Mark Medlyn, Coroner

I have retired from the Champaign Police Department where I served for 29 years.  I currently am the Vice President for Sales and Marketing for Somerset grips which makes gun grips for Pistols.     I am a 1977 graduate of Indiana University with a BA in  Police Administration.  I am currently working on my Masters through Eastern ILL University in Education Technology.   I am also an adjucent faculty member at Parkland College.  I have written a text book on the Illinois Vehicle Code that is use throughout the community college system in the State of Illinois. I am the father of three children, Zachariah, Jeremiah and Elijah.  My wife, Debra Shelton Medlyn is an instructor at the University of Illinois Child Development lab. I have been activing in Scouting in the Champaign Urbana area for the past 15 years.  

My goal in this campaign is to help allieviate some of the costs of running the office by locating other revenue streams so that the tax payers do not have the added burden unique to Champaign County, of having to investigate all deaths that occur in the County even when the incident that caused the victim to die, may have occurred in another county.  At a time that revenue for the county is shrinking and the demands of other agencies are putting pressure on the revenue for the county, it is incumbent that we locate and utalize other revenue streams to help with the budget demands.

  • campaign contact: 4007 Crail Rd, Champaign, 359-8971
  • campaign email: mcm749@msn.com

Champaign County Board

Scott Hays, District 1 (vote for two)

Scott HaysScott Hays is running for Champaign County Board to present District 1 voters with “a new choice and a new voice.” On casting his ballot during February’s Democratic primary, Scott realized that there were few Democratic candidates on his rural Newcomb Township ballot. The realization that the Republican incumbents would run unopposed in the Fall offended Scott’s sense of what it means to live in a democracy and what it means for elected officials to be accountable to the people who put them there. Scott felt that somebody should do something, and ultimately decided that he should be that somebody. Scott realizes that this district has had long-standing Republican representation on County Board and he looks forward to the challenge this presents.

Scott believes that if government provides a good, a benefit, or a service to one, it should make that good, benefit or service available to all. Scott believes that County Government should assure that county services are equitably provided to all citizens. This includes support in principle for the Champaign County Nursing Home, an adequate jail facility, roads that accommodate our growing transportation needs, including both farm transportation and accommodating a growing number of cyclists, and assuring that the County’s needs for public health, police protection, and fire protection are met, particularly in rural areas.

An avid outdoor enthusiast, Scott believes that we should all act as stewards of our natural resources, guaranteeing that our land, our water and our air are protected for future generations. Scott supports carefully managed land regulation including the current effort to create a Land Resource Management Plan for Champaign County. Scott will support efforts to make county facilities more green, to promote recycling throughout the county, and to make our parks and recreational areas open and accessible to all.

Scott holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and works at the Center for Prevention Research and Development, part of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the U of I. He has spent the past twenty years researching and teaching American government, particularly state and local politics and policy. He most recently served as volunteer President of the C-U Smokefree Alliance, which successfully passed local ordinances in Champaign and Urbana creating smokefree public places in both cities.

Scott lives northeast of Mahomet on 2 and a half acres along the beautiful Sangamon River. He is married to Carol, a Strategic Planning Consultant for states and communities across the country. He is the father of two daughters, Alex and Abbey who attend Mahomet-Seymour schools and he is an active member of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Urbana.

Scott considers it his honor to seek your support for his quixotic quest to represent District 1 on Champaign County Board.

Eric Thorsland, District 1 (vote for two)

Eric Thorsland of rural Newcomb Township is running for County Board District 1. A technician, mechanic, and farmer employed at the U of I Nuclear Physics Department and Co-owner of an organic fruit and vegetable farm with his wife Lisa, Eric has a strong base in Land use issues and smart development. Currently a sitting member of the Counties Zoning Board of Appeals Eric sees on a daily basis the blending of our counties residential and agricultural areas and would like to see the agricultural heritage of district 1 continue to be strong. Growth can be managed intelligently with limited impact and with regard to every ones personal property rights without the loss of the wonder full landscapes we enjoy in the northwest areas of the county. A firm believer in sustainability Eric will be funding his campaign with recycled metals and would happily pick up any donated recyclable items.

Margaret Wright, District 3 (vote for one)

Like you, Margaret Wright loves Champaign! She relocated to Southwest Champaign County several years ago when her husband accepted an academic position at the University of Illinois.  She finds the people and the way of life here extraordinary and is running for office to “give back to Champaign, because it’s been so good to me.” Her mission is to help maintain the County’s small town atmosphere, while continuing to offer its citizens big city services and accommodations.  Margaret believes sustaining the quality of life of Champaign County can be accomplished through thoughtful and sensible planning and development.  Her campaign will focus on a variety of issues of concern facing District 3, including the County nursing home, mass transit, a referendum on county sales tax, and land use and zoning issues.  Margaret is a 1978 graduate of Pepperdine University School of Law. Following graduation from Pepperdine, she attended New York University School of Law and received an advance degree in corporate and securities law. She worked in Washington, D.C. for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and has taught securities regulation at the University of Arkansas School of Law together with Business Law at the Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.  She currently works for the law firm of Robert Dodd & Associates, LLC where she is practicing what she likes best—business law—and has been part of the firm’s development of a concentration in renewable energy including ethanol and biodiesel. The firm has a long history of representing agricultural cooperatives, farmers and other rural concerns, which blends well with emerging interest in alternative energy.  In addition to Illinois, she is a member of the bars of California and the District of Columbia and also served as an officer in the United States Naval Reserve in the Judge Advocate General Corps.

 

Carol C. Ammons, District 5 (vote for two)

Lloyd Carter Jr., District 5 (vote for two)

  • campaign contact: 810 W. Fairview, Urbana, 344-3305

Giraldo Rosales, District 6 (4-year seat)

Giraldo RosalesAfter graduating from the U of I Rosales went on to teach Bilingual education in some of Chicago’s most culturally congested neighborhoods, Humboldt Park. Rosales stayed in the Chicago school system for 11 years before returning to the U of I for graduate school and taking an administrative position. In 2000, Rosales became the Vice Chair of the Human Relations Commission, a committee designed to examine race relations in the City of Champaign. At the time Rosales served on the city’s Human Relations Commission he was the Director of the Latino Cultural Center on the University of Illinois campus, a position held since 1991. In 2003, when there was an opening at the Champaign City Council, Rosales decided to run. Rosales became the first Latino ever elected to political office in the City of Champaign, and the first elected Latino official in Downstate Illinois. While seated on Council, Rosales was named Assistant Dean of Student Services at UIUC, a position he currently holds. Along with being a member in Rotary, Rosales is actively involved in the NAACP, the Urban League, the YMCA, the Independent Media Center, and the National Association of Latino Elected Officials. Rosales is a Commissioner for the Champaign-Urbana Joint Telecommunications Commission, is a Democratic Precinct Committeeman/District 11 and an Executive Committeeman for the Champaign County Democrats (Vice Chair of Diversity). Rosales sits on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Champaign County; an organization that funds community groups, Board of Directors for The McKinley Foundation, as well as being elected to the Board of Directors for WEFT (community radio). Having enjoyed his tenure as a Champaign City Council member at-large, Rosales now looks forward to working on issues that will make a greater impact on a larger number of constituents county-wide.

“The County Board is a natural step toward continuing my many years in public and political service . I’d like to continue that stride by being afforded the opportunity to work closely with other Board members, keeping Champaign County moving forward in the positive direction it continuously strives for.”

Michael Richards, District 6 (unexpired 2-year seat)

C. Pius Weibel, District 7 (vote for two)

Janet Anderson, District 7 (vote for two)

Janet AndersonAn incumbent from District 7, Janet Anderson has been a resident of the County since 1957. She was first elected to the County Board in 2000 and re-elected in 2002 and 2004. Her interest in serving county government arose from being a longtime member and past president of the League of Women Voters and from working actively with Friends of Public Health to pass a referendum creating the County Board of Health. Jan serves as Chair of the Justice/Social Services Committee which relates to the Courts, the Jail and Youth Detention Center, Head Start, Animal Control, County Public Health and Mental Health Boards, and is the parent body for the Champaign County Nursing Home. She served a three-year term on the Head Start Policy Council and has been a county representative to the Mental Health Board since 2001. Jan is also a member of the Environmental and Land Use Committee and has spoken out for preserving prime farmland and natural areas. Jan actively supported the referendum that provided for the new Champaign County Nursing Home, and supported the operational audit that has helped the nursing home move toward financial stability while retaining its quality of care. As a retired RN and as one of only two health-care professionals serving on the County Board, she provides a perspective that is helpful in carrying out the above responsibilities. Jan is proud of the changes that have been achieved by the Democratic majority such as passing a living wage, making changes to remove discrimination in the county personnel policy, working to have minority and women owned firms considered in county projects, and making quality appointments to such Boards as C-U Mass Transit, CC Forest Preserve, CC Public Health, and CC Mental Health. Jan would welcome the opportunity to continue serving Champaign County for another term.

  • campaign contact: 1911 McDonald Dr., Champaign, 356-2433
  • campaign email: jaba@insightbb.com

Samuel J. Smucker, District 8

Samuel Smucker Samuel Jay Smucker is running for the Champaign County Board because he believes that change begins in our own backyard. He wants to create a county that serves as an example for sustainable development and the reduction of waste and pollution. Sam was born, raised, and educated in Illinois. He attended high school in Edwardsville and earned a B.A from Knox College in Galesburg and an M.A. at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sam first became active in politics in the movement against war in Central America and against Apartheid in South Africa during the 1980’s.

Brendan M. McGinty, District 9

Brendan McGintyBrendan M. McGinty was elected to the Champaign County Board in November 2004. Currently, he is Chair of the Finance Committee, serves on the Policy, Personnel, and Appointments Committee, serves on the Labor Subcommittee, and is the co-author of the Champaign County Strategic Plan. Brendan previously served on the Environment and Land Use Committee for the County, was Chair of the Historic Preservation Steering Commitee for the City of Urbana, was a Plan Commissioner for the City of Urbana, and has helped many local, regional, and statewide Democratic candidates and campaigns. Brendan holds a B.A. in liberal arts and sciences from the University of Illinois, an A.S. in elementary education from Parkland College, and attended Urbana High School. He lives in Urbana with his wife, children’s author Alice B. McGinty and son Zach, a sophomore at Urbana High. His oldest son, Jake, is spending a year in Japan before returning to attend the University of Illinois.

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