Mahomet will hold its annual River Festival and Parade this weekend (August 28-29, 2009). There will be entertainment and activities starting Friday afternoon on Main Street, and the Champaign County Democrats will have a booth along with the Sangamon Valley Alliance. Come, visit and listen to the great lineup of bands that will be playing both Friday and Saturday.

The Parade kicks off at 10:30 am at the Lincoln Trail School lot on the corner of State and Division, and there will be a float for the Democrats and the SVA. Meet up with us after 10 am Saturday and hop on the float for a ride through Mahomet!  The event is well attended and for all you early candidates this is a good time to get in front of the western Champaign County crowd.

The summer is here and parade season marches in with all the fanfare and floats one could ask for. The Champaign County Democrats will march in four parades celebrating Independence Day, 2009. All Democrats need to get their shoes laced and their wave perfected, it’s all in the wrist by the way, and come on out to walk and show your support.

Parade times below are start times; arrive a half hour early to help set up. Wear or display your favorite Democratic (past, present, or future) candidate’s regalia!

GIFFORD: Saturday, June 27, 2:00 pm, south side of town. (DONE)

RANTOUL: Saturday, July 4, 10:00 am, Maple Grove Shopping Center, #22. (DONE)

URBANA: Saturday, July 4, 1:00 pm, Illinois Street & Lincoln Ave, #83. (CANCELLED)

HOMER: POSTPONED to 6:00 pm SUNDAY, July 5th, Grade School on First Street.

Please come out and enjoy! Who can resist showing party unity and strength in what looks to be the beginning of a very interesting primary season.

With several recent news items regarding conflicts between County and Township entities, one wonders if the multilayer nature of Illinois Government is a thing of the past. There is a real need to be cost effective these days, and more than ever the function of a Township, especially an urban one, may be an added burden no longer relevant. Once the only real form of rural representation, most of the work in the township short of the road maintenance may best fall on a more central form, with the opportunity for more uniform coverage.

Recently the conflict was once again seen at the county level when a local Township supervisor, John Jay of Mahomet, who is also a County Board member from District One, had to abstain from a vote at the county level because his township protested the Wind Farm Ordinance. Had Mr. Jay not been in both positions he would have had an opportunity to vote for his District, he chose to be in several places at once and in doing so served none.

The same could be said for a bulk of what happens daily, the filter of controls now steps slowly through these many layers, some with very different mindsets, before the rubber hits the road. Does Newcomb Township need a plan commission? They serve no planning function and only seem to serve to protest County actions. Likewise, does Mahomet Townships plan commissioner, a Realtor and developer, have the best interests of the Township or his income in mind when their function again is only to protest.

Why so much overlap? There seems to be little cohesiveness between townships and their operation, and with plan less plan commissioners and poorly attended township business meetings, with little public access to the information they are acting on, perhaps it is time to pull the strings a little tighter and save some resources everywhere we can.

Please discuss.

Two articles of note came to my attention today: one with which I strongly disagree, and one with which I strongly agree. The one I strongly disagree with was written by my colleagues Brian Gaines and Jim Kuklinski in my parent unit at the University of Illinois, the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. This article, first appearing in the News-Gazette, recommends opposing Senator Mike Frerich’s bill expanding access to absentee voting. The authors claim that such an approach reduces secrecy and increases the likelihood of fraud. Neither claim is supported by the authors with facts, data or other analysis, and neither passes the ‘sniff’ test of common sense. How is it secret currently when primary voters in Illinois publicly state their ballot choice when voting in primaries, in the eyes of election officials and poll watchers? And why would it not be more secret for voters to cast their primary ballots from the privacy of their home? One’s private residence seems like a very secret place to cast a ballot to me, unless fraudulent political machine bosses are planning on invading our homes to watch us complete our election ballots. Or are we afraid of our privacy being violated by our spouses? Our children? Our roommates? Our parents? Our dogs? In all cases, such violations are bothersome, but I’m not sure they would necessarily constitute political problems.

Surprisingly, the article I agree with is an editorial published in the News-Gazette regarding Freedom of Information. When public officials hide behind vague issues of ‘privacy’ when dealing with employment contracts or hiding criminal records of public officials, we have major problems. In my own Newcomb Township, our officials have shown that they wish only to adhere to the narrowest interpretation of our Open Meetings Act by providing the least information to the public that they can. Public officials too often forget that tax dollars are our dollars, and that they very much ‘belong’ to we, the people. Their actions are public actions. Open government is messy, and that is the point. The more public officials know their every action is open to the scrutiny of the public, the more inscrutable their actions are likely to become. I support open government: open records and open meetings so that public officials, metaphorically of course, stand naked before us.

In addition, open access of the ballot to all citizens on demand aptly reinforces this notion of accountability. Hear the word ‘voter fraud’ and know that someone is subtly at work trying to deny citizens access to the polls. And usually that means certain classes and types of citizens. In my mind, we need a democracy that not only talks the talk, but proudly walks the walk out in the sunshine and stands out as a model, rather than standing behind a fearful shroud of secrecy, privacy, and potential for fraud.

Scott Hays

Sangamon Valley Alliance

Senator Arlen Spector made the move to the Democratic party this week, is this a sign of things to come not just nationally but locally? For his own reasons the Senator from Pennsylvania jumped the aisle in Washington, perhaps to survive a primary he thought he could not win, or a realization of the changing demographics in his state or is the digging in of his former party the real cause for such a move? If there is no room in the GOP for anyone who finds Rush and Miss California not their best face forward then it may be time locally to get the doors and minds open and swell the ranks. Are we willing to let them in?

The rural districts in Champaign are changing, the move out of the twin cities was fast and furious until the recent slowdown and our local demographics have changed out in the open land. There is a bigger number of closet Democrats outside of town and the time to focus their attention is ripe. In town there is a contingent of Greens and Independents who could be in our fold with little trouble. The upcoming primary looks to be a time for the Democrats to get names on the ballot in any race available, and give the people on the fence a reason to get out and pull a Democratic ticket, it would be an opportunity to get a head count and see where inroads are being made.

Are there potential party jumpers around you, if we give the undecided a nice place to land then the decision may be easier, if the ground looks to hard maybe not and that can in part explain the growth of third party support. Are we willing to soften up the ground? We will never get folks like Mark Thompson, and we should not try, but can we reach for Joe Average and better our own party at the same time. Will we open the door?

[Editor's Note: This post is unedited. As this site becomes more active (thanks, Ben!) , I will edit less and rely more on our home page disclaimer: Blog posts and comments are solely the opinions of their authors].

Al Klein will serve out the remainder of the unexpired term of Tony Fabri as Chair of the Champaign County Democratic Party. At a well attended central committee meeting on April 22nd , the motion to elect Klein (previously First Vice chair) as Fabri’s successor passed with a majority of the weighted vote.

It then remained to choose a new First Vice Chair. Candidates were Laurel Prussing, Kevin Sandefur, and Eric Thorsland. Mayor Prussing was elected when she received a majority of the weighted vote on the first ballot cast.

Now that the new officers have been elected, a united Democratic party can get down to the business of selecting strong candidates in the 2010 primary and helping them prevail in 2010 General Election.

I’ve seen a lot of questions come through this site about Obama yard signs.  I haven’t been involved in answering or fulfilling those requests, but I’m guessing that most people aren’t finding it easy to get one.  I do believe some Dems had some printed themselves recently (e.g. as fundraiser giveaways), but getting official campaign signs is difficult.  Certainly this is partially due to the fact that we live in a state that will go Obama’s way, so the campaign is putting little effort here (other than mining the deep support here and using it to canvass in neighboring states, call voters, etc.).  But it also brings up the question of whether yard signs are worth the fairly large effort required to print, distribute, and maintain them.  

There’s a post up at fivethirtyeight.com, titled BREAKING: Obama Campaign Organizers Trying To Win Election Instead of Get You Yard Signs, that gets right at the heart of this question.  Are campaign signs worth it?  A lot of people have heard the conventional wisdom that yard signs don’t vote, so don’t work too hard on them.  Yet when an opponent’s signs start blanketing the neighborhood panic can set in with the other campaign: will the average person presume that there’s no support for the opposing side in town?  Or will it lead people to question their intended support?

I don’t think it makes much difference in a presidential race.  Maybe it’s because I’ve lived in Illinois forever, and the fact that in my voting life I don’t think Illinois was ever a swing state, so there’s never much in the way of presidential campaign items around here.  But people tend to know who they’re voting for, and if they don’t, they’re unlikely to choose their presidential vote based on yard signs.

However, I do think they possibly make more difference on local issues.  I’ve personally been responsible for yard signs on more than one campaign.  Especially when it’s a race or an issue that is not well known, then signs can help people figure out who they should vote for because they’ll see a particular side of the issue supported in the yards of their friends.  

But on a national campaign?  I can see where the Obama campaign is coming from.  Sure, they’re loaded and why can’t they just crank them out?  But the distribution and management of yard signs is a big job and takes a lot of person hours.  And they clearly want those hours devoted to something more productive.

What do you think?

By the way, if you want a sign, you can always buy one from the Obama Store, although no guarantees on when it will arrive.

Eric Thorsland is running for one of two seats on the Champaign County Board representing District one. He is funding his campaign with donated scrap metals from many of his supporters, making Eric a recycled candidate who is not the incumbent. Eric is having a big fund drive kick off Monday June 2nd at 7:30am at his farm located at 480 County Road 2500 N. Mahomet Il. You are welcome to come meet Eric and some of his supporters then, as we pile the scrap as high as we can to start of Eric’s fund drive.

Each election year, a lottery is held to determine the order each party’s candidates will be listed on the November ballot. That lottery was held last week, and here in Champaign County the order will be as follows:

1. Democratic
2. Green
3. Republican

That means in every race on the fall ballot, the Democratic candidates will be listed ahead of the Republican (and/or Green Party) candidates. Many campaign watchers believe the candidate listed first on the ballot garners a few extra percentage points due to ballot order. In a close race, that could mean the difference between victory and defeat!

In 2008, local Democrats will have excellent candidates, compelling issues, enthusiastic volunteers, energized voters, and now first-place on the ballot, too!