Douglas Chosen for District 6 - UPDATEx5

[UPDATEx5 The Champaign County Democrats have finally nominated someone to the vacant district 6 seat after a previous kerfuffle about the rules and nomination process (see updates below). This time they have chosen Tracy Douglas. More information on her here. She was the candidate who had not recently lost a primary for the other seat in the same county district (that primary race information here). There was a blurb on the News-Gazette website tonight:

On second try, Dems nominate Douglas for county board seat
In the latest twist in a monthlong drama, Democratic precinct committee members have chosen attorney Tracy Douglas to fill the 22nd seat on the Champaign County Board.

Douglas, a supervising attorney at the University of Illinois College of Law's community preservation clinic, received more votes than Pattsi Petrie and will be nominated for the District 6 seat vacated by Josh Hartke on June 21, board Chair C. Pius Weibel said Sunday.

Full blurb here.]


[UPDATEx4: County Board Chair Weibel has set forth the steps he'd like to see followed for filling the vacancy in District 6. Here's the blurb from today's News-Gazette:

From the eEdition page here.]

[UPDATEx3: Former Board Member Hartke weighed in on the fray over his vacant seat in today's News-Gazette (the article didn't mention whether or not the delay in seating a new member will affect tonight's Nursing Home vote). The title was a better summary of his thoughts than any excerpt I could choose: Ex-county board member on process to replace him: 'Ham-handedly crooked']


[UPDATEx2: There's a disagreement between the County Board chair and the chair of the Democratic Party of Champaign County. From today's News-Gazette:

On Friday, Democratic Board Chairman C. Pius Weibel rejected party members' selection of precinct committeeman Charles Young to fill the vacancy left in District 6 when Josh Hartke resigned April 30, expressing displeasure with the procedures used in the vote. He said he believed that only elected precinct committeemen should get to vote on filling county board vacancies and that their votes should be weighted only by the number of Democratic voters who reside in both their precinct and the county board district whose vacancy is being filled.

Late Tuesday, Champaign County Democratic Party Chairwoman Maryam Ar-Raheem issued a press release disputing Weibel's assertions, pointing to a state statute that allows both appointed and elected committeemen to vote on filling vacancies and asserting that state law does not allow a precinct committeeman's weighted vote to be divided in the manner Wiebel suggested. She said the selection of Young was the fourth county board vacancy to be filled during her tenure as county Democratic Party chairwoman and that the same process was used in all four.

More at the full article and today's Cheat Sheet post on the upcoming vote to sell the Nursing Home here.]


[UPDATE: Not so fast. There may be a re-vote. From the News-Gazette today:

County chairman: Re-do vote to fill vacant board seat
District 6 precinct committeeman Charles Young was selected Thursday night to fill the District 6 county board seat of Josh Hartke, who resigned. Precinct committeemen selected Young in a weighted voting process over two other contenders, Tracy Douglas and current county board member Pattsi Petrie, who lost in her bid for re-election in the March 20 primary.

Maryam Ar-Raheem, chairwoman of the county Democratic Party, notified board Chairman C. Pius Weibel about the selection Friday morning. Several hours later, Weibel expressed displeasure about the procedure used to elect Young because both elected and appointed precinct committee members were permitted to cast votes, and some were allowed to use weighted votes from areas of their precincts that were outside District 6.

"I have consistently believed that the selection of county board candidates should be accomplished by having only the elected precinct committee people nominate the candidates, and by the vote of only elected precinct committee people, with the votes being weighted by the number of Democratic votes in the district that are within their respective precincts," he said in an email to Ar-Raheem.

The disagreement could have changed the outcome (more information Tracy Douglass here and Charles Young at the primary race page here), as shown in this chart that highlights the concerns of some local Democrats (click to enlarge):

This definitely earns readers local political wonk points for the week.]

 From the News-Gazette website last night:

County Democrats choose Young for vacant board seat
Champaign County Democrats have selected a new county board member to fill Josh Hartke's seat.

At a meeting on Thursday night, precinct committeemen from District 6 chose Charles Young to serve. He'll succeed Hartke, who resigned ahead of a move to Colorado.

Maryam Ar-Raheem, chair of the county Democratic party, said Young defeated current board member Pattsi Petrie, who lost in her bid for re-election in the March 20 primary, and Tracy Douglas in the voting.

Ar-Raheem said Young's name will be forwarded to County Board Chairman C. Pius Weibel for ratification by the full board.

More information on Young and Petrie from the recent primary race won by Mike Ingram here.


[Originally posted 5/18/2018 at 6:29am]