County Changes

I've been updating the County Board and Offices pages with all of the many changes happening due to the recent election. The first issue of contention was for the County Board chair which fell towards a bipartisan result in spite of the overwhelming "blue wave" in the County:

Newly sworn-in Champaign County Board elects first Latino chairman
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At its organizational meeting Monday night, Democrats Giraldo Rosales, Lorraine Cowart and Charles Young joined all nine board Republicans to elect Rosales to lead the board over the next two years.

The other 10 Democrats all voted for Kyle Patterson.

Rosales, who served as vice chairman under the recently retired C. Pius Weibel, made county history, becoming the first Latino county board chair. Republican Jim Goss said Rosales was a solid choice.

"We thought he was a good choice because we thought he could be bipartisan. That's got to be important," Goss said. "He also had more experience."

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It took two votes to elect a vice chairman. Following an initial vote that was split among Democrats Steve Summers and Cowart and Republican Goss, Summers withdrew his name for the second ballot.

This time, Cowart prevailed over Goss, 13-9.

More details and upcoming issues at the full article here. From what I've seen of the arguments so far there's a dispute among Democrats on whether this attempt at bipartisan pragmatism truly reflects the wishes of the voters who came out overwhelmingly for Democrats who now sided overwhelmingly with Republicans on the chairs and direction. In the end the chair decision may not be as important as the victory in the new County Executive position which was expected to be a Republican veto over the Democratic party controlled County Board.

Tom Kacich | County-exec race result throws wrench in GOP's plan
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That was the great irony of this election season. The county executive was the concoction of groups usually dedicated to small government: the Champaign County Republican Party and two of its strongest allies, the Champaign County Farm Bureau and the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce.

They were the groups that announced the county-executive scheme in the summer of 2016, got it on the November ballot and helped pass it over the mostly muted opposition of local Democrats. The proposal was approved by 373 votes, 50.26 percent to 49.74 percent. Another referendum question pushed by the Democrats — for a voter-elected county board chairman — also won, but the county-executive proposal carried precedence.

And this year, when the two parties chose their candidates for county executive — Kloeppel for the Democrats and Gordy Hulten for the Republicans — the farm bureau and chamber of commerce quickly endorsed Hulten. The farm bureau even hosted a series of town-hall meetings with Hulten — but not Kloeppel — to explain the need for the new position. And the two groups gave a total of $20,000 to Hulten's campaign committee.

But when the votes were counted, Hulten's bid was swamped by the Donald Trump-inspired tidal wave of votes for Democrats. Kloeppel, who ran an energetic but sparsely funded campaign, won by more than 4,500 votes.

Up to that point, everything had gone according to the plan of the Republicans and their allies. But it's Kloeppel who will be sworn in on Dec. 3 as the first-ever county executive for Champaign County and only the second such officeholder in the state.

Full article here. Other County offices also went to the Democrats this year in a rout. A quick overview is available here in a recent editorial.