County Board Democrats Infighting

[UPDATE: I was waiting for the video of the meeting to be posted on the County Clerk's YouTube channel before posting more on this, but that will be delayed for a bit. From the County Clerk's facebook response on the hold up:

In a few weeks. Our staff person who encodes the video is on vacation and when he scheduled it, we assumed (based on the posted agenda) that there would be very little excitement at the Board meeting and therefore the delay in posting the video would be acceptable. 

So, I'll have a post up shortly after then with all the fireworks and less exciting bits.]

I wasn't able to attend the last County Board meeting to have a front row seat to the fireworks this month. I'll have more about it when the streaming video is up on the County Clerk YouTube channel. In the mean time, the News-Gazette had details on the drama that unfolded over the District 6 vacancy appointment. More from the past Cheat Sheet post (and five updates) here. From the N-G Friday:

Shunned county board pick: 'This is all about race and gender'
On the night that attorney Tracy Douglas fulfilled a dream by being sworn in as the newest member of the Champaign County Board from District 6, rival Charles Young stole the show with a blistering attack against fellow Democrats.

Young, a retired education historian at the University of Illinois, thought he had possession of the county board seat once held by Democrat Josh Hartke following a vote by precinct committeemen on May 17.

But after county board Chairman C. Pius Weibel cried foul, expressing concerns over some irregularities in that meeting, including the length of time given for notification and the alleged counting of votes representing areas not part of the district, Democratic Party leaders ordered a do-over.

"According to central committee rules, notification is supposed to be five days," Weibel said. "Only two days were given."

When the precinct committeemen assembled for the re-vote on June 10, it was Douglas, not Young, who emerged victorious...

Following the meeting, Young told The News-Gazette he intends to run for the District 6 county board seat in an upcoming election.

"It has been very, very bad to go through this," Young said. "To see this happen has been devastating as an African-American. People don't know our feeling until you are in our skin."

More at the full article here.

Originally posted 6/24/2018 at 5:05pm.