County Board Changing More and More

[UPDATE: Today on the front page of the News-Gazette the Democratic party's infighting over this District 6 seat was laid out. This included the leadership struggles revealed between the outgoing Chairman of the County Board and the county party chairwoman (more on that here). They're revisiting accusations of racism and corruption within the party as we approach the midterm elections in a county that's critical to getting out the vote for candidates up and down the ticket. Volunteers are already braving hours in the heat to knock on doors for their favorite candidates hoping to help get more folks to the polls this November.

Champaign Dems pick man passed over for District 6 seat as November candidate
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On Monday, Douglas said it came as “a little bit of a surprise” to learn that the county’s Democratic precinct committeemen picked Young to represent the party on Nov. 6.

Douglas hoped to be considered as a candidate for the seat beyond Nov. 30 but said she didn’t know the slating meeting took place last month.

It’s local Democrats’ second show of support this summer for Young, a retired education historian at the University of Illinois.

He was led to believe he was in line to take Hartke’s seat after precinct committeemen chose him in a vote on May 17. But a few days later, Democratic county board Chairman C. Pius Weibel announced he wouldn’t recognize the selection, pointing out that the short notice given for that meeting — 48 hours — violated the bylaws of the county party’s central committee and left several of the elected precinct committee members unable to attend.

That led Maryam Ar-Raheem, chairwoman of the county Democratic Party, to express in a letter her frustration over what she called Weibel’s repeated attempts to dictate how she performs her duties.

Young sat out the June 10 re-vote that went Douglas’ way. The night she was seated, he had strong words for Weibel “and his sneaky Democratic colleagues and friends,” saying: “Your political process of voting with the new female candidate that you always wanted is illegal, unconstitutional, a scam, a hoax and a dishonor to the entire” party.

More at the full article here. So far the Democratic side of the ballot for the two District 6 seats appear to be Mike Ingram (running for Pattsi Petrie's current seat after he won the primary against her) and Charles Young (running for Josh Hartke's old seat, currently held by Tracy Douglas appointed to finish his term after he resigned and moved from the area). On the Republican side: Richard J. Montgomery will be running against Mike Ingram, and a yet to be determined party nominee will be soon selected to go up against Charles Young.]

Tom Kacich noted today that the County Board is changing more dramatically than simply embracing an County Executive form of government. The County Board that will institute this new form of government will be overwhelmingly new due to the many seats changed recently. From the News-Gazette today:

Tom Kacich | Turnover plaguing Champaign County Board
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Since the current board was given the oath of office in December 2016, nine of its 22 members have resigned.

The latest, in the last month, are Democrats Robert King and Shana Jo Crews and Republican Brooks Marsh. All three have moved or are in the process of moving out of the county.

They join Democrats Chris Alix, Josh Hartke, Matt Hiser and Republicans Gary Maxwell, Diane Michaels and John Jay, who have left the board for various reasons.

Michaels, for example, moved from the county board to become county auditor.

Marsh had replaced Jay, who resigned for health reasons in February 2017, so County Board District 1 has seen a lot of turnover in the last two years.

And it will continue with at least four more members — Democrats C. Pius Weibel and Pattsi Petrie and Republicans Jack Anderson and Max Mitchell — leaving the county board after the November general election...

That's happening at the same time the county government switches to a new structure with a newly elected, powerful county executive taking over in December. The executive, a new office created by voters in 2016, will be either Republican Gordy Hulten or Democrat Darlene Kloeppel.

More at the full article including concerns by the outgoing Democratic Chair, C. Pius Wiebel about the loss of institutional knowledge that could make navigating these changes even more difficult. Speaking of that dramatic turnover, we will be updating the information on County Board and office seats, elections, and candidates as we can. The latest information is on the right hand side for each district (under the "Members" menu on mobile) including tools, links and maps to see who represents you and your district. The County Executive and other County Office races appear pretty well set, but we'll add more information such as forum links and candidate questionnaire responses.

Check out the Champaign County Voter Alliance's Candidate Guide for even more races and information on Champaign County ballots!


[Updated. Originally posted 8/5/2018 at 1:06pm.]