Pekin City Council candidates answer questions, tout reputations, at forum
It was held at the Pekin Public Library, and it featured a mix of incumbent council members and new candidates ready to shake things up.
There will be at least one new council member, as Lloyd Orrick chose to not seek re-election. Chris Onken and Dave Nutter's terms are up, and seek re-election against challengers Jim Fletcher, Chris Hogue, Peg Phillips, and Matthew Johnson.
Questions were posed about public safety pensions, the April city council decision to implement a 5% utility tax, and more.
Matthew Johnson ran for city council two years ago and came up short, but he wasn't discouraged. He consistently attends council meetings to voice his opinions and sees several things he'd like to change about how the city is run.
'I don't care for the wasteful spending. I don't like all the fee increases and I certainly do not like the abuse of home rule that happens within the city of Pekin,' he said.
Home rule, which can also be referred to as local control, gives municipal governments the power to adopt any legislation unless it's against state law. In essence, its purpose is basically to allow the local community to solve its own problems.
Chris Hogue is another one of the challengers and is a lifelong Pekin resident. If elected, he wants to bring more transparency to the citizens of Pekin about city council decisions.
'It seems like when you talk to people, they aren't quite on the same page as the direction the city's going, so I just want to be able to have that outlet to talk to people and bring those opinions back to council,' he said.
Jim Fletcher, who owns two businesses in the city and has lived in Pekin his entire life, echoed Hogue's thoughts. He believes the city should be run like a business that works for the people of Pekin.
'I believe we need to have more public input on a lot of the issues that seem to get passed without a lot of the voter's knowledge,' he said.
Dave Nutter has been on the city council for the past six years and said he has tried to make the council more proactive than reactive. He agrees with Hogue and Fletcher, saying there needs to be more transparency from the city to its residents.
'Things that go out on social media are not always factual and that creates rumors which creates other problems. We need to get more of the facts out to make sure people understand why we're doing what we're doing,' he said.
Chris Onken has been serving on the council since January of 2024 when he was appointed to fill Becky Cloyd's vacant seat. This is the first election for the physical education teacher at Pekin High School, and he believes he has brought a 'cool head' to city council.
'I think some of the decisions we've made as a council have been tough ones, but I feel most of the citizens are pleased with what we had to do,' he said.
Election Day is April 1. The three candidates with the most votes will be elected.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he will sign executive order to eliminate mail-in ballots, voting machines
President Donald Trump said he plans to sign an executive order to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump announced the news in aTruth Social post Monday morning, writing in part "I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly "Inaccurate," Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election. RELATED:Trump's lawyers argue he had good basis to question 2020 election results "WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE," Trump added. Mail-in ballots provide broader access to voting for constituents who are unable to vote in person, including older and disabled individuals, with some Democrats telling Newsweek that ending this voting process would affect a vast number of voters. Newsweek reported that Trump's action through an executive order to prohibit mail-in ballots and voting machines may result in legal challenges by states, who have the constitutional authority to determine how they administer federal elections, although Congress can establish rules through law. No evidence of voter fraud found despite Trump claims The backstory According to a U.S. Election Assistancereport, approximately 30.3% of ballots cast in the 2024 election were submitted by mail, which was lower than the record 43% of mail-in ballots turned in during the height of the pandemic in 2021. On June 13, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's plans to institute parts of his sweeping March 25 executive order in March to overhaul federal elections, which included requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and banning states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day,Reuters reported. RELATED:Trump Georgia election interference case: Some charges dismissed For years,President Donald Trump has falsely claimed that he, not Joe Biden, won the 2020 presidential election and has pushed Republicans to overhaul the nation's voting system. In 2022, then-Attorney General William Barr declared the Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents worked to follow up specific complaints and information they've received, but "to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election." Reuters noted that Trump also voted by mail in previous elections and encouraged his supporters to do the same in the 2024 election. The Source Information for this story was provided by a Truth Social post from Trump, Reuters, Newsweek, and the Associated Press. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Zelenskyy's White House re-do
Hello!Rebecca Morin Erin is forecast to steer clearof the mainland United States. I'm thinking of all those who are affected in the Caribbean, such as those in Puerto Rico. Zelenskyy back at the White House Now, it's Ukraine's turn. President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon is meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a potential peace deal with Russia, just days after Trump held an hourslong meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Before the Washington meetings, Trump railed at critics of his recent summit with Putin, where he shifted his position on a Ukraine ceasefire to align with that of the Russian president. He also put the onus on Zelenskyy to end Russia's assault on his country and ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine. Follow the latest updates from Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy. Don't forget about Europe: Trump is also set to meet with European leaders, who are rallying behind Zelenskyy and hope to move Trump away from Putin's conditions for a peace deal. European leaders also participated Sunday in an emergency virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, the group of countries that have offered to provide security guarantees to Ukraine after the war. See which European leaders will meet with Trump. Trump-Putin's meeting: The red carpets were rolled out. The two leaders shook hands. A roughly three-hour long meeting was had. And still, no peace deal. Trump and Putin held a roughly three hour long summit in Alaska, where the two did not come to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Key takeaways from the Trump-Putin summit. Documents left behind: Watch where you print. Government documents with details about meeting schedules and seating charts, as well as an extravagant menu and reminder to pronounce Putin's name "POO-tihn," were accidentally left in a hotel printer in Alaska amid Trump's meeting with the Russian leader. The documents with State Department markings, reported by NPR, were discovered in the printer in an Anchorage hotel around 9 a.m., hours before Trump's summit with Putin at a nearby military base. See what the documents said. A politics pit stop No more mail-in voting? Trump on Monday said he would sign an executive order to abolish mail-in voting, a move he said Putin supported. Mailing ballots is a popular option for voters to avoid waiting in line at polling places on Election Day. Election-security officials say voting has never been more secure and that the president has no role overseeing elections. But Trump has long railed against mail-in voting as vulnerable to fraud – despite election experts, including those in his first administration, who said mail-in voting is secure. What to know about Trump's plan. Texas standoff over Texas, we're heading home. Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives returned to Austin Monday morning after leaving the state two weeks ago in protest of a Republican plan to re-draw congressional maps to help the party gain seats in 2026. The protest temporarily blocked House Republicans from having a quorum to move the redistricting plan forward and drew national attention to Trump's effort to avoid losing the Republican majority in Congress next year. Republicans adjourned its first special session in the state House on Thursday. Democrats refused to return to the state until after that first special session. California's plans to redraw its state congressional maps also prompted Texas Democrats' return. Got a burning question, or comment, for On Politics?You can submit them here or send me an email atrdmorin@
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Angry Trump Accidentally Blurts Out Unnerving New Plot to Rig Midterms
President Donald Trump raged at Democrats Monday for supposedly cheating in elections in a long and unhinged Truth Social rant—and buried in his tirade is a clear indication of how he hopes to corrupt the 2026 midterm elections at a time when his agenda is nose-diving in polls. In his screed, Trump rehashed his familiar lies about how mail balloting is riddled with fraud, and promised to lead a new 'movement' to abolish it. But then he added this: WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections. Remember, the States are merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. Trump already unveiled a similar executive order in March designed to change election rules. It would have barred states from accepting ballots mailed on time but that arrive after Election Day and forced state officials to require documented proof of citizenship for everyone who registers to vote in federal elections. Such changes would have disenfranchised large numbers of voters. Two federal judges blocked it this spring after a coalition of states sued, the plaintiffs successfully arguing that it usurped their authority to set election rules. The administration is appealing. Trump appears prepared to have a second run at such an executive order. But what's critical about Monday's post is he connected this scheme directly to the midterms, inadvertently revealing the real aim behind it. Trump's new rant says he's going to 'lead a movement to get rid of' mail balloting, then later says this 'movement' will begin with his new executive order—a strong indication he will try to ban vote-by-mail by executive order. Voting rights advocates have long expected him to attempt something like this, perhaps by arguing that vote-by-mail is a threat to national security. That's because Trump's argument for his previous executive order failed in the courts after judges affirmed that the Constitution authorizes states to set the 'time, place and manner' of elections. Now Trump might try something new. 'It sounds like he will try to ban all mail-in balloting through executive order, and he's going to have to find some other rationale for such a sweeping presidential action,' said Pooja Chaudhuri, a lawyer at Democracy Defenders Fund, which represented other clients challenging the March executive order. For instance, Trump might argue that 'mail-in ballots are so fraudulent that they undermine the institutions of this country,' Chaudhuri continued, and that 'the president must get involved. This would represent an enormous abuse of power.' There is overwhelming evidence that any fraud in mail balloting is limited to nonexistent. Indeed, it's now beyond obvious that the pretext is the thing to watch. Trump is manufacturing a fake justification for nixing vote-by-mail because he believes (probably wrongly, but never mind that) doing so will help Republicans in the midterms. That he openly linked his announcement to the 2026 elections shows he isn't even bothering to hide the scam any longer. 'If they are going to try to stand for election integrity, it hurts them to point out that this is directly related to the 2026 elections,' said Greta Bedekovics, associate director of democracy at the Center for American Progress. 'It exposes that this is not about election integrity and national security, it's about election rigging.' It's no accident that this comes even as Trump is expanding the use of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and other cities, based—again—on a manufactured pretext, this time about crime. At bottom, Trump's rant clearly signals his intent to use presidential power in every conceivable way he can to swing the midterm elections against Democrats. This could include ramped-up military maneuvers in Democratic strongholds or in swing areas—whether to intimate voters or to fabricate a crisis atmosphere meant to help Republicans—as well as whatever limits on voting he can impose, all justified with pretexts that he invents out of nothing. We all need to be ready for this. Fortuitously, Trump has told us himself exactly what he intends to do.
