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Urbana Dems, the county board has a spot for you
Jun. 16—Ds want you
The Champaign County Board has a vacancy to fill, prompting the local Democratic Party to solicit applications from individuals interested in serving from District 10 in Urbana.
The vacancy was created by board Democrat Chris Stohr's decision to resign after he was appointed to serve on the board of the local sanitary district.
Local party officials have set a July 6 deadline for submission of an application. A link to the application can be found on the party's website.
District 10 is located in east central Urbana. Specifically, party officials said it is "generally bound by Airport Road to the north, County Road 2000 E to the east, Homer Lake Road and Windsor Road to the south, and Cedar Street, Vine Street, and Anderson Court to the west."
Applications will be reviewed by Democratic precinct committee members, and the name of the preferred applicant will be submitted to Jen Locke, who heads the county board.
She, in turn, is expected to ask the full county board to approve the nomination.
The individual who is nominated and confirmed will be required to run for the post in the November 2026 general election. That individual might, if another Democratic chooses to seek the office, be required to run for the party's nomination in the March 2026 primary election.
Campaign calumny
There may be no cryin' in baseball, but there definitely is lyin' in politics.
That's why a recent Cook County jury award of $1.475 million to a defeated Chicago aldermanic candidate is stunning.
A jury ordered the political organizations of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Alderman Lamont Robinson to pay the punitive damages for making defamatory statements about Ebony Lucas, a real-estate lawyer who ran and lost for Chicago City Council.
Lucas charged the pair made repeated false statements about her in campaign mailers and text messages. The effect was a "coordinated smear campaign alleging Lucas had unpaid liens and fines" for business-related misconduct.
Lucas said the jury decision represents a "stand for truth in our elections," expressing gratitude to jurors for "seeing through the falsehoods and delivering justice."
Robinson vowed to appeal, charging the lawsuit was "politically motivated."
Well, of course it was. The lawsuit was about tawdry tactics in an election campaign.
Preckwinkle also promised to appeal and expressed confidence the jury's verdict will be overturned.
Perhaps. But in the meantime, the jury's decision not only raises questions of law, but also questions of political tactic.
The lie is a politician's best friend.
What exactly are candidates for public office supposed to do in a campaign if lying about their opponents is off limits? Perhaps, as an alternative, they could tell lies about themselves by vastly exaggerating their qualifications and abilities.
Blast from past
Anyone remember a guy named Joe Walsh?
No, not the aging rock star or the British soccer player.
The Joe Walsh in question is the former one-term Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives (2010-12) whose incendiary conservative rhetoric foreshadowed his political doom. He was defeated in his bid for re-election by current Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
The former social worker-turned-politician-turned-radio show host later left the GOP to become an independent. Now he says he's a Democrat.
Walsh recently announced he's moving from Illinois to South Carolina and said he may run for the U.S. Senate against GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Given Walsh's history, the Dems may not want him. But what's done is done, at least for now.
Walsh said he's still a conservative but hates President Trump, whom he called a "tyrant," and the Republican Party.
Capitol Hill showdown
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was loaded for bear when he appeared last week before a hostile GOP congressional committee looking into sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants in various cities and states.
The subject of crimes committed by those in the country illegally came up, one involving the death of Katie Abraham in an Urbana car crash.
She was killed in January by a suspected drunken driver illegally in the United States. He was subsequently arrested and faces trial.
Illinois U.S. Rep. Mary Miller attempted to question Pritzker about "rolling out the red carpet" for the many thousands of illegal immigrants in Illinois. But Pritzker ignored her question and launched an obviously pre-planned rhetorical counter-attack.
"I am not going to be lectured to by someone who extolled the virtues of Adolf Hitler," Pritzker said, alluding to Miller's 2021 comments referencing the German dictator's emphasis on presenting propaganda that was embraced by young people.
The hearing turned into a political game of "gotcha," with Pritzker, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz exchanging insults and observations on a variety of subjects with GOP committee members.
Walz was not as well prepared in the sound-bite game as Pritzker, as indicated by an exchange with Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Another Republican asked Pritzker if he had ever used women's bathrooms.
"Not that I recall," he replied.
On the down low
When Gov. J.B. Pritzker runs for president in 2028, there's one study of Illinois' economic health he'll forget to mention.
The personal finance website WalletHub released its list of best and worst state economies.
Illinois ranked 40th for its state economy but dead last in the economic health category.
A Center Square news account said researcher Chip Lupo established three key categories focusing on "economic activity, economic health and innovation potential."
"Then we applied 28 relevant metrics, and those run everything from GDP growth, start-up activity and share of jobs in high-tech industries," said Lupo.
He said, "Illinois ranked 48th in change in non-farm payrolls, 41st in economic activity, and scored poorly for high foreclosure rates and the state's unemployment rate."
Illinois' unemployment rate is 4.8 percent, one of the highest in the country, and is in the top 10 for states with the biggest increases in unemployment claims.
WalletHub said Massachusetts has the best state economy while Iowa has the worst.
"Illinois will under-perform the region and the U.S. in 2025, with gross state product, employment, and income increasing less than elsewhere," the report's summary said.
Lupo said, "the best state economies encourage growth by being friendly to new businesses and investing in new technology that will help the state deal with future challenges."
