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First of all I would like to say that this whole partisan non partisan thing is basically a non issue, the real problem is apathy, there is rarely ever a contested election in Newton city government and very few have any idea what is going on. That being said I would like to point out a few things. It is interesting that the signs that are out say "vote yes to keep city of Newton Government Non-Partisan" while in fact Newton elections have been Partisan for at least 100 years and this would be a change from partisan to non-partisan. Look at who is pushing this,most if not all of the signs that are out are in places directly connected to a current elected city official. In my opinion that I believe I have made a very strong case for below, the real reason for this is simply that the current city council and mayor view the potential increase in interest in city politics as a threat to the current system of the Mayor recruiting who he wants in most cases. 1/1/17 While this will be Dr. Bloomberg's 5th election this will be the first time he has had a opponent. His reaction is that the political system needs changed. (again) From the 12/20/2016 Newton Illinois city council meeting. "Consider and act on Ordinance 16-13 authorizing a referendum on primary elections. Motion was made by Bloomberg, seconded by Brown, to pass Ordinance 16-13 authorizing a referendum on primary elections. Ayes: Reisner, Blake, Bloomberg, Rubsam, Brown and Brooks Nays: None What this is all about is the fact that I submitted election petitions for the 4/4/2017 city election as a "established political party" while the rest of the city council chose to run as independent candidates, a possible defeat of one of the "chosen ones" being unacceptable they decided that the political system was faulty and needed replaced. This is not the first time that the council has reacted to a political challenge by changing the rules, in December 2004 Orville Barber defeated one of the "chosen ones" at the peoples party caucus, the reaction by the council was that the only way this was possible was that there was something wrong with the system so the council by ordinance eliminated the caucus election system and established the primary election system. Now 12 years later Dr. Bloomberg is leading the way to do away with the primary system that ironically he made the motion and voted yes for in 2005 to be replaced with the non partisan system. There is so much hypocrisy here. Newton has had partisan elections for over 100 years, Dr. Bloomberg ran as a partisan under the "Peoples Party" in 2001, 2005, and 2009, in 2013 he ended up running as a independent for the simple reason that he and the rest of the council and mayor missed the filing period for established political parties and had to run as independents, that is a whole nother story detailed here. Now that Dr. Bloomberg is running as a independent he wants to mandate that for everyone. When I first ran for council in 2007, my opponent was Rick Lindemann, he and the rest of the council were all running under "Peoples Party" so I decided to run as a independent (I won) because I did not want to trigger a primary. So now 12 years later the tables are reversed, I am running under a established political party and the rest are all running as independents. In Dr Bloombergs world if someone who he does not approve of wins a election he thinks that there is something wrong with the system and it needs replaced. Larry Short |