Kudos to the League of Women Voters for hosting the D113 Debates this afternoon - it was quite well attended, and I always learn something and meet someone new at these events. This afternoon I learned about confusion when I met a very nice woman who asked me why I wasn’t on ”The Slate” and ” how come the caucus picked the people on the Slate, and not [me]”?
I told her that ”The Slate” wasn’t the same as the caucus. It was a few candidates who got together and chose to run together, and that the caucus didn’t endorse anyone during this election cycle. The lady was taken aback. She said that she was confused, and thanked me for clarifying the issue and she also had the thought that others may be confused as well.
So I promised her I’d write an article about it, and here we are now....
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As a bit of history, all of the candidates running for the D113 School Board were invited by the Caucus to present and engage in a Q&A session. At that time, David Small had indicated that he was not going to run, and asked to make a short presentation to the Caucus - he made the claim that his presentation wouldn’t present any issues precisely because he wasn’t running for re-election.
The Caucus turned down his request.
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Sometime thereafter, Mr. Small chose to run for re-election, but the time for meeting with the Caucus had passed.
The Caucus held their deliberations, and ultimately chose not to endorse anyone. That a previous Caucus comprised of some different individuals endorsed Mr. Small during a previous election cycle is irrelevant - he didn’t interview before this most recent caucus, and he also did not receive their endorsement. None of the current candidates did.
At some point in time (I don’t know precisely when), several candidates chose to run together as a ”Slate” of candidates. Again, totally their choice, I don’t know what their motives were, and their selection criteria for choosing other members of “The Slate” is entirely their own. Again, this was nothing to do with this most recent Caucus - just a bunch of people getting together and deciding to call themselves ”The Slate”.
They hope you’ll vote en masse for them so they can control the D113 Board. I believe that’d be a big mistake, and humbly ask for your vote.
Thank you...
- --David S. Greenberg
