It's Time to End One Party Rule in New Trier Township - Don't Forget to Vote Today, April 4th!

For over 100 years, the New Trier Citizens League, an auxiliary arm of New Trier Township government, has decided who will be allowed to run for township trustee. The “approved” slate runs unopposed — and wins. Every time.

But this election cycle a second slate of candidates, best known for their commitment to cutting exorbitant property taxes, has dared challenge the progressive status quo here by getting onto the ballot too. The Independent Party slate - Bob Costello, Kathy Myalls and Stacey Woehrle - are providing New Trier voters in today's Township elections with something they haven’t had in these races in a century: Choice.

And the New Trier elite is panicked. Threatened by these “upstarts,” a group that calls itself Wilmette Friends — which has not registered with Illinois election officials as a political action committee (PAC), though it's acting as one — sprung up to defeat them. Not by challenging the candidates on the issues in the marketplace of ideas, but by declaring that these newcomers have no right to enter the marketplace of ideas.

We’ve seen this before. Wilmette Friends is made up of the same folks who tried to silence Parents of New Trier, the group of hundreds of New Trier parents whose efforts to add intellectual diversity to New Trier High School’s recent Seminar Day on race made national news.

Ironically, there is a strong connection between the Independent Party slate and Parents of New Trier. But it’s not the baseless "dark money" conspiracy theories Wilmette Friends activists have worked hard to advance.

No, the real connection is that when it came to both Parents of New Trier and the Independent Party candidates, the North Shore elite have fought hard to shut out voices and thinking they don’t approve of — not through engagement and debate, but through groundless attacks and fear campaigns.

But, thanks in part to bold local candidates and New Trier parents and taxpayers increasingly willing to challenge the status quo here, intellectual diversity is getting into New Trier Township anyway. It's important to vote today, and to show support for the Independent Party candidates. But whatever the results of today's elections, it's clear the gates to fresh ideas are beginning to open on the North Shore — and that’s a win for all New Trier citizens.

— Betsy Hart, Wilmette

Betsy is a parent of two New Trier students, and was actively involved in the Parents of New Trier effort to add intellectual diversity to New Trier's Seminar Day on race.