House of the rising Moonglum

Well the election is almost upon us, and it will be an exciting one! So, who to vote for, who to vote for? Well there is certainly a lot of info out there at this point, so here you go:

Mayor

This one isn’t going to be much of a fight, but it is worth know who is running besides Daley. One person is Walls. He looks interesting, but he was a product of Harold Washington, and I’m not sure that is a good thing. Brown the other contender also has some track record that you can look at, but it is unclear how good a job she did as Circuit Court Clerk. Daley is going to win, but it might be nice to make it look like he had to work at it.

Clerk

I don’t know much about this position, but both the Trib and the Sun-Times endorse del Valle, the appointee incumbent. Most importantly he refused to accept campaign contributions from city vendors or employees. Now that I can get behind. The other runners up are “Jose Cerda III, a former policy adviser to Daley, and businesswoman Diane Jones.”

Alderman

The real question is who do you want running against Moore in the runoff. The Sun-Times endorsed Moore and the Trib endorsed Gordon but who cares? This is a local election and we should be able to make more informed decisions than that.

Chris Adams

Adams seems to have his head in the right place. His priorities are Safety, schools, and business. His background makes me think that he would actually be good at the job as well. Listening to him at the different debates I also think that he would be the strongest candidate in terms of rebuilding community trust in the office. My problems with him are that seemed slow out of the gate and doesn’t really seem able to energize a wide swath of the community. At least not that I have run into this past month. The right ideas are definitely there but he just seems to be missing that spark that will make those ideas happen.

Jim Ginderske

Ginderske has a rather aggressive web presence which initially turned me off of him. However the more I read about him the more I think that he has a good plan for what to do with the 49th ward, and the ability to implement it. He certainly has attracted the help of quite a few young, energetic people in the neighborhood. His key issues are housing, security, and business. I probably would have put security before housing, but YMMV. My biggest concerns with Ginderske are lack of experience, and his aggressive campaigning style. On the other hand, that could easily be transformed into energy and community commitment that could really get things done in the office.

Don Gordon

Finally, Gordon seems to have rounded up the most support in the community in terms of getting the word out on the street rather than on the web. There are a number of people I know personally who are big Gordon supporters, and they have had the advantage of regular contact with me to sway me over to their side. The overall energy however seems to be somewhat less than the Ginderske campaign. His main concerns are business, housing, and honesty in the office. These concerns perfectly match my issues with the neighborhood, and I really like his stress on making the office work for us, rather than the other way around. On the other hand, he has already taken donations from developers. His biggest advantage is his management experience, however, like I said I feel that his ability to energize the community may be lacking.

Overall, all three of the challengers have many features that would make them strong Aldermen. I sincerely hope that whoever wins, the others will continue to contribute their ideas to the winner and that the winner will be able to help really turn things around. This is certainly a difficult decision this year.

It is worth noting that there is one other person in the race. That is the sitting alderman. Deciding whether or not to vote for him is simple. Is everything in your part of the neighborhood perfect? Is crime low? Is rehabbing being done at a pace that you like? Are businesses that fit the neighborhood coming into being? Are the TIF’s doing the job they are meant to? Is your alderman responsive to your needs? And I forgot foie gras ban (does anywhere in our neighborhood serve foie gras?) and the big box, you know, so that all the business tax will go to Evanston instead of Chicago.

If you answered yes to all the above then vote for Moore and a continuation of what he has been doing for the past 16 years. If not, I might recommend letting someone else have a go. After all we do supposedly live in a democracy, not a Feudal society. Though I suppose we do have a king. *sigh*