If $260 million over four years doesn’t open eyes to what is going on in a town of less than 50,000 people, I don’t know what will.

EDITOR’S NOTE: No, that’s $260 million EACH YEAR, in a town of less than 40,000 people.

3:43:

There have been plenty of eye opening events, tax increases, spending issues and hard decisions yet still people do not show up. I would love it if I am wrong, but I would bet good money that voter participation is less that 30%…..definitely under a third. I voted early this year but I talked with a friend who voted about 7:30 this morning. He said he was the only person there voting. He said he walked in and saw 4 poll workers and voting machines. He said at first as he walked into the gym he thought he had to be in the wrong place.

What’s your point?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Pick a topic.

Oh my god!!! I said less than 30% in my previous post. It looks like it will be less that 15%!!! I know there are some blurred lines but with 29 of 33 reporting the PD race is at 11.9% D64 at 12.09%. All I can say is wow!!

Sad, there may be more posts about the election than actual votes in the 3rd or 1st ward.

85% of the people in Park Ridge should be embarrassed.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The folks who don’t vote are pretty much beyond embarrassment.

What a sad comment on the folks who live in Park Ridge. Of the 30,924 registered voters, a whopping 4,488 decided to cast ballots in yesterday’s election. For those math wizards: 14.5% For a community that prides itself on being well educated (and comfortably middle class), these numbers are an embarrassment. Congrads to all the winners, but it would have been nice to have had a bigger turnout. Receiving 2,000+ votes, although making those candidates winners, is not something for any community to be proud of.

8:03:

It is not just “not something for any community to be proud of”. It does not give any of these folks any kind of mandate.

Like you, I congratulate the winners but as an example, look at the Park Board election. 4166 people voted (14.53%) and the difference between 1st and 4th was 107 votes. What the hell message should Thillens and O’Brien take from this?? They have been on the board for years and the public was so thrilled with the job they did that 24K did not even show up. Beyond that, the newcomer got the most votes (by 17) and they were both under 100 votes from not being re-elected.

EDITOR’S NOTE: “Every election is determined by the people who show up.” Larry J. Sabato.

The “message” this election sends is the message most elections send: Candidate X won, candidate Y lost. And “the newcomer got the most votes” because nobody ran “against” her by actually challenging her qualifications, her philosophy of government, her policy positions, and her views. That’s the kind of desultory campaign you get when only one seat is actually “contested” and you’ve got three incumbent candidates just trying not to lose instead of trying to win.

Nobody (and no referendum issue) can legitimately claim a “mandate” unless there’s a 50% turnout, at the barest minimum.

It’s not sad! It’s more of a reflection of how demoralizing or pathetic the way city and parks government are run in PR. Who in their right mind would want to get involved with the Park Board or City Council, only to be criticized constantly for essentially volunteering to help the city they live in? Sorry but the reality is more than 99% of the residents in town actually have better….scratch that……more important things to do! That’s why there’s such a horrible voter turnout, not to mention why no one who’s really qualified runs for public office in PR.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The “who,” hopefully, will be people who actually have a clue – and who don’t need to have their fragile self-esteem bubble-wrapped so that they can endure whatever slings and arrows might come their way for doing an essential civic duty.

Twenty years of local government by the happy-talk, bobble-head go-along-to-get-along “volunteer” crowd created the messes the current folks are trying to dig us out from under. And your referring to THEM as not being “really qualified” to hold those offices is just plain wrong.

To those who couldn’t be bothered to vote, keep your mouths shut. You lost the right to complain by your failure to participate in the process. Shame on you!

Crushing defeat for Alderman Nikos Millissis and Flood Zombies.

A sitting Alderman who wrote several posts supporting a candidate that lost by 16 % points is pretty astounding. I wonder if he actually hurt Clines campaign.

Maybe Nikos will realize that the single issue flood $$$ at any cost isn’t a want of this city as much as he speaks out of both sides of his mouth. Maybe he will also realize that his name isn’t what he thinks it is. He really show his true colors in this campaign. Disappointing.

Also….Thillens with the only war chest in Park District race got out ran by a new candidate and barely even hung on himself.

Lastly anon 10:30- You’re an idiot. You rip on current officials, then say that’s why no “qualified” run. You rip on local govt as you say no good candidates run. Ummm….grow a pair and run. I have a feeling you’d get trounced. I feel sorry for the employer you have.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ald. Milissis has been consistently vocal on this issue, so we have no idea what you think he did “in this campaign” that “show[ed] his true colors” in ways they hadn’t been shown before.

Thillens may have had a “war chest,” but we doubt Grau got all her signs from the sign fairy. And because there was only a 100-vote difference between 1st and 4th place, Thillens’ getting “out run” by someone who was the designated candidate of the “Go Green Park Ridge” quasi-political party in such a low-turnout election may not have all the signficance you are trying to attach to it.

What Melissis did was not just endorse another candidate, which I can appreciate. He tried to belittle Morans supporters and basically attacked Moran on a few Park Ridge Facebook forums. Telling people that Moran was imposing misrepresentations and using fear mongering tactics. He stuck his head in too far, it was disgraceful. I heard other people say it cost Cline votes. They were turned off by that, too aggressive.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As we’ve said before, we disagree with Ald. Milissis on some of these flooding issues, especially on how to pay for them. But we also put little stock in the whining of those folks who claim to be “turned off” by what they contend is “too aggressive” campaigning – which usually means whatever campaigning they don’t agree with, irrespective of how it is done.