Working for Illinois Caucus

Spread narrows from 812 to 358, but final results won’t be known until Nov. 17 as mail-in ballots trickle in

The number of votes separating Republican incumbent state Rep. John Cabello and Democratic challenger Dave Vella shrank from 812 Tuesday night to 358 Wednesday after the city updated its unofficial election results.

Vella said he’s willing to wait until Nov. 17 to learn the winner of the race to be the Illinois state representative in the 68th District for the next two years.

Vella’s comments came the day after the election, after Winnebago County Clerk Lori Gummow announced that she would not update the county’s election results based on mail-in ballots until Nov. 17, the date by which she must certify the results.

The city added 2,966 votes on Wednesday, 1,284 of them in the 68th District.

With 50,778 votes tallied — some from the county’s election office and some from the city’s — Cabello led with 50.35% of the vote to Vella’s 49.65%, according to unofficial election results.

Yet to be seen is how many ballots will arrive at election offices in the coming days to be added to existing tallies.

This year saw record numbers of requests for vote-by-mail ballots in both the city and county. Of the nearly 45,000 ballots that were mailed to voters, election officials say about 8,000 of them remain unaccounted for. They could be in the mail, or they could go unused.

"I’m going to stay in this until every vote is counted, and we find out which of us won," said Vella, a Rockford resident.

"I know they haven’t counted all of the votes yet and that votes are still eligible to be counted as long as they are postmarked the day of the election. … I want the votes to be counted. If that’s how long it takes, then that’s how long it takes."

Election officials were unable to say how many unreturned ballots were mailed to voters who live in the 68th District. The city has about 3,700 ballots that could still come back and the county has about 4,300.

The city’s election office plans to update its election results periodically in the coming days before it, too, certifies its election results.

Cabello, of Machesney Park, did not respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday night.

He posted the following on his Facebook page Wednesday morning:

"What a night! Thank you to everyone who voted. We are cautiously optimistic that we will prevail after the mail in ballots are in. …

"I am humbled by your support. The corrupt gang tried to buy this district. Looks like they didn’t succeed."

Vella, 49, is a lawyer. Cabello, 49, is a police detective.

The district includes sections of northwest and east Rockford, Loves Park, Machesney Park and Cherry Valley.

In a preelection questionnaire, Cabello’s stressed a need to restore "fundamental principles government that is supposed to defend our rights as citizens which includes ’life and property.’

"My real concern is that the Democrat policies in this state that are put forward as a means toward the ’common good’ are in fact dangerous and irresponsible. … We can also root out the corruption. Speaker Mike Madigan and Gov. Pritzker are being investigated for wrongdoing. They have been funding my opponent with hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Vella is the grandson of longtime Rockford-area legislator Zeke Giorgi.

"My grandpa Zeke Giorgi told me something when I was young that really stuck with me. He said: ’Everyone is the same. We all want our families and our neighbors to have a good life. We just have different ideas on how to get there. If you keep that in mind, you can work with anyone," Vella responded to the questionnaire.

"I want to emulate this approach in my public service. Being a representative is more than complaining and casting blame. It’s about building a better community through your actions and setting an example for everyone to follow."

Corina Curry: ccurry@rrstar.com; @corinacurry

We are writing this letter to support Joan Padilla for our next state representative for the 71st District in Illinois.

In the last election, we supported Rep. Tony McCombie. We cannot do that this time. We do not feel she tries to work across the aisle and to our knowledge, we do not see any improvements in infrastructure anywhere in the 71st District.

We need a proactive representative. That is Joan Padilla. Joan Padilla does what she says she will do. As the executive director of the Home of Hope Cancer Wellness Center, she has learned the importance of good health care for everyone.

We feel she will take that knowledge to Springfield and work for those with pre-existing conditions and will make every effort to initiate and participate in improving health care for Illinois residents. Joan has worked hard her entire adult life and continues to enjoy being involved trying to make our region a better place to work, play and educate.

If you want to see changes to so many things needed in the 71st District, join with us and vote for Padilla.

David and Barb Frantz

Albany, Ill.

If Sue Scherer were to end up exactly in the middle of a rating system ranking of representatives, we’d be perfectly fine with that.

Scherer doesn’t chase headlines in manners similar to some of her Democrat counterparts. But she’s not nondescript – you don’t need to listen to Scherer long for her to make her positions clear. And perhaps most important, she remembers a part of her job is a public servant. As such, since she assumed office in 2013, she’s helped citizens cut through governmental red tape.

For those reasons and others, the Herald & Review is again endorsing Scherer in the Illinois 96th District in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Republican challenger Charlie McGorray has been present, as opposed to Herman Senor, who ran against Scherer in name only during the 2018 campaigns. McGorray generally endorses mainstream thought that Illinois is tax-happy and unfriendly to business, and House Speaker Michael Madigan needs to be removed from his position of power in Springfield.

We can all at least agree on that.

Scherer gets tied to Madigan because that’s an easy target and appeals to downstate voters of all political positions. Scherer has been reluctant to publicly denounce Madigan, and her votes often line up exactly where Madigan want them to.

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Michael R. Glenn, Nokomis

Chase Wilhelm is the clear choice for our Illinois State Representative in the 95th District.

I have gotten to know Chase well.  As an Army chaplain, he served honorably in Afghanistan and now serves in the reserves.

The current representative serves on the Legislative Ethics Commission that blocks the public from any information on crooked behavior that they vote to prevent from going forward.  Chase Wilhelm is a PhD chaplain who has the highest ethics and will work hard to bring ethics reform to Illinois.

Regardless of which party one normally favors, Chase Wilhelm is the candidate who will work for reform, and not block reform.  Please vote for Chase Wilhelm for Illinois State Representative.

By:  IL Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Deputy Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives Jehan Gordon-Booth

What is the antidote to the spike in violence, pandemic health crisis, and urgent calls for justice and safety in communities across Illinois, including Chicago and Peoria?

The remedy does not reside in the militarization of our law enforcement agencies or overinvestment in measures of surveillance and punishment. These tactics have proven ineffective and unreliable.

The best way to respond in this moment and prioritize public safety is to invest in communities—especially communities of color most harmed by concentrated violence and COVID-19.

A report in the Chicago Tribune shows how decades of disinvestment in Chicago’s Black and Latino neighborhoods—across housing, education, health, and more—have left communities vulnerable to the very crises we are facing today. Moreover, the authors note that the wealth gap causing many racial disparities during the pandemic is not an accident: countless policy decisions are responsible.

To meet this moment, the neighborhoods disproportionately suffering and long facing underinvestment, need the resources to keep them safe and healthy right now. This can be achieved with the recognition that public safety is not just about responding to violence after the fact. Fostering health and wellness—with good schools, access to health services, trauma recovery, and economic stability – is critical to preventing violence.

That’s why we recently lent our support to the Illinois Coalition for Shared Safety, a new initiative led in part by the Alliance for Safety and Justice, to persuade Illinois’ state government to use almost $20 million of Department of Justice stimulus funds to make investments in communities that are most harmed and least served.

While most jurisdictions used these stimulus funds solely to support operations of their criminal justice systems, Illinois used them to create opportunities for community-based organizations to provide direct assistance to people and communities most impacted by COVID-19.

This work is part of a larger strategy that we have championed in Illinois. In 2017, for example, we sponsored the Neighborhood Safety Act which has helped reduce Illinois’ prison population by 18,000 people – from a high of 49,000 to 31,000 people currently in the system. The Neighborhood Safety Act has also supported the implementation of Trauma Recovery Centers, an evidence-based model that is proven to help highly victimized, but underserved victims of crime. Thanks to this work and coupled with the efforts of the Alliance for Safety and Justice, Illinois will soon have Trauma Recovery Centers in Chicago, Springfield, Rockford, Peoria, Lake County, and Chicago. In 2020, Illinois increased its investments in violence prevention and trauma recovery services by $10 million, and to ensure that our work in informed by the community, the Attorney General’s office convened a series of town halls, bringing together victim service providers throughout the state in the areas of sexual assault prevention, domestic violence prevention, and community violence prevention. Through these town halls, our partners clearly articulated a need to move from a reality of safety for a few to a vision of shared safety for all.

According to a recent nationwide survey, community organizations providing emergency support have been stretched to the brink under the pandemic. Increased demand and strains have made it harder than ever to provide services that make neighborhoods safer, yet these services are the local pillars of health and safety.

On Chicago’s south and west side, for example—where taxpayers have spent more than $1.3 billion to jail people from four neighborhoods over five years—programs that provide employment, interventions, and support for people at high risk of violence have proven track records of success. Yet even in good times, community-based violence prevention programs are not funded at the scale required to achieve the best safety outcomes and often operate on a shoestring.

We hope that the example we have set in Illinois’ new approach to public safety funding will contribute to a larger re-imagining of safety in America.

We must begin to understand, measure, and address safety beyond the criminal justice system and recognize that preventing violence is more effective than reacting to it. By investing in the core health and safety needs of communities, and focusing on violence prevention, we can create shared safety.

Written By: IL Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Deputy Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives Jehan Gordon-Booth

Democratic candidate Scott Stoll is campaigning to win Illinois’ 93rd District away from incumbent Norine Hammond, who wants to keep her seat so she can fight for the state to reduce its budget, push for ethics reform and ensure education is a priority.

“It’s important to concentrate on ethics reformation,” Hammond said. “Ethics reform has to be a priority in Springfield.”

With Illinois carrying $7 billion in debt, Hammond believes the way the state is handling its budget is awful.

“We’re one notch above junk,” Hammond said of the state’s credit rating.

Hammond, who first was elected in 2010, said representatives had the ability years ago to sit down and go through the budget.

“Four years ago we sat down and went through it line by line and, by the end of the day, we had a balanced budget,” she said.

But those days are gone, she said.

“There’s not enough time now” to study the proposed budget before a vote, Hammond said. “It’s not right.”

Hammond believes the state needs to cut its spending so its debt doesn’t continue to grow.

“As a General Assembly, we need to examine our priorities,” she said. “We have to sit down and prioritize.”

Hammond also advocates for making sure all levels of education are funded and able to help people to prosper.

Stoll, a Rushville alderman, wants affordable healthcare available to everyone, lower prescription drug costs, economic growth and, as a father, making sure all levels of education are properly funded.

“No one is taking away private insurance,” Stoll said, adding that he just wants health insurance to be available for all.

Working in the pharmaceutical industry, Stoll said he believes lobbyists pushing for healthcare are pushing for profit rather than the care itself.

“It’s hard for me to see patients need life-sustaining medications and not being able to get them,” he said. “We need lower-cost options for people and I think there’s a lot of room for improvement … healthcare is a huge part of everything.”

Since being elected alderman, Stoll created Rushville’s economic development program to help businesses keep their doors open and thrive in the local economy, an effort that has taken on heightened importance amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have a lot of smart, young people here and we want them to stay here,” Stoll said.

Understanding that farming is a large part of what Illinois offers, Stoll said smaller, “mom and pop” businesses are just as important.

“I know we’re built on agriculture, but we have our towns, too. We haven’t really seen much on Main Street,” he said, adding that he would like to push for more incubator programs for small businesses. “I want to provide support to start businesses or support businesses being able to hire.”

With Chicago being the state’s largest city, Stoll wants to make sure government’s focus remains balanced throughout the state, he said.

“We need to keep focus on downstate,” he said, explaining that he saw too many small businesses being denied COVID-19 relief money. “A majority of the stores got denied because they’re considered essential, but business is low and they still need to pay employees; they struggle quite a bit.”