7/15/2022
Did you know there’s a petition to change the electoral process of the Town of Normal? The BetterNormal campaign is getting signatures. The petition asks the following question:
Should the town be divided into six districts, with one trustee elected from each district?
The petition would place an initiative on the ballot this November changing the representation system from an At-Large system, in which each town councilmember is elected by the whole town and represents the whole town, to a district system, where the town would be divided up into districts with roughly equal populations that would vote for their own representative on the council (this is the same as Bloomington’s ward system). 3,000 signatures are needed by August 8th to place the question on the ballot.
(Note: I have no current involvement in this campaign.)
While I have a great deal to say about the proposal (spoiler alert: I support it), I’m certainly not surprised that most people haven’t heard about the election measure.
When I had originally heard about this story, I had a very different article planned. I was more than happy to bash the local mainstream media for not covering the issue and blame the McLean County Democrats (McDems) for refusing to support the change because one of the organizers involved was conservative.1
However, after reading the WGLT article about this subject, I’ve had a revelation. I now see clearly who is to blame for this issue not receiving wider-coverage: Stan Nord.
According to WGLT:
WGLT
He didn’t feel comfortable talking to the media? What kind of triggered snowflake is running this campaign that is scared of big-bad Lyndsay Jones of WGLT?2
Look at her! My God! The earth wails in horror by her mere presence.
I’ve been organizing for fifteen years. There are strategic reasons not to talk to the media or to only provide very specific information. However, according to Illinois Libertarian Party chair and token libertarian radio host for Insurrection Radio Cities 92.9,3 Steve Suess, Nord didn’t talk to the media because “the people involved don’t want it to be politicized. We’ve seen this happen with issues in our community before. We’ve seen it happen with issues nationally. This is not left or right, or Republican or Democrat, or even Libertarian. To me, this is a democratic issue.”
They don’t want it politicized? The petition is literally a change in how we elect… wait for it… POLITICIANS! Exactly how is it not political?4 “This is a democratic issue,” Suess says. Now, I’m not some big-time country college professor, but if I remember my high school civics courses, democracy is a POLITICAL METHOD FOR ELECTING POLITICIANS!
Maybe Suess misspoke. In reality, perhaps Nord doesn’t want it to be a partisan issue. The election to the Normal Town Council is (checks notes) explicitly NON-PARTISAN! Neither the mayor nor any of the town council members have a D or an R next to their name.
It would be one thing if Nord said, “Thanks for calling on this issue. Please speak to Steve Suess, because he’s the media liaison for this campaign.” I completely understand that. But, that’s not what occurred.
After the article was posted, Nord did comment under the Facebook post providing various points on why a district system is preferable to an at-large system. So, let me get this straight, you aren’t willing to be quoted in the article which everyone has access to regardless of the medium they use to get to said article (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, etc); but, you’re willing to be quoted in the subsection to a post only Facebook users can see (and that’s if they choose to view the comments). Make it make sense. In the comments, WGLT re-invited him to come speak.
Nord’s strategy of refusing to talk to the mainstream press has probably caused the very problem he says he wanted to avoid.5 Instead of answering the phone and pointing out how this isn’t a partisan thing because all these Leftists also support it, he’s created the unconscious headline “Oh Boy! Look at the stubborn conservatives always causing a racket supporting this.” Suess says, “This is not left or right,” but he doesn’t add “The reason I can prove this statement is true is because both conservatives and Leftists actually support it.” Suess is a professor at Illinois State University that teaches… wait for it… communication.
Now, Lyndsay Jones of WGLT isn’t going to get off Scott-free here. The article was certainly neo-liberal in its framing. It only focused on the conservative supporters like Suess, Nord, and far-right journalist Diane Benjamin6 and on centrist and/or status quo opponents like Normal Mayor Koos, and Normal town council members Kathleen Lorenz and Chemberly Cummings. Jones had reached out to Leftists as well (who, thankfully, were willing to speak), but she choose not to publish their responses. Several gave their thoughts in the comments section of the article’s Facebook post.
Former Public Relations officer for the BloNo Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA BloNo),7 Democratic political operative, & McLean County board candidate for District 4, Krystle Able,8 had this to say in response to why this proposal is being pushed right now:
“Right now because we just redistricted at the state and county level. We have brand new current population numbers. Bloomington is in the process of doing their maps. Now is the best time to do it if it’s going to be done.”
Local anarchist and former-Treasurer for DSA BloNo, Kelby Cumpston, who operates a political education Facebook page called BloNotes, had this to say about the proposal:
“I fully support this movement for many of the same reasons it was presented to the town in the early 70’s and was just barely defeated. (Unlike Bloomingtion at the time it was terribly misworded on the ballot) The only thing that has changed since then is that Normal has had an increase of population.
I know many who do not come from the conservative political side are fully convinced that this will be the downfall of how things have been running for decades, but that is a mindset based in temporary representation we have- if tables were turned I bet this would have been passed awhile ago. In fact, many of the champions for this in the 70s were not just conservatives.
The basic principal of increasing representation from all of the town is why I fully support the petition initiative as a progressive. I also believe the cost to run any election is very high and quickly rising every year (don’t forget one entity threw in $30k towards 2x council elections in Bloomington last run). This is becoming a class-based issue very quickly. The switch doesn’t solve it, but it does reduce the ability of local elections to be bought in the future.
All that said and why I didn’t choose to be in the WGLT article when reached out to- I’m from Bloomington. I wish other pro viewpoints were represented here in the article since I know others were interviewed.”
Also, the Bloomington-Normal Communist Party is openly supporting it. That’s about as Left as you can get in McLean County.
Jones also mentioned how this idea originated in Rantoul, IL which the BetterNormal campaign has on its website. However, she also uses it to describe the connection as some kind of crazy conservative conspiracy.
“Despite signatories representing an array of political ideologies, the effort to start the petition’s circulation through Normal has ties to people with openly partisan motives, including conservative McLean County blogger Diane Benjamin, according to a man who says he spoke with Benjamin in Rantoul…[emphasis added]
Jack Anderson, said he was ‘approached’ at a Rantoul event in March by ‘Diane Benjamin, Bloomington-Normal watchdog who hosts the website ‘Bloomington Normal News’ asking about Rantoul’s districting referendum. (Anderson) then sent her a summary of our efforts and copies of some of our petition materials, background research and letters to the editors.'”
Lyndsay Jones, WGLT
What are Diane Benjamin’s “openly partisan motives” for supporting a district-based system? Better representation to the people? Which partisan side has ownership over this belief? Benjamin certainly has conservative partisan political beliefs that she is VERY open about. But, that has nothing to do with this specific issue. The only reason Jones even mentions this irrelevant point is to minimize the fact that this issue has bi-partisan support.
Jones did not reach out to Diane Benjamin, and Benjamin says she got this information from an Edgar County Watchdogs event, which is an organization focused on government transparency & accountability (notice how Jones says it was an “event in March” but doesn’t say what the event is for). I disagree with approximately 98% of all the things Benjamin believes in; but, I absolutely support greater government accountability & transparency, just like Benjamin and Edgar County Watchdogs.9
The one thing Jones apparently didn’t ask when she interviewed Rantoul residents is “Do you like the District system better?,” which is far more relevant than the political proclivities of Diane Benjamin. The village of 12,946 recently switched from an At-Large to a District model, and had their first district model election last year.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t Nord’s thing, and WGLT knew that based on the Leftists they spoke with. There are people, from the political Left to the political Right (and many who lie betwixt), working on the ground, going door to door, getting signatures. And, Lyndsay Jones chose to ignore this in favor of some ridiculous conspiracy narrative. How do we know its conspiratorial? Because Jones doesn’t even bother to prove how a District system would benefit conservatives over any other political ideology. She provides no evidence whatsoever.
I wouldn’t have a problem working with Nord, Suess, Benjamin, Able, Cumpston, and whatever motley crew that can be assembled to get this proposal passed. The proposal is literally one sentence long:
“Should the town be divided into six districts, with one trustee elected from each district?”
Those that support it think it will be more democratic and better represent the will of the people. Those that oppose it don’t. That’s it. Those are the stakes.
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