Arlington Heights Village Election April 7, 2009

By: Keith Moens          

The Headline in The Daily Herald on April 8, 2009 was ‘Nothing To It’. It appeared as an attempt by The Daily Herald to gloat the election results of Arlington Heights Village President and Trustees in favor of The Daily Herald’s endorsements.

In a subtle way however, the headline seemed to indicate that The Daily Herald, their endorsed Trustee candidates, Mrs. Mulder and her financial supporters all breathed a heavy sigh of relief that an upset was averted. Something like realizing a dentist appointment was not so bad after all. Although hardly a mandate the election was, as the old saying on the rear view mirror goes, closer than the object may appear.

The Village Electoral Turnout

Approximately 50,000 residents are registered to vote in Arlington Heights, IL. During the election for Village President and Trustees 10,259 voters found their way to the polls, a pathetic 20.52% turnout. The bar graph below shows the Village President election results as reported on the Cook County Clerk’s website at: http://voterinfonet.com/

The Daily Herald reported that Arlene Mulder cruised to victory with 66% of the vote trying to shape the impression of a mandate. However, in the real world Mrs. Mulder garnered 13.55% of the registered vote, therefore 86.45% of the registered voters either voted against her or never bothered to show up at the polls.

The bar chart below shows the results of the Village Trustee race as reported on the Cook County Clerk’s website at: http://voterinfonet.com/

The bar chart clearly shows the distinct difference between the winning and losing groups of trustee candidates. A relatively small block of voters swung the Trustee race to the winning incumbent candidates of Mr. Farwell, Mr. Breyer, Mr. Glasgow and Mr. Rosenberg.

Consider that the vote totals for each winning candidate is all near the same amount indicating the presence of a stable voting block. Further evidence of the stable voting block for the winning candidates is their vote totals are very near their average of 5,615 votes.

As opposed to the challenger or losing candidates who each had a much wider vote total as compared to the average of 3,218 indicating an unstable or non-unified voter base.

An approximation of that deciding block of voters can be made at 2,397 voters. Simply subtract the average votes of the losing candidates from the average of the winning candidates, for 2,397 voters, or (5,615 – 3,218)..

Approximately 2,400 or 5% of the registered voters decided the outcome of the Village election on April 7. Had the challengers acquired a unified block of 2,400 voters to match the existing block for the winners, (boosting the overall turnout to 25%), likely the outcome would have been much different. Mrs. Mulder would still have probably won, but by a much narrower margin. The trustee race would have seen two of the challengers on the Village Board.

 

For background reading on block voting, please read the Article, Block Voting vs. Bullet Voting, 12/22/2010 on this Blog.

 

Who Are Those Guys?

The movie line in, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, “who are those guys?” may well apply here. Who makes up this deciding block of voters in our local elections? Why does this block of voters continue to vote in such consistent fashion for essentially no change in Village government?

Speculation would include the usual suspects such as village employees protecting jobs and pensions or contractors expecting future development projects. But one group sure to vote for the incumbents and their endorsements is their campaign contributors, families, friends and associates.

For example, according to The Illinois State Board of Elections website: http://www.elections.state.il.us , The ‘Committee’ search on Citizens for Arlene Mulder returned collections of about $17, 800 in campaign contributions between January 1, 2009 and March 8, 2009. Although about $12,900 came from donors below the reporting limit of $150 each, $4,950 came from prominent organizations and individuals that did require reporting.

Here are some of the reporting contributors:

• Jack M. Siegel P.C., Arlington Heights Village Attorney, 131 S. Dearborn, 30^th Floor, an organization contribution of $500 on January 5, 2009.

• Beth Drost, 44 N. Vail Ave. #703, Arlington Heights, individual contribution of $250 on January 5, 2009.

• George Drost, 44 N. Vail Ave. #703, Arlington Heights, individual contribution of $250 on January 5, 2009.

• Thomas Kivlahan, 606 Roosevelt, Arlington Heights, individual contribution of $250 on February 2, 2009.

• Storino, Ramello, and Durkin, 9501 W. Devon, Rosemont, IL, organization contribution of $500 on Feb 17, 2009.

• Kristine M. Stabler, 5131 Emerson Ave. Palatine, IL, individual contribution of $250 on February 22, 2009.
• Dennis and Martha Hesse, 1039 E. Jules St. Arlington Heights - individual contributions of $250 each on February 26, 2009.

• Arlington Park Race Course, 2200 W. Euclid, Arlington Heights, organization contribution of $500 on March 4, 2009

Please visit The Illinois State Board of Election website: http://www.elections.state.il.us/ to view current and past campaign contributions and expenditures by local village officials.

Texas Basketball

 

Unfortunately challenger candidates in future Arlington Heights Village elections must understand they are deep in the votes and money hole before the polls even open. And the challengers must also realize that the fairness referee The Daily Herald continues to cheer for the lopsided advantage.

 

A sense of American fairness rarely celebrates a contest between two mismatched opponents. Rather a Golden Rule usually applies that strives to level the playing field for a balanced contest. Once the playing field is fair only then can an opponent honestly declare victory.

References:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Movie, Twentieth Century Fox, Hollywood CA. 1969.Cook County Clerk’s Office, 69 W. Washington St., Chicago, IL., (http://voterinfonet.com/)

Daily Herald Newspaper, 155 E. Algonquin Rd. , P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, Il. 60006.

http://www.dkmlaw.com/- Drost Kivlahan McMahon & Oconnor LLC, 11 S. Dunton Ave. Arlington Heights, IL., 60005-1475

General Motors, Buick, Rear View Mirror, Detroit, Michigan, 1996

http://www.elections.state.il.us - Illinois State Board of Elections, 100 W. Randolph St. #14-100, Chicago, IL. 60601

http://hklaw.com/, - Siegel, Jack, M., Holland and Knight, 131 S. Dearborn, 30^th Floor, Chicago, IL 60603

http://www.metroloftcondos.com/site/index.php?go=developers , and

http://www.ilsos.gov/corporatellc/CorporateLlcController?command=mms&fileNbr=00620742&type=MGR ,Hesse, Dennis L., LLC Manager, Banbury Metrolofts LLC, 171 Wing Street, Arlington Heights, IL

http://www.srd-law.com, Storino, Ramello & Durkin, Attorneys at Law,

9501 W. Devon Ave., Rosemont, IL., 60018.

Triola, Mario F., Statistics, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Copyright 2001