PrintSeptember 17, 2005
Ice cream politics update
The results are in! The new mayor of Berwyn, Illinois will be Michael O'Connor. For those who saw my previous report, he was Mr. Rocky Road, the JFK era Democrat. Congratulations.
A few observations are in order. Despite a heavy presence of outside workers brought in by the Democratic Machine, they still lost. The voters did not take kindly to the sort of smear campaign the established Democrats tried to run. As expected, it was a two man race between the current office holder trying to get a promotion and a very aggressive reformer interested in restraining the growth of government. The ancient regime is dead.
And the Republicans let an opportunity slip through their fingers. Despite having the endorsement of a local newspaper with regional circulation 0f 125,000 weekly readers, The Berwyn/Cicero Gazette, the Republican candidate got essentially zero outside help in his lonely battle. So he finished with a tiny number of votes. I saw a total of only one campaign sign during campaign outside his home ward!
But he certainly earned the Don Quixote Award for fighting the good fight. Well done Anthony Castrogiovanni! Berwyn may not quite be ready for that much reform, but it does now have real elections with good candidates.
Bruce Thompson 4 6 05
