Sitting beside Mark Adams and Alex Williams was an attorney Eric Madiar and like, Michael Kasper, who recently represented the Town of Normal, has served as legal counsel to Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. More recently Madiar was Chief Legal Counsel to Illinois Senate President John Cullerton. John Cullerton has a cousin who was recently indicted for embezzling nearly $250,000 from Teamsters Local 734.
Madigan was indicted in March on federal racketeering charges. Behind the pair of Unit 5 school board candidates was Ben Matthews, with the Illinois Education Association, represents area teachers’ unions, and there’s a contract negotiation coming up in June 2023. Objecting to Adams petitions is a business owner and dad…Brad Wurth.
Wurth said if the teacher’s union installs candidates on the school board that would be detrimental to the community.
“Your teacher’s union would have the negotiating power to get whatever they want and the community has to pay for it. The school district is here to serve the community and the community is not here to serve the school district,” said Wurth.
Wurth objected because according to the 2023 Candidates Guide, provided to the school board candidates, it suggests a school board candidate should file their candidacy on a “P7” form and Adams filed his on a “P4” form which is suggested for other municipal positions.
Wurth said Madiar’s office is in Springfield.
“He didn’t come here for free,” said Wurth. “Was it the teacher’s union or was it the PAC that heavily supports the union…we don’t know yet. He was a heavy hitter in a school board election. It was like killing a fly with a cannon ball. My perspective of the whole process was: We file objections, we talk through it with a non-judicial group of individuals and they come to a decision. Now if I didn’t agree with the decision then I would appeal and it would go to a court and it goes in front of a judge.”
The McLean County Electoral board outright dismissed the objections filed by Wurth because he didn’t put his address on the form given to him by the Clerk’s Office. Wurth admitted guilt by not putting on the form but was later angered by comments made by Kathy Michael, the county Clerk, on a WMBD interview.
Michael said, “Not having a certain part in the objections really nullified the entire process. They weren’t complete properly and thus we couldn’t continue. That’s where the fine line of the statute comes in, some can be interpreted in different ways but this was adamantly written and had to be adhered to.”
Wurth was given a letter and within the letter on McLean County Clerk letterhead are nine bullet points that lay out the procedure for filing an objection. None of the nine bullet points suggest that Wurth was suppose to put his address on the form.
“I was ready at the end of the day yesterday to move forward and I called Kathy and asked her, ‘Hey how do we fix this moving forward? I am not calling to complain but how do we make this better so that way someone doesn’t file a petition and be objected on these grounds again?’ Our democratic republic is a fragile thing. We can do better,” said Brad Wurth. “I do commend her office because they’ve put in some changes…when we handed in our forms they were thorough and made sure we had page numbers.”
In the 2022 primary, the Democrat Party contested petitions of at least five county board candidates despite two Democrat candidates having the same exact failures when it comes to numbering petitions. Candidates are suppose to number their petition pages per statute.
Wurth was angered by Michael’s interview.
“I was willing to let it go until I saw that interview. Kathy Michael, that’s not okay. We said in the hearing yesterday we handed it in based on information we received from your office. If it’s that critical of a piece of information… why isn’t it on your form? To do an interview that rubs it in our face, it is not okay. It doesn’t make this an open and inviting process for people in the community to be a part of.”
Krystle Able and Corey Beirne, both recently elected Democrats to the McLean County board, took to social media and expressed excitement for the dismissal of the objection filed by Brad Wurth.
“The objections will not be heard due to a fatal flaw on the objection forms! Thank you so much to the legal counsel for defending these campaigns and shining a light on the election code and case law, and to the electoral board for their decision,” stated Able.
Williams and Adams will remain on the ballot.
“And the first round of BS electioneering games by local wingnuts goes to the Rational Intelligent candidates. Glad to see Alex Williams and Mark Adams II remain on the ballot,” stated Beirne.
Wurth said he, Dennis Frank, Amee Jada, and Mollie Emery are candidates to represent the people not the teacher’s union.
