Because absolutely nobody asked for it, and if past precedent is any guide the only people who will care are candidates who don't get chosen, my thoughts on the April 9 election:

First and foremost, support the Democratic slate for York Township offices.

Ahmed Sayyed for Supervisor
Joe Vosicky for Clerk
Mark Pitchford for Highway Commissioner
Cathy Sewell, Diane Blair Sherlock, and Carol Davis for Trustee

It should be obvious that the current York Township government is mostly useless. Most residents are barely aware that they exist. About three-quarters of their budget is spent on staff salaries, which keep going up despite the economy, and other administrative costs. They have little or no money for youth services, but do have money to send out full-color brochures touting themselves, which for some odd reason always seem to arrive around election time. They do provide services for seniors, some of them necessary and valuable ones, but when they do they'll be sure to use the opportunity to persuade those seniors to vote for them. The purpose of the township, according to the current incumbents, it seems, is to keep the current incumbents in office. We the taxpayers have different priorities. The only way we'll get a township government that is actually worth the money we put into it is to vote out Mr. Valle and as many of his cronies as possible.

If you live in Villa Park, please vote for Deborah Bullwinkel for village president. Bullwinkel has been an independent voice on the village board of trustees. She will bring energy and fresh ideas to the office of president. Her opponent is the former village police chief who has been the subject of investigative articles by the Chicago Tribune:


There's more. Read the whole article. See also comments posted by a local resident on the Daily Herald's endorsement of Bullwinkel:
I have personally dealt with this bumbling police department. About 2 and a half years ago I was less than a block from my house minding my own business when all of a sudden I was surrounded by 5 police cars. Guns drawn they yelled at me to put my hands in the air. They then proceeded to force me to the ground even though I had clearly given up. My neighbors had all tried to tell them who I was and that I had just come out of my house. I had asked my neighbor to please go tell my mom what was going on so that someone could find me at the police station. I was put into the squad car and driven away, everytime I asked the officer what was going on he told me to "shut the hell up" I was taken to an area aproximately a quarter mile from my house taken out of the squad to be identified. I will never forget the woman identifying me when they had asked her "is that him?" she replied "not even close" I was then put back into the squad car still handcuffed even though I had done nothing wrong. I was then driven home and dropped off in front of my house while the officer turned his lights on uncuffed me outside of the car for all my neighbors to see and then didn't even apologize. Too this day it makes my blood boil to think about this incident. To make matters worse when my mom who had just had heart surgery a few months prior to this incident, went to the police department to find out what had happened to me the woman at the front desk threatened to have her arrested. Real Classy VPPD. Don't believe me? you can ask multiple neighbors who saw what happened. If Heidelmeier can't run his police department competently how can we trust him to run Villa Park?

(I don't know this person and can't vouch for the truth of these accusations. One should always be careful about what one reads, especially on the Internet.)

I've had personal experience with Heidelmeier's core supporters. Recently the York Township Democratic Organization voted to endorse Bullwinkel. I am chair of YTDO but did not vote for or against this endorsement. State Senator Cullerton, a strong Heidelmeier supporter recently elected as a Democrat with support from the party, responded by pulling his support from a YTDO fundraiser. Another Heidelmeier supporter posted under an assumed name on YTDO's Facebook page harping on Bullwinkel's past support for selected Republican candidates, ignoring Heidelmeier's own record of voting Republican. Many more Heidelmeier supporters frequent this forum. For a candidate whose selling points are leadership ability and that he'll listen to your ideas and opinions, it's interesting how many of his supporters apparently have zero tolerance for ideas that they don't agree with. They are more like Groucho Marx: "If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you."

Robert J. "Bob" Wagner for Villa Park Trustee is an obvious choice, especially for Democrats. Bob ran as one back when nobody thought Democrats could win in this area. As party township chair, party state central committeeman, library trustee, and everything else he's done, he's always displayed strict honesty and thoughtfulness. John Davis is an incumbent village trustee who has served with integrity and deserves to be re-elected. A third candidate, Robert Taglia, is also an incumbent and is aligned with Bullwinkel, Wagner, and Davis; he's been a responsible trustee but his conservative Republican views make me reluctant to recommend him. For local office his ideological views aren't that big of an issue but village elected officials can grow up to seek higher office. Other candidates include Greg Hassler who is not aligned with either camp; he seems to have a pretty good grasp of the issues but I don't know a lot about him. Rodney Pate seems to have some smarts and good sense except for his decision to align with the Heidelmeier camp.

For College of DuPage Trustees, please vote for Ed Agustin and Frank Flores Jr.. College of DuPage has been plagued by mismanagement. Tuition keeps rising and the current administration seems more interested in putting up new buildings than it does in actually working to help the students. Agustin and Flores will hold them accountable. Accusations of harrassment against the latter seem to be unverified.