The Democratic Party of Evanston has endorsed challengers in the city’s two April aldermanic elections.
But its members favored both incumbents and challengers running in local school board contests.
In voting that wrapped up over the weekend, 148 of the party’s 291 members cast ballots, although not all voted in all the contests up for endorsement.
DPOE Vice President Greg Andrus announced that Darlene Murray Cannon was the choice of 97 of the 127 people who voted in the 2nd Ward contest, winning endorsement over incumbent Krissie Harris, with 28 votes, and Patricia Gregory, with 2 votes.
In the 9th Ward contest, 85 of the 122 DPOE members casting ballots favored Kathelyn “Kathy” Hayes, who won endorsement over incumbent Juan Geracaris.
Both Cannon and Hayes are members of the DPOE board of directors.
In the District 65 school board race, 112 people cast ballots.
With three candidates to be elected, the two incumbents running, Sergio Hernandez Jr. and Mya Wilkins, were endorsed along with newcomer Omar G. Salem. Two other challengers — John Matthew Martin and Ndona Muboyayi — failed to win endorsement.
In the District 202 school board race, Andrus said 73 people cast ballots.
The DPOE incorrectly combined balloting for three four-year terms on the board with a separate race for a two-year term in structuring its D202 endorsement ballot.
That led to the party endorsing all four candidates in the race for the three four-year seats, incumbents Monique Parsons, with 73 votes, and Elizabeth Rolewicz, with 52 votes, as well as challengers Kristen Scotti, with 78 (more than the total number of ballots Andrus announced as having been cast), and Leah Piekarz, with 67 votes
Mirah Anti is running as a write-in candidate for the two-year term and faces no opposition.
The DPOE requires a $40 membership fee, or participation in volunteer work hours, to be eligible to vote in the endorsement process.
Please vote incumbents out of D65. We need fresh ideas and not a rubber stamp for Horton and his cronies.
Yes, vote them out for our kids, for Evanston, and for United States!
Vote for incumbents if you want to continue to harm children. If you want something better vote for the new voices:
Omar Salem
John Martin
Ndona Mumbaya
I find it repugnant that the DPOE is endorsing in a non-partisan race. They started to do this several years ago. I don’t see our local Republican Party doing that.
I’m a Democratic but was turned off by our local DPOE when it was infiltrated by some of the STPs (same 30 people) against everything in this town. Just take a look at a few of their board members and read a few local news articles and you’ll make the connection.
I can just imagine the internal conversations at DPOE. Should we endorse on local non-partisan elections, especially in a town that’s 80% democrats? “Of course we should,” say the STPs. “Plus two of our Board Members – Darlene Cannon and Kathy Hayes – are running. We can get all our candidates endorsed, just like we did with our Community Alliance for Better Government endorsements. It’s too bad we shut down OPAL or that could have been a third organization we could have used to tout these same candidates.”
If there are 78K people that live in Evanston and 80% are Democrats (ie, 62,000) then DPOE’s 291 members represent .0047 percent of the Democrats. Even if you back out those under 18 it’s still a small number.
Don’t be fooled by their endorsement. This is a ruse to get you to vote more people onto our City Council and D65 Board who can cause havoc, incivility, and disruption in our City.
Shame on our DPOE Committeeman and President for even letting DPOE venture into these waters.
Did not know about the “STP” infiltration but am not surprised — kind of smelled it when I saw the endorsements.
OPAL is alive and well with CREW 65 which endorsed. God help us all.
DPOE is a joke. Conflicts, lack of leadership, engaging/spending money on nonpartisan volunteer positions/elections, captured by the fringe — what an embarassment.
Regarding D65 School Board, so many don’t know what’s going on. Please read this again — closely — & share the information with friends, family, neighbors….what happened at this joint meeting is a warning shot across the proverbial bow: https://evanstonnow.com/livingston-too-many-enter-eths-who-cant-read-at-grade-level/
And (1) follow T. Hayden’s substack called FOIA GRAS — where Hayden details the responses he’s getting to FOIA requests he’s submitting to the districts and (2) subscribe to Evanston Schools Update. Pass this on & ask your friends, family and neighbors to do the same.
We’ve let this go on long enough. Evanston kids need the adults to do what’s right.
FOIA Gras: https://www.foiagras.com/about
Evanston Schools Update: https://evanston-schools-update.org/
Very true, remember DPOE actually endorsed Reid onto this dysfunctional council. Talk about incompetence on every level, not just Reid but DPOE. As a life long democrat DPOE has lost any and all credibility, as have their endorsements.
Ndona Mboyayi, John Martin and Krissie Harris are the least woke, least activist candidates in the two races. They won’t be divisive like the others who are running. Do a deeper dive about what everyone’s intentions are if they win- the truth will come out.
Also, Omar Salem seems a lot more reasonable than the two incumbents on D65. He should get everyone’s third vote.
I’ve said it before and I am going to say it again… Darlene Cannon is Devon Reid 2.0 – Be extremely careful what you wish for.
Is that opposed to the incumbants that are beholden to NU? Major conflicts of interest there.
Krissie Harris isn’t “beholden to NU”. She’s a 5th generation Evanstonian who’s leads with a clear head not activism.
I, for one, am very glad to see the DPOE go through this process because it makes it very easy to identify who NOT to vote for!
There were more than 73 ballots cast for D202. DPoE calculated the number “73” by adding all votes (293 total) and dividing by 4 (number of candidates who could receive a nomination) –> this value is 73.25. To obtain the threshold for nomination, DPOE then multiplies that number by 2/3 (which is where they got 49 votes to reach nomination).
This says NOTHING about number of ballots cast (as clearly, not everyone voted for four people when they cast their 202 ballot).
I am legitimately confused about what record the D65 incumbents are even running on. There are fewer kids in the public schools now. Outcomes are no better. The superintendent they hired is more interested in accepting awards, starting businesses and paying consulting fees to friends from Chicago than running the district. And the board has skirted democratic practices for years by quitting and then appointing dogmatically-similar (but less unpopular and known) replacements.
Critiques and questions? They send their attack squad to social media to shut down debate via ad hominem attacks. If you removed party affiliations and names their behavior is worthy of the worst elements of the MAGA movement.
It is an absolute mess. What is there to endorse?
I could care less who DPOE endorses. And to cite earlier comments, their track record isn’t exemplary. Nothingburger.