Timmy's Personal Opinions On The Elections

Good morning everyone. Let me just start this post by saying that last night's elections were such a big disappointment to me. A huge, huge disappointment. I am not happy whatsoever about the outcome, and there are many reasons why, both on the mayoral and aldermanic side of things.

First, I want to begin with the mayoral elections. As we all know, Rahm Emanuel won his bid for mayor to 55%, with Gery Chico at 24%, and Miguel Del Valle and Carol Moseley Braun at 9%. That does not sit well with me, especially with Rahm winning. I am not a Rahm supporter and have not been since he bidded for mayor. The candidate I personally wanted to win was Gery Chico. Before him it was Carol Moseley Braun, but since she made that crazy comment of hers towards Patrica Van Pelt Watkins, I turned to Gery. My reasons for supporting Gery was mainly because of his word to get at least 10,000 more Police Officers on our streets and was one of the first to say he would oust Jody Weis from his position. Also, Gery had my support because I believe he knows the city well enough. I mean, look at his record. He's been in charge of Chicago Public Schools and other various departments in the city.

Where's Rahm been? In Washington D.C., being Obama's puppet (I'm not an Obama supporter either, and I have my reasons for that too). To me, Rahm only ran for mayor because he wants to serve only people like himself and because he has clout in D.C. Just look at the facts. Rahm does NOT live in Chicago, only has a residency here. But yet he was able to remain on the ballot? That's insane if you ask me. No, but if someone like Gery Chico or Carol Moseley Braun didn't live in Chicago and were on the ballot, they would've been removed from it a long time ago. But because it's Rahm, he stays. To me, that's a main reason why he does not make a good mayor. He's not in touch with Chicago if you ask me. Also, I think everyone voted for Rahm just because he's associated with Obama, and if that's the case, the people in the city really don't have brains in my opinion. But if one good thing is to come from Rahm being our new mayor, it is that Jody Weis will be gone. In fact, EVERY mayoral candidate (the major ones, at least) said they'd get rid of him without hesitation.

Moving on to the aldermanic elections, I am hugely disappointed with those also. I'll start off with my Ward, the 30th, where Ariel Reboyras is the alderman. Personally, I was hoping that he would not win re-election, but none of his opponents made theirselves known at any point of the race, so voting for Reboyras was a no-brainer to most of you, I think. He's a familiar face. Though, I was hoping he'd lose because he hasn't done much to address growing crime issues in our community, especially with gang tensions growing on certain blocks like mine. Hell, the first time I heard from and met Reboyras was at a CAPS meeting last January, in 2010. Before then, it was like he never existed. In particular, the one experience I always like to share is an e-mail I sent to his office in 2008 regarding shootings right by my block and asking him to respond to it personally, but who responds to me? Why, 25th District CAPS Sergeant Tim Weiglein of course. Now, in 2011, I just hope that Reboyras does a lot more for this Ward, and that he stays involved.

In the 26th Ward, you had incumbent Roberto Maldonado against Devon Reid, an 18-year-old college student. To me, this race was interesting and a bit personal. You see, I went to school with Devon Reid for a short time, and from what I know about him, he was a good student, and would have been an excellent alderman for the 26th. My main thing about Devon was the fact he was the youngest candidate to run for alderman ever I think. You don't get many 18-year-olds who want to improve their community. Also, about Maldonado, I know that he was just elected a year or so ago, but, it seems that he has done nothing but make things worse in the 26th than when Billy Ocasico was the alderman.

As for the 35th Ward, Nancy Schiavone had my support. Why? Because not only is she a regular reader of this blog and supports what I do, but because she is involved with the community, unlike Rey Colon. Rey is not involved for the most part and seems to only come out when it benefits him. As for Miguel Sotomayor, although he did not really make himself known at all, he seemed like a good candidate. I also know Miguel Sotomayor from school, but this was from when I was attending Monroe a few years ago. I never talked to him personally, but he has done so much for Monroe and that immediate community, that he would've made a good alderman.

As for the 1st and 32nd Wards, Scott Waguespack and Proco "Joe" Moreno seem like good alderman, especially Scott. From what I know about him, he has done quite a bit for this Ward. And, as for the 31st and 33rd Wards, Ray Suarez and Richard Mell ran unopposed, so no comment on them.

This is just my personal insights, you've got every right to disagree with me, constructively of course. We can all disagree, but one thing that I won't tolerate on this post is personal attacks and flame wars. We're all adults (or young adults), we should know how to disagree maturely. Calling someone names is stupid and irrelevant, and if you haven't learned that, seriously go back to Kindergarten.