By: Diane Benjamin
A whooping 8,480 people bothered to vote in Normal. You get what you vote for – or didn’t vote for at all.
Property taxes will go up as well as every other fee. A full service Koos government takes tons of money, he will be getting it from you.
The underpass will get built. Uptown 2.0 will proceed. Taxpayers will continue to subsidize the Friends and Family incentive plans Normal calls economic development.
Stan Nord will be completely marginalized – worse than he is now. Voters told the Council that his opinions are immaterial since the incumbents who already didn’t care were reelected.
One Normal Plaza will get alcohol approved in the park, Koos supporters want it. The opinions of any others will be immaterial.
The Public Comment policy meant to silence residents will stay in place. The council can’t have citizens publicly stating the “emperor has no clothes”.
Don’t look for Chris Koos to hang around as mayor long. He only ran because nobody else could have defeated Marc Tiritilli. Of course he didn’t tell voters that.
Congrats to the winners. Koos and his bobbleheads will rule as if your opinions don’t matter. You didn’t matter before the election, it will be worse now.
Link to the results: https://webapp.mcleancountyil.gov/webapps/CountyClerk/eresults/results-1.htm
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I didn’t vote for the incumbents. I’m very disappointed that the cabal won.
Wow talk about sour grapes. Apparently it’s the end of the world because your guy lost. Get a grip, your candidate didn’t win. That’s how democracy works, someone win someone loses.
I hope you live in Normal!
Again, BN voters were as predictable as the sun rising. If not for the stupid far leftists running a worthless candidate for Bloomington mayor, Straza is Bloomington’s mayor this morning and not Mboka. Ward 7 in Bloomington had no one and Willie only appealed to the local race baiters. It was also right and just to see Fruin to be sent packing. In Normal, status quo is still the way to go but luckily, I don’t live there. Stupid is as stupid does and their is still plenty of it to go around. The real winners were the ISU and SF corporatists where pretty much all their candidates won. No real economic advancement for four more years except what the local elitists want, a little road repair but not much, and continuation of the same petty arguments. Go back to sleep BN, the party at the bars doesn’t start till 9:00 p.m. July 1 is my Independence Day.
The Clique and their establishment sheep in the Chamber and EDC do not want economic development unless they can control it, get something from it, don’t have to work or compete in the real world, and have ensured that it’s okay with their overlords at Big Red who have the local government, its leaders, and economy by the short hairs. What did I miss here, MP?
Gonna miss you PEA…where will you be seeking independence?
An un- named red state. I’ll leave my forwarding address to Diane so y’all come visit.
Alabama seems to be the new go to state
we left blono six months ago and are enjoying freedom from COVID police and low taxes. R tax bill this year for an acre of land and home. Less than 1K! Our state has tax surplus. Businesses open and new businesses opening every week
The entire Straza campaign was prop. There was no substance to his platitudes and his resume as a ‘businessman was just about to come into public scrutiny – mercifully the campaign ran out of time just about the same time as it ran out of money and campaign staff motivation . Lots of grifters feeling let down this morning , I’m sure. #ResponsibleCitiesPAC
Trying to find election results on the net, I couldn’t find til after 11:00pm. Why? How daunting of a task can it be to tally votes that are submitted directly after the polls close at 7:00pm? Illinois, Chicago, B-N connected. Think dirty politics doesn’t happen here? There are crooked vote counters everywhere. Think B-N is immune? Until the good guys have a real presence in the counting room I do not trust the system. I’ll still vote and encourage others to vote but look at what just happened to Trump.
Results were available sooner. Normal was slower than usual because of write-in votes for Township races.
I am disappointed with results in both community results. At least Bloomington will have 3 conservatives on the council now. Last year I moved to Normal after having lived in Bloomington my whole life….except for college years. I was hoping Normal would see past the shiny new walls in “uptown” Normal and vote conservatively this election. Hold strong Stan Nord!
I tuned out about 10:00 with the county website showing 94% reporting in Normal and Tiritilli with a 400 vote lead? I got up this morning and Koos won by 400? What am I missing?
Early votes were counted last.
Of course they were (yes I know Normal does it that way) but my first thought was “Oh how shocking (not) that the “early voters” and the “mail ins” were heavily in favor of the goof-ball leftist Koos and the other bobble-head dingbat incumbents”. Well, this just strengthens my already deep resolve to enter Normal as little as humanly possible and to spend as little money possible there as well. I have to now and then to get the Peoria Charter to O’Hare or to use the Amtrak. I really wish both were in Bloomington though, I despise “Uptown”.
Attention conservatives!
Scott Preston is , and has been , a RINO!!!
This is an age of establishment consolidation across the board in this country, and this is no exception. I figured this was going to be the case when I saw a massive proliferation of Koos yard signs and some hard sell door to door efforts, as much as I didn’t want to admit it to myself. The local elite wanted this badly, and knew they could push hard enough to take it. It doesn’t matter to most people in Normal that their tax dollars have been lit on fire for years, it doesn’t matter to them that our infrastructure is crumbling or that any dissenting opinions have been ridiculed and shouted down. Mismanagement doesn’t bother them. And as such, we’ll get more of the same, and we’ll get it hard.
Very solid and accurate analysis. When the local Elitist Clique is threatened they ban together. None of its members have any real moral beliefs or anchors other than keeping intact the embedded power structure. In Bloomington, they were hoping for a Straza win that was prevented only by the far left running a joke candidate that took votes from him. They will attempt to get to Mboka by emails, lunches and cocktails making him feel comfortable by whispering in his ear what he needs to do if he doesn’t want any trouble. I think he will be stronger than that but he is not a conservative by any means. If you see Mboka start showing up at Rob Dob’s, you will know he has been compromised.
Truly, a sad day for the Town of Normal. Even if the voting turn out was “historically” high, it still represented a very small percentage of people that lived in the town and were eligible to vote. It’s unfortunate that people did not take it more seriously. But I suppose that is what is perfect/imperfect of our system. Those who did take the time to cast a vote, voted for the person they thought would best represent their interests, but I don’t disagree with anything you’ve stated above — I just hope it doesn’t come true. Taxpayers in Normal can likely expect continued increases in their property tax, fuel tax, sales tax with little improvement to our infrastructure.
The only way McArthy didn’t get the exact same number of votes as Koos is because someone wasn’t paying attention. I just don’t believe this election. I bet the PAC completed ballots for more than a few people.
Congratulations Normal. You have your very own Joe Biden.
Koos voters likely don’t know Biden is a liar.
I was thinking the exact same thing
Biden is all about installing President Harris. Koos is all about installing Mayor McCarthy. I look for Kevin’s coronation in another year or two. Koos will step down, appoint Kevin and then AJ Zimmerman will fill McCarthy’s spot. You heard it here, maybe not first, but you heard it here.
At least the Napolean complex late night drunken rants Renner is gone. What a jerk!
Just goes to show that voter motivation is higher for those that get something from government, as opposed to those that wish to see it tamed. Koos has handed out so much taxpayer money, Town contracts, and other “goodies” that over time its created a sizeable and very, very motivated voting block. The Clique likely did its part to make sure the gravy train and status quo carried on. Imagine having to work more than 20 hours a week and deal with disruptive forces in an open marketplace. On another note, while I like Marc, I do think his campaign was one-dimensional. Saving money and fixing roads, I get it and agree with it, but it paints a very defensive posture for the Town and doesn’t illustrate a vision for the future. Don’t get me wrong, Koos has been horrific, to put it mildly, but politically he comes across as the optimistic, growth-minded, successful visionary, and entrepreneurial candidate. (He’s not any of these things of course, but the optics were there.)
Visionary and government are two words that don’t go together.
The ultimate nightmare for Chris and his contemporaries would have been anything around a forty percent turnout or above. Something in this community you never have to worry about. He likely got most of the votes from people employed by the town, the two universities, Elitist Clique members and the smattering of students that may still be living near campus ( but only in exchange for a handout of some sort). That pretty much can get you over the top in a municipal election here. People here are intellectually lazy and most are unconcerned about the workings of local government. It is why nothing ever changes for the better. They are easily convinced about what a neighbor may say, don’t want to ruffle feathers among members of their social tribes, and like the go along to get along structure that has defined BN for decades. Most are ignorant what they pay in taxes and how the municipalities spend the money and frankly, don’t care. See you at the dope shop followed by a night of drinking and ho herding at U Dubs.
My family said several times today how grateful we are to have left Normal for Texas 2 years ago. Sad day for our hometown.