By: Diane Benjamin
Elections in Bloomington aren’t nonpartisan because the violators during the last local election faced no consequences. If your kids swipe cookies with no consequences, do they keep swiping cookies? Duh.
The City Code needs changed since it pretends candidates are nonpartisan. Pretending is over. Cody Hendricks, Jenna Kearns, and Abby Scott made it clear they were running as Democrats: https://blnnews.com/2025/03/25/cody-hendricks-chief-cheater/
Since they faced no consequences, Bloomington elites can break whatever rules they want while the rest of you peons get hauled into Administrative Court.
Mark Adams announced he is running for Ward 8. He wants your money and is using ActBlue for contributions. Donate at your own risk – ActBlue is under federal investigation for money laundering illegal contributions. One example: https://enjoyer.com/is-el-sayed-s-campaign-funded-by-elderly-fake-donors-actblue/
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mark-adams-1? (Link disabled on purpose)
Are Mark Adams and Tanner Starr (running in Normal) communists? They were endorsed by one and he claims they are in his “closest circles”:
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In just 2 years Bloomington went from Democrats breaking City Code to a communist supported candidate. Your future is higher taxes and no growth because your money needs redistributed for affordable housing and child care. I bet both of them really want the millions of tax dollars stolen from you for mental health. Expect housing and child care to become mental health issues. Of course, even millions is never enough.
Both have an easy path to victory with dismal voter turnout for local elections.
Book the U-Haul. It’s cheaper to rent one in the state you are moving to and drive it here. Demand makes the Illinois prices really high.
I wonder how someone can be a “non partisan” candidate but use the Democratic Act Blue site and tool.
“Thousands of Democratic campaigns and organizations use ActBlue to fundraise, organize, and win. Join them with a platform you can trust.”
“We are creating technology to shape our democracy and fuel Democratic wins. For over twenty years, our digital platform has lowered barriers for millions of people looking to make an impact and thousands of campaigns and organizations to build people-powered campaigns, making us the go-to choice for Democratic technology solutions.”
Andrew Franson must not want to be a teacher. With his track record, there’s not a principal anywhere that would hire him. Not one.
Mark Adams is on Unit 5 school board and started The Bloomington Land Trust. Tanner Starr is on the Normal Township council. Isn’t this a conflict of interest if they can funnel money and make decisions to the advantage of the boards and councils they are already on? I doubt they will give up any of those positions.
Mark Adams was also the lead member on the Unit 5 school board that raised your property taxes in the Bloomington/Normal school district. And was responsible for passing the 1% sales tax in McLean County. You don’t need this dipstick elected to take more of your money!
Fransen is a sophomore at ISU from Frankfort Illinois. Let that sink in. A part-time citizen from the hotbed of radical anarchy (ISU) is allowed to vote and run for office in Bloomington/Normal. They learn their worldview from professors who still think communism just needs one more revision, build sandcastles in local politics, win a race, and then relocate.
I wonder how many of them look back on their college years and laugh at how confidently wrong they were before adulthood smacked them with the bill for rent, groceries, and health insurance. I know I did.
But the damage is done, Bloomington/Normal gets transformed into a kind of comic book Bizarro World where people like Krystal Able, the Beirne-Scotts, Hendricks and others look like serious people. Without the ISU voting block they would all be non-entities today.
A high-turnout election is Bloomington/Normal’s only hope to escape from Bizzaro World.
Our local elections are non-partisan. In regards to local elections being nonpartisan in Illinois, the label of “nonpartisan” means that no party labels are listed on the ballot and that candidates get on the ballot via straight petitions rather than any sort of party primary or party selection process. So, yes, our elections do meet the criteria for being nonpartisan.
In regards to the local parties being active in those nonpartisan elections, that is indeed allowed. I can see people frowning upon it, but it isn’t illegal for that to happen. Local parties can endorse nonpartisan candidates, coordinate with them, and give them access to tools. And BOTH parties in Bloomington-Normal do that. The Republican Party is at least as active in that regard as the Democratic Party. Its not hard to find examples of the Republican party directly endorsing local candidates, training candidates, funding nonpartisan campaigns, etc. I can give you recipts on those claims if youd like, but its not hard to find them.
And in terms of using ActBlue, there is nothing that forbids candidates in nonpartisan elections from using that, just as right-leaning candidates can and do use WinRed throughout Illinois. And in terms of Trump trying to cast aspersions on ACTBLUE, well, we’ve seen firsthand endless lawfare from Trump’s Department of Justice, with the latest being those charges around the reflecting pool due to made-up accusations of “vandalism” that turned out to be false and the illegal surveillance and targeting of Comey. Can’t put any stock in anything this DoJ cooks up.
Guess you missed them campaigning as democrats. That violates City Code
Further comments will be deleted, just like your others
The DSA home office probably has a Chicago zip code. So yes, Diane is 100% correct.
Additionally, while reviewing this material, I noted that Andrew Franson should improve his grammar. The phrase “also do other things too” is a poorly constructed sentence for a college student.