Campaign signs strategically planted around town remind voters Consolidated Election season is here. And who’d have thought an important local election would be set for April Fool’s Day?
Since the first time we voted in April 1993 shortly after our move here, Naperville has grown by nearly 60,000 residents and new organizations have developed with devoted membership right along with it.
Note also local consolidated elections have become inundated with public forums where candidates are welcomed to address potential voters.
By 2019, longtime forum organizers and regular attendees had begun wondering if there’s a more efficient way to educate the community. For several election cycles, we had observed the increased demand on candidates. Most had jobs, families and served on other boards. Could there be a better way to showcase qualified candidates?
Considering myriad questionnaires from local media (PN used to ask, too.), all with deadlines, in addition to preparing for fundraising events, all good candidates must give up a lot to keep up in order to have a good run.
By the 2021 Consolidated Election, we’d vowed to readers (hopefully, voters) to check interest in consolidating public forums. In late 2022, PN booked three months of Tuesdays in Council Chambers, dates when City Council didn’t meet. With use of a City meeting room, we also organized a round table discussion that included organizations known for hosting public forums.
Twelve individuals attended the roundtable including representatives from Naperville League of Women Voters, Naper Area Chamber of Commerce and NCTV17, all known for hosting forums. We were optimistic when we pitched the idea to unite groups. We suggested that each group would come up with a set of questions.
All said, in the spirit of cooperation, our desire to present a time-saving schedule of collaborative forums aimed to attract larger audiences was met without much interest.
We admitted defeat. Then candidates contacted us with encouraging words to keep trying. We wondered how to continue.
Then in a stroke of positive thinking, Rob Williams, co-chairman of the Senior Task Force at the time, contacted the City with a request for his organization to host City Council and Mayoral candidate forums. Long story short, Williams’ request came to us, we ran with it and contacted Bob Fischer from the Naperville Area Homeowner Confederation to engage his group for help with logistics.
We secured two friendly emcees: Mark Wright hosted the two City Council forums, and Pablo Araya presented three candidates for Mayor. And the rest is history.
Fast forward to 2025. Several months ago we were asked if we’d be hosting City Council forums. At the time, we didn’t know how many candidates would be on the ballot, but we figured we would. Time passed, time filled up, and we realized we had little time to organize forums this year.
PN’s listing of candidate forums is longer than ever. And it’s likely not all-inclusive.
Let us add we’re so very pleased to note Mark Wright again will be featured during candidate forums, this time during programs hosted by NCTV17.
Thanks to all for your encouragement and interest. Here’s hoping you’ll be an informed voter who casts a ballot by 7PM Tues., April 1.
—PN
One more thing… Here’s the link to PN’s Voters Guide, a popular post with a long list of candidate fundraising events, meet & greets, and public forums. Thanks for visiting often as this Voters Guide will be updated with educational opportunities during February and March. As always, thanks for reading!
