Republican Dirty tricks highlight local elections

In Downers Grove/DuPage county in the state of Illinois, we have a local election for school district trustees, township officials and community college trustees. This is supposed to be a non-partisan election(no parties are shown on the ballots) and has usually gone fairly easily....always to 90% republicans...until this year.

Obama won this area's vote--first time a democrat won the race for presidency since I don't know when(Clinton didn't), the 13th congressional district was very close--Judy Bigot...err. Biggert had a big scare when Scott Harper only lost by less than 5 percentage points(she only got about 53% of the vote).

Along with that has been the arrogant refusal to come clean in township business--instead of transparency, citizens must use FOIA requests to find out many of the dealings and how our taxes are used. Our community college, College of DuPage, has been paying the salaries of 3 presidents due to issues with the board/presidents(one of which was pretty much locked out of decision making by the board. He has gone on to work at a well known and highly respected university in the area). there were allegations of sexual harrasment by one of the incumbants, the board decided to rewrite the policies at the school, including that all professors/adjunct teachers must get all classwork/curricula approved by the board--and <b>none</b> of these board members have an educational background!

So, we dems figure we have a pretty good chance of changing this area's government for the better. Everyone that is running through the democratic party for college trustees(this is a non paid position) have educational backgrounds, one just retired from COD within the last couple of years(she was a counselor), one works at the University of Illinois(Chicago campus), one just graduated from COD and was the student trustee on the board last year.

For the township offices(which pay anywhere from $40K to $90 annually...for part time work), our slate includes a woman whose background is in industrial engineering, with certification in hazmat. Registered Environmental Manager, and Chartered Industrial Gas Consultant.  Another person on our slate is a small businessman who's been very successful in his life(I'd say more, but I can't remember and can't find the paper--that's what happens when you wake up at 4a.m.!). The endorsements start coming in and are in favor of many of the democratic candidates, specially on the school boards and COD's board trustees. So, looks like a pretty good time for the local election of some democratic candidates to finally get voted into office right? Well, if we were all honest...

This Friday, 4 days before the election, I receive 2 letters in the mail with no return addresses--that to me is suspect. It usually means somebody trying to sell me something! I was close. I open the first one up and see its from The <i>Downers Grove Education Advocates</i>, a group I've never heard of before. the other one was marked(although there was a place for a signature, no one signed it) <i>Democrats for Local Government</i>. Only thing is that all of the candidates that are endorsed in these letters are actually the <b>republican candidates!</b>

I look up the Downers Grove Education Advocates, but find nothing on them, no mention of them on any associations, no legal information, nothing--just a made up name. Now, there was some money spent or at least some expertise on designing the bogus mail--these people were lying, but they did put it in a pretty picture. The other one which was unsigned, but had a space for a signature, looked like someone whipped it off from their computer. Both of these used regular .42 stamps and plain white envelopes--they may have gone "cheap", but the postage cost a pretty penny.

I'm hoping that enough people know something about this election that they don't fall for dirty tricks...and these repugs love screaming about the dems tricks....ya know what they say--those that yell the loudest are usually the guiltiest--and that's a saying that's true in DuPage County.