Mayor’s Row…………..by Ned Mitchell
P. T. Barnum is once to have said “there is a sucker born every minute.” As fast
as things are moving in the world today we might need to bump that up to say two
or three suckers a minute! Elections always seem to bring the sucker out of not
only the candidates but more often than not the voter. We have a few races to
look at in our area and even though no endorsements will come from me in this
column we do need to take an educated look at the ballot.
Most precinct committeemen races are unopposed except for Benton Township that
has a race in 5 out of the seven precincts on the democrat side. There is one
other democrat precinct race and that is in Tyrone Township. Once the precinct
committeemen are elected they meet to select a county chairman. With Benton
Township having all of this activity on the precinct level, my guess is there is
a move underfoot to give incumbent county chairman Jim Eaton of Thompsonville a
run for his money. This is just pure speculation and rumors abound on the
subject.
The county coroner’s race finds Derek Johnson and Marty Leffler squaring off
against each other. Both men are from Benton and both have years of experience
and would serve in this position with distinction. No matter who wins this one
Franklin County residents will be well served as one of them takes the place of
long time Coroner Steve Leek of West Frankfort. Leek chose not to run again and
is retiring at the end of his term after serving us well for many years.
The hottest race in the county however is the race for Resident Circuit Judge to
replace the retiring Loren P. Lewis. Lewis has been a real public servant in
every sense of the title and we wish him well in retirement. Appearing in order
on the ballot are Tom Tedeschi who is presently an Assistant State’s Attorney in
Franklin County, Michael Rowland, a former Franklin County State’s Attorney from
Christopher and Robert Lewis of Benton who presently serves as an Associate
Circuit Judge.
Now the rumors are really flying in this race and I thought maybe we should
address some of those. Again, I assume that readers of this column are capable
of studying the candidates and making their own minds up as to who will be the
best man for the job. If Robert Lewis is nominated for Resident Circuit Judge
and is elected in November he would resign his present job and a replacement
would be selected. As I understand it there are 15 judges in the Second Judicial
Circuit who get together and appoint the Associate Circuit Judges. There are two
rumors running hot and heavy in this county race. Some democrats in Franklin
County feel that if Lewis is nominated the second place candidate would get the
nod to be Associate Circuit Judge. Others swear up and down if Lewis is
nominated and moves up the Associates job will leave Franklin County and go
north to Jefferson County and the name I hear most often mentioned by democrat
wags is that of Timothy Neubauer.
When Jefferson County Circuit Judge Jim Wexstten was appointed to fill the
vacancy of Terry Hopkins that created a vacancy in his position. Wexstten, a
democrat, was appointed to the Appellate Court by Republican Supreme Court
Justice Lloyd Karmeier. A republican, David Overstreet of Mt. Vernon was
appointed to fill Wexstten’s seat. I am here to tell you that Franklin County
democrats are still fuming about a republican being selected to fill a democrat
judge’s position. So if Robert Lewis leaves the Associate Circuit Judge
position, the 15 circuit judges will name his replacement and to the best of my
knowledge that person does not have to live in Franklin County. Franklin County
will only have 2 votes out of 15 to name a replacement should the need arise.
That could get interesting and democrats are picking sides at a fast pace. Any
of the 3 candidates will be well qualified to serve as our Resident Circuit
Judge.
The philosophical race is that of the one between Jim Wexstten and his
challenger Judy Cates of Swansea. Money is flowing here and that is disturbing.
Cates is a very successful attorney who has funded her own campaign to the tune
of about $700,000.00 of her own money. Cates to be a contender has had to pay
her own way and her thoughts are that by not having every Tom, Dick, and Harry
law firm throw cash at her she will not be obligated to anyone. This is a good
point.
One the other hand Jim Wexstten has taken money from just about every attorney
who has any success at all from all over the state. In reading the State Board
of Elections finance report on Wexstten it appears that a lot of lawyers have
been stricken with the five thousand dollaritis disease. I have never seen the
likes of so many lawyers all writing a check for the same amount, $5,000 within
days of each other. If I did not know better I would think some big wig law
firms have joined together and hired a pimp to shake their colleagues down.
Since January 1 Wexstten has averaged raising $7,554.00 per day. I don’t know
how many of you make that much per day but I am not even close so it is hard for
me to fathom. I have said it before; our court system should not be for sale.
The very least we should have is restrictions on how much money can be
collected, where it comes from and how much can be spent. You and I are being
sold down the river by some very rich law firms here and I wonder if there are
two suckers born every minute!
I certainly hope that each reader takes the time to study the candidates and
then make an informed decision on primary Election Day, February 5th. The best
of luck to all those who have placed their name on the ballot.
Several Sesser area residents recently joined Double R Bar owner Randy Gutzler
in a benefit pheasant hunt at Rend Lake. The hunters met at the Main Street bar
in Sesser early for breakfast and then headed out to hunt. They finished up the
day with an evening meal. All together the hunters collected $4,000.00 and
donated the money to the Brandon Dame scholarship at Rend Lake College. The
benefit was done in honor of Brandon’s late father Willard Dame and hopefully it
will become an annual event. You guys did well and we are proud of you for all
of your efforts to a very good cause. Randy had lots of good help in this event
but I won’t name them because I would surely leave someone out. You all know who
you are and we say thanks!
We are sorry to report the loss of a long time Sesser resident Donald Lewis. Don
and wife Sadie lived here for many years and only recently moved up north to be
near their children. Don always told me he was mean as a rattle snake and quite
often when I would be out of Sesser I would run into someone who would ask how
the rattle snake was. I knew immediately who they were talking about and Don and
I would always have a good laugh about that name!
George “Rusty” Eovaldi was honored Saturday by a surprise 80th birthday party.
Rusty was joined by many friends and family to celebrate his special day. The
event was held upstairs in the very nicely decorated banquet room.
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