Slates in the Township Elections

Yesterday I wrote about the defeat of Algonquin Township Highway Commissioner Bob Miller’s slate.

He backed Township Clerk Marc Munaretto for Supervisor against incumbent Dianne Klemm and Trustee candidates Dan Shea, Lowell Cutsforth, Neils Kruse and Bill Bligh for Trustee.

Only Shea emerged victorious.

See

Algonquin Township Board – The Times They Are a Changin’

Lee Jennings and "Iron Mike"

Lee Jennings and “Iron Mike”

Reflecting on the election, it occurred to me that there were also slates, formal and informal in Nunda and Grafton Township.

In Nunda Township, a sticker on the front page of the Sunday Northwest Herald heralded the linking of Township Supervisor candidate Lee Jennings with Road Commissioner candidate “Iron Mike” Lesperance. Presumably, Susan Jennings, running for Clerk was on the same slate, although not mentioned on the sticker.

Both Jennings and Lesperance won, albeit by tiny margins. Susan Jennings lost the Clerk’s race by a tiny margin as well.

In Grafton Township, the informal slate consisted of Township Supervisor candidate Marty Waitzman, Assessor candidate incumbent Bill Ottley and Road Commissioner candidate Tom Poznanski.

This slate had a strange twist with Township Supervisor candidate Pam Fender endorsing Poznanski.

These signs near the border of Algonquin and Grafton Townships lack only a sign for Marc Munaretto to show the two complete slates.

These signs near the border of Algonquin and Grafton Townships lack only a sign for Marc Munaretto to show the two complete slates.

In any event, only Poznanski emerged victorious.

So, what might one conclude about slates?

Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.

The most formal slate, as evidenced by Bob Miller’s candidates for Algonquin Township Trustee on joint signs he financed, got shot down.

Not by very much though.

In Nunda Township the Northwest Herald-revealed Jennings-Lesperance slate won, but barely.

What might be called the Grafton Township Establishment slate of Waitzman, Ottley and Poznanski emerged with only Poznanski in the winners’ column.


Comments

Slates in the Township Elections — 1 Comment

  1. You forgot one of the informal slates in Grafton Township, as evidenced in this article from last fall in FEN.

    As evidenced in the picture from that article, Grafton Supervisor Linda Moore and Assessor candidate Al Zielinski were running mates, albeit informal ones, given they held a joint campaign/food drive event for Linda Moore’s version of the Grafton food pantry, and in the pic, Linda Moore was actively campaigning for her now failed re-election bid. I guess we should include Moore’s husband, David, in the Moore-Zielinski slate since he ran a write-in campaign for trustee.

    Linda Moore is now on her way out, but both Zielinski and David Moore advanced to the April 9th election. Both will meet very stiff competition come April 9th, and if the goal of voters in Grafton Township is to move beyond the acrimony of Linda Moore’s term as supervisor, then voters will be wanting to purge ANY candidate with ties, even loose ones, to Linda Moore. This will doom her husband’s trustee candidacy, and will likely have an affect on Zielinski, too. Both face credible opponents in the April 9th election.

    Given Tom Poznanski won a clear mandate on Tuesday, and also the fact he’s the Grafton Township Republican Party chairman, it will be interesting to see if the Republican ticket will truly be unified as they face the Restore Grafton Township slate of independent candidates, as well as true independent trustee candidate Marci Gordon. If the Republican candidates can truly and genuinely unite, this will be a huge victory for Poznanski.

    However, the thought of Supervisor nominee Pam Fender and incumbent Trustee Betty Zirk campaigning side-by-side with Trustee nominee David Moore and Assessor nominee Al Zielinski is something we will likely not see. If we do, it will be Poznanski’s leadership, even the leadership of a kick in the pants of the Grafton Republican ticket, that will make it happen.

    We’ll be watching.

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