Peoria has a new mayor. After a short stint as a member of the City Council, Ali was elected mayor, defeating fellow Councilman Jim Montelongo. It was a close race. At the end of election day, Tuesday, April 6, Montelongo had a 73 vote lead. But, mail-in ballots enabled Ali to win going away.

While it was a short election road for the new mayor, it hasn’t been easy. When Councilman Chuck Weaver resigned to be appointed state senator, Ali was one of several to apply for Weaver’s seat. She didn’t get it. Sid Ruckriegel did. Then Ali ran for City Council’s 5th District. She lost by one vote to Denis Cyr.

Undaunted, Ali ran as an at-large candidate and won. When Jim Ardis announced he was not going to seek re-election, Ali quickly decided to throw her political hat in the ring. She won.

Peoria has had a succession of outstanding mayors. Jim Maloof and Jim Ardis were both that. Outstanding.

Rita faces some challenges, but let’s be clear. Contrary to questions asked during the two televised mayoral debates on WEEK and WMBD television stations, the mayor is not an administrator or a manager.

“What are you going to do to bring jobs to Peoria?” and “What can you do to help small businesses?” are questions for the city manager and his staff who work for the City Council.The mayor and City Council set policy. We have a city manager form of government. Like others before her, the mayor is a collaborator, a cheerleader, a goodwill ambassador, the face of Peoria for its citizens. Her opinions are important. In the end, she has but one vote. Her first challenge is to win the support and cooperation of a new council. That will happen. Rita has a pleasant demeanor and charming personality and lots of enthusiasm.

Her second challenge is working with council members to select a new police chief. Already, there’s conflict. Some community members want to have a voice in the selection process. Most know why. Ali will have to mediate that segment of the city and how she handles it will signal her leadership style and philosophy.

Who’s next?

It will be up to the new council to determine who will be appointed to replace Ali as an at-large representative. Don’t be surprised to see the names of candidates who ran unsuccessfully, like Gale Thetford, Peter Kobak, or even Denise Moore who was defeated by Denise Jackson. Other possible names include Chama St. Louis, Andres Diaz, Frank Abdnour, former county board member Bill O’Brien, Aaron Chess, James Kemper, Ryan Hite, and Brooke Sommerville. Local political group, “Change Peoria,” will certainly push for a candidate of their choice.

Election postmortem

This is an opinion column. Here are my opinions about recent local elections. I was disappointed that former State Senator Chuck Weaver decided at the last minute to drop out of the primary race for mayor. He had important credentials like experience, knowledge and wisdom, grace and diplomacy as well as the money to run an efficient campaign. It’s still a mystery why he withdrew. Too bad he didn’t face the media and explain his decision. He owed that to his supporters.

As inferred earlier, the televised debates between Ali and Montelongo were poorly organized and managed. Both candidates were uncomfortable and so were some viewers. Questions were benign and irrelevant for the most part and hosts showed lack of Peoria politics reflecting their newness to central Illinois. Screeners blocked important questions like, “What are your views about Peoria School District members changing the names of city schools?” Several people told me they called Channel 25 with that question, but the station, like Google, Twitter and others on the national level, censored their request.

The biggest surprise on election day was the resounding defeat of First District Council member Denise Moore. She lost to long-time southender Denise Jackson, 899 to 380, or 70.29% to 29.71%. Moore was the only council incumbent to lose. Chuck Grayeb won easily in the Second District, as did Tim Riggenbach in the Third and Denis Cyr in District Five.

Chief Deputy Clerk Stephanie Tarr was elected to replace the retiring City Clerk Beth Ball. She defeated Shawn Allen who seemed to do no campaigning for the office. Yet he lost by only 1,150 votes thanks to the ”Change Peoria” folks. Unreported by local media was the fact that Shawn Allen is a brother of Andre Allen who was elected to the City Council from the Fourth District. That happened when Steve Kouri withdrew to take a position with the Illinois Human Rights Commission.

In somewhat of a surprise, attorney Steve Morris defeated Brooke Petty Sommerville for Peoria City Treasurer. I say that because Sommerville received the most votes in the primary.

Media Notes

Since the death of Rush Limbaugh, the three-hour time slot on Westwood One’s network has been dwindling in size. The latest and largest station to drop the program is WLS in Chicago. Locally, WMBD, big supporter of right wing radio with the likes of Glenn Beck and others, is still hanging on, using outdated and old Limbaugh narratives. Former New York policeman and Secret Service agent Dan Bongino will try to retain the Limbaugh audience starting May 24.

Don’t mind saying that the best local coverage of the trial of Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin has been on “Breakfast with Roger and Friends” on FM 90.7. Peoria defense attorney Kevin Sullivan on Wednesdays and retired attorney Mike Dentino on Thursdays have been exclusively analyzing the court case.

We also welcome back retired physician Dr. Gene Sidler. No radio or TV program has provided more “inside” medical information about the coronavirus than our morning show, thanks to the expertise of Dr. Sidler.

Quote of the month

“Life doesn’t come with a manual. It comes with a Mother.”

-Unknown