ROGER MONROE

Native Peorian and U.S. Federal Judge Jim Shadid has been named the new president of Bradley University. He replaces Dr. Stephen Standifird, who resigned last June.

The 67-year-old Shadid graduated from Bradley in 1979 and from the John Marshall School of Law in 1983. He was nominated as Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2011. He served as Chief Judge from 2012 to 2019 and assumed senior status of the court in September of last year. Shadid was an adjunct faculty member at Bradley from 2004 to 2011.

He’s the son of George and Lorraine Shadid. His father was well-known in the community, first as a city police officer, then as Peoria County Sheriff, followed by election as state senator from 1993 to 2006. George Shadid died in 2018 and Lorraine last November. We congratulate Jim Shadid on becoming the 13th president of Bradley University.

Our coverage of this news story has been exclusive. We disclosed on our morning show on WAZU-FM 90.7 a week earlier that school trustees had narrowed the nationwide search to three finalists. At 6 a.m. Friday, March 14, we announced on “Breakfast with Roger and Friends” that Judge Shadid had been selected as Bradley president. It was followed by a story on bradleyfans.com on the Internet. Shadid appeared for a “live” in-studio interview on our program March 18. We’ve known Judge Shadid and his parents for many years. He will make a great president serving with another native Peorian, Chris Reynolds, who is Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at BU.

RACE FOR MAYOR: We also scooped local TV and radio news reporters on another story of interest when we revealed that Second District Councilman Chuck Grayeb was scheduled to announce his support for the re-election of Mayor Rita Ali. We told listeners the morning of March 7 that Grayeb and Mayor Ali would hold a news conference on March 10 for Grayeb to endorse Ali.

Grayeb was upset that fellow councilman John Kelly, who edged Grayeb for second place in the primary by 109 votes, had misrepresented Grayeb’s position on some key campaign issues in a direct mail piece. Grayeb called the mailer erroneous and Ali said attacks on her were “a piece of garbage.”

The Mayor and Kelly have appeared at two candidate forums. Both were relatively civil. Public television WTVP officials were out of breath because Kelly canceled his participation in a scheduled taped debate. Channel 47 folks were upset, but both candidates appeared for a debate on WEEK-TV.

The race for Mayor is non-partisan. Allegedly. Some years ago, some not-so-wise politicians decided to make the contest for City Hall leadership less political. What a farce that movement was and is. How many people reading this do not know that Ali is a Democrat and Kelly is a Republican? The last time I voted for someone without knowing what political party they supported was for senior class president at Woodruff High School in 1951.

The Peoria County Election Commission said about 18% of registered voters participated in the primary, which is nothing to brag about. I blame, in part, the lack of participation on local media. I don’t think any of the commercial radio stations promoted the election or the candidiates except for WAZU and WCBU. The TV stations were better, but not much. The radio stations have an aversion to helping unless candidates buy time.

OTHER RACES: There are some other important election contests. One of those is the race for the office of Peoria Township Supervisor, otherwise known as the Office of General Assistance.

LaTrina Leary is seeking re-election. She defeated incumbent Frank Abdnour in the Democratic primary four years ago by just two votes. Abnour is seeking to regain the office as an independent candidate. Anita Meeker is the Republican on the April 1 ballot. My father, Zack O. Monroe, managed the office for 40 years after serving on the City Council for eight years. I don’t think anyone served more years in public service for Peoria. Abdnour not only has the experience to return as Supervisor, he says, but wants to see development of a center for seniors and has been working with Graceland Center for Purposeful Living to make it happen.

There’s competition for City Treasurer between former councilman Jim Montelongo and Brooke Petty Sommerville. That will be close.

Speaking of the council, four of the five districts have races. In District 1, former WEEK-TV news anchor Denise Jackson is up for re-election. James Kemper is giving her a run for the money.

Unfortunately, District 2 no longer will be represented by Grayeb. Instead, voters will choose either Estrella Diaz or Alex Carmona. Diaz has some pretty radical positions. She wanted Peoria to condemn Israel and opposed a city ordinance to control homeless encampments.

No race in District 3 as Tim Riggenbach is unopposed. However, 4th District representative Andre Allen is fighting for retention against James Messmore. Former Peoria hockey player Dennis Cyr wants to retain his 5th District seat at the City Hall horseshoe, and he’s spending some bucks to be successful. His opponent is Hind Abi-Akar. To be honest, I have no idea who she is.

DO IT. JUST DO IT. VOTE: Peorians should be embarrassed by the 18% turnout in the primary. Let’s hope voters will surpass that number on election day, April 1. There are a lot of issues facing the Mayor and Council from crime to downtown development to local business expansion and jobs. There’s an old saying, “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.”

So come election day, just do it. Vote!

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt