Thursday, April 11, 2013
Matt Bogusz, 26, garnered 54.98 percent of the votes, and is set to be the youngest mayor in Des Plaines' history.
In a meteoric rise in public office, Matt Bogusz was elected Mayor of Des Plaines, the youngest to serve in the role in the city’s history, on Tuesday. Bogusz, 26,surrounded by family and friends at a small Italian restaurant downtown, stood tall atop a chair, announced the latest voting results, and thanked his supporters. “There were a number of individuals on this team that contributed hours, days, months of their lives to helping us win,” Bogusz said. “So I was maybe the mascot at best on this team.” Bogusz began as an intern for Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook), worked on the Des Plaines Special Events Commission, on the Des Plaines Public Library board, and served as Third Ward Alderman from 2009 to 2013. Bogusz will be the …
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Third Ward Alderman Matt Bogusz told a restaurant filled with supporters Saturday morning he is running for mayor of Des Plaines.
At the historic Choo-Choo Restaurant in downtown Des Plaines, Third Ward Alderman Matt Bogusz told a room packed with supporters, “I’m running for mayor.” The crowd responded with cheers and loud applause. Bogusz made the announcement flanked by Rep. Elaine Nekritz, of the 57th Illinois House District, a Democrat from Northbrook, and Jean Paxton, owner of the Choo-Choo. Bogusz told supporters that when the city was threatening to tear down the Choo-Choo Restaurant in 2008, he created a website, savethechoochoo.com, to ask those in favor of preserving the landmark restaurant to submit notes of support that could be sent to the city. Des Plaines officials received more than 8,000 emails in support of preserving the Choo-Choo, Bogusz said. …
Monday, August 20, 2012
A special legislative session in Springfield last week made no progress. Here, Patch rounds up reactions from local politicians and residents.
No one ever said getting the pension issues inline with Illinois’ budget would be easy. The Illinois General Assembly failed to act at the special session Friday on the matter of the pension debt that is estimated to be anywhere from $80 to $90 billion. The issue is not likely to be acted on again until after the general election. The cost to taxpayers for the session was $40,000. The only vote taken was in the House on Legislators curbing their own pensions. That measure received 54 yes votes, 53 votes opposed, and six votes short of passage. Gov. Pat Quinn, who called for the special session in July, blamed Republican leadership. “Each day we wait to enact comprehensive pension reform, the problem gets worse,” Quinn said in a statement…
Monday, January 9, 2012
Moody’s devalues Illinois debt rating to lowest among all 50 states. Biss and Nekritz also voice concerns.
Local elected officials reacted with criticism and others with potential solutions when Moody’s downgraded Illinois’ debt to A2 from A1 Friday, making an investment in the state’s bonds potentially the riskiest of all 50 states’ securities. Illinois had been tied with California at the bottom of the list, according to the Bloomberg News Service, until Friday’s action put it alone at the bottom. State Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest), who is retiring at the end of her term in a year, called for the entire Illinois General Assembly to work together to do something about getting the rating higher again. “This is somber news and a very great challenge for Illinois,’ Garrett said. “We’ve come to a crossroads and must find a solution in a …
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Senator says mounting federal debt could hurt northern suburbs.
Towns, school districts and park boards have a higher cost of doing business because of Illinois’s deepening debt, according to the Report on Illinois Debt released Tuesday by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Highland Park). Kirk appeared with two members of his debt advisory panel, Ron Bernardi of Lake Forest and Henry Feinberg of Chicago, to ask state government to improve the situation during a news conference Tuesday, with the intention of making the business climate in Illinois as appealing as climates found in neighboring states like Indiana and Wisconsin. “With the pantomime of governors of other states luring business away from Illinois, we have to do something to keep business here” Kirk said. “We are the fifth largest manufacturing state and …
Monday, September 26, 2011
Supporters press representatives on efforts to create jobs.
Job creation was the topic foremost on people’s minds as they gathered to help candidates of their choice for Congress and other offices circulate nominating petitions due Dec. 5 for the March 20 primary ballot Saturday throughout the area. At the Wheeling and Palatine Township Democratic Organization Office in Arlington Heights, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) told an overflowing crowd of more than 60 people that supporting the efforts to pass President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act was her top priority. “If we want to create jobs then we create jobs. That is what the President is doing with his bill,” Schakowsky said. “When you put money in schools you have to hire people to do the work. They go out and spend the money." Finding …
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
May and Nekritz plan to stay in State House.
Veteran state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) said today she will not seek reelection in the 2012 general election, setting up an open seat race in a district she has represented since it was drawn by the General Assembly 10 years ago. Garrett will serve the remainder of her term, which expires in January, 2013. She will retire from public life, according to a news release she sent today. Garrett currently represents all or part of Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Highwood, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glencoe, Northbrook, Glenview and Des Plaines. The new 29th State Senate District will include less of Glencoe, Glenview and Northbrook, but take in part of Buffalo Grove. “It was a pretty easy decision,” Garrett said. “I’ve accomplished a lot …
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Legislature passes budget; pension reform will wait.
An Illinois state budget that will reduce spending by approximately $3 billion from the last fiscal year passed the state Senate Monday night and will go to Gov. Patrick Quinn for his signature. The spending plan is $1 billion less than Quinn originally proposed. The total budget package for the 2012 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is $59.1 billion, according to information provided by state Senate President John J. Cullerton’s (D-Chicago) office. Despite the cuts, local legislators felt the process was painful but more open and bipartisan than in the past. Debate was difficult but it produced the best possible results in a difficult economy, state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) said. “You may not agree with the outcome, but there…
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
We crunched numbers, watched the wires and stayed up late. Here's what happened in the 2010 midterm election.
- ELECTIONS
- A.M. Cole
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Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The results are (mostly) in. If you were following along with us and our live-blogging of the election returns, you know it was an interesting evening. If you're just joining us, here's what happened... Gubernatorial race At 1 a.m. the gubernatorial race was too close to call with thousands of ballots left to be counted. Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn leads by about 8,000 votes as of Wednesday morning but Republican Bill Brady has not conceded. Both candidates came forward and spoke to their supporters. Around 12:07 a.m., Brady said that all votes and voices were going to be accounted for. "We're going to make sure the process is done right," he said. And, at 12:58 a.m., Quinn emerged from his hotel room. "The people have won and I …
In a Republican-dominated election, 57th District House Democratic incumbent Elaine Nekritz captured 60 percent of the vote.
Around 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, 57th District state representative candidate Richard Hamen joined supporters at Prospect Heights sports bar Rocky Vander's. Supporters had gathered to back Hamen and watch election returns. Early optimism waned by 7:30 p.m. when initial precincts reported Hamen trailed Nekritz with 40 percent of the vote counted. Subsequent precinct results did little to narrow the margin and by the end of the night, with all the votes counted, Nekritz secured a fifth term win with 61.11 percent of the vote to Hamen's 38.89 percent. A major issue for voters was Illinois' current budget crisis. Hamen, who stressed that a balanced budget is constitutionally mandated, advocated cutting waste to raise revenue. Tax hikes …
Edie Behnke
10:54 am on Sunday, April 28, 2013
Time will tell all you Arredia supporters...time will tell. Never seen a campaign run as bad as Arredia's. Right from the start you pushed Republican against Democrate. Very very unwise thing to do in this election as all ran as an Independent. Here we had a young man, and you went after his age yet failed to see that you had on the other side and old man. Going on 80 yrs. old? The truth is you … more ›