Midterm elections: rallying ’round the flag?

The midterm election is days away and – apart from campaigns – both major political parties and community groups are engaging with citizens about the Bigger Picture: voting.

There have been claims about the reliability of voting machines or mail-in ballots, and concerns about the seizure of ballots or Congress refusing to certify results, so groups’ priorities may differ, but a common goal is helping to ensure an honest election accessible to U.S. citizens registered to vote.

“We have an election facing us right now,” said Claude Cummings, President of the Communications Workers of America. “We have a responsibility as a labor movement to have the tools to ensure working people can participate, no matter what comes at them.”

For Illinois, early voting has started. In Peoria, the Election Commission has daily opportunities to cast ballots in-person at its Brandywine Drive offices, expanded weekend hours Oct. 24-24 and Oct. 31-Nov. 1, and has early-voting hours at 11 other polling places throughout the county [See https://www.peoriaelections.gov/174/Early-Voting ]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 25 issued an emergency order letting the Trump administration to use a data base it created to check registered voters’ citizenship status (a version of the Systematic Alien Verification  for Entitlements (SAVE) Act, which was not approved by the U.S. Senate.) The opinion noted that individualized checks are permitted but not mass voter-roll purges, and three Justices disagreed.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in a 12-page dissent, stressed that the majority’s decision created the conditions for some states to cancel the voter registrations of at least some U.s. citizens or to force them to provide proof of citizenship before voting.

“The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” said Jackson joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

The Washington Spectator online newsletter in late August published a story by Mark Medish and Joel McCleary speculating that some government officials could consider seizing ballots, draft an Emergency Order taking control of the election on the basis of fraud, foreign interference or other claims.

Testifying before Congress, FBI Director Kash Patel on Sept. 15 refused to rule out the possibility of federal agents at the polls, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullins in March and again Sept. 1 said he can’t guarantee that Immigration and  Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents won’t be at polling places.

So: Lawsuits have been filed to protect the process. In mid-September a coalition made up of the Urban League and unions including the Painters, Teachers, SEIU and the UCFW to prevent voter suppression.

“Our polling sites shouldn’t look like armed camps,” said Painters President Jimmy Williams Jr.

A week earlier, another group comprised of Common Cause, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and Denver’s elected Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez sued to seek assurance that the federal government will follow the law and not interfere with election proceedings.

“The whole idea was to prevent voter intimidation,” said Bethany Li, executive director at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, representing nine clients in the case. “And that's exactly what we're seeing now from the federal government.”

As the 65-page lawsuit from unions and others states, “Neither the Constitution nor federal law grants federal agencies any role in assessing or policing voter eligibility or regulating election administration. Federal law expressly prohibits sending armed federal agents to voting locations.”

Indeed, the federal law (18 U.S.C. § 592) states, “Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.”

Cummings, from the CWA, added, “If anyone tries to intimidate our people, or silence them, we will not stand by and do nothing. We will use every tool at our disposal, whether it’s in the halls of the legislature, in the courts or in the streets, we will do everything in our power to make sure our voices are heard.”

Elsewhere, Operation Vote Safe, a nonpartisan voter-protection effort, has said it’s enlisting trained volunteers including fire fighters, clergy, veterans, and respected local figures to protect access to the voting booth; some states are helping counties recruit poll workers, filling positions that help set up or break down polling places, greet and check in voters, issue and transport ballots, and other support assignments; and the National Bar Association last month announced an initiative to help voters, Republicans and Democrat, understand what seem like last-minute changes and to create a helpline: 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).

Civic organizations and nonpartisan advocates such as the League of Women Voters and Vote Safe are taking action:

* The AFL-CIO plans to recruit 50,000 “election protection” volunteers to be present agt select polling locations and volunteer for emergency hotlines “to ensure that no one is intimidated into not exercising their basic rights.”

* Peoria County Republicans have an “Ensure Election Integrity” program to organize poll watchers, help fill Election Judge openings and consider working with the Board of Elections Committee, and invited interested people to email 309aces@gmail.com. Peoria’s GOP Election Integrity captain Deb Weiss said, “We are focused on ensuring a free and fair election through our poll watcher program and election judge recruitment efforts, which helps provide transparency and integrity at the polling places. If anyone is interested in poll watching in Peoria for the Peoria County Republican Central Committee, our email is pollwatcherspeoria@gmail.com.

* The Peoria City Council last month approved a policy providing eight hours of normal pay for city workers appointed to serve as Election Judges.

* The Tri-County Fired Up for Democracy group is “encouraging people to be Election Judges,” said Mari Osborne.

* NAACP Peoria has conducted voter educational town halls with the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria (LWVGP), and has an Oct. 12 event at noon at Peoria Friendship House of Christian Service on NE Madison, according to the civil-rights organization’s Political Action Chair Jackie Petty.

* The LWVGP will observe the testing of voting equipment “so that we can attest to its accuracy and be able to assure voters that it’s a fair process kin which all eligible votes will by counted,” LWVGP President Chris Kaergard said. Also, the League statewide is encouraging turnout and set up an informative textbank service (available by searching for the ‘League in Action” app on your smartphone).

* The Democratic Party through its state organizations on Sept. 14 announced a “New Battlefield Project” intending to enlist 10,000 volunteers to watch over polling places, and in Peoria, “we plan to have poll watchers at select polling places on Election Day. Additionally, with the heightened focus by Trump on vote-by-mail, we will have someone at all of the VBM processing at the Election Commission this year,” said Rick Fox, chair of Peoria County Democrats Central Committee.

* Peoria 50501, which has been key to “No Kings” rallies, has scheduled two events: An Oct. 17 rally from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Main and University Streets in Peoria to “encourage every eligible voter has a plan to vote – to register, vote early, and help save our democracy. Two weeks later, on Oct. 31 – Halloween – “we'll gather near the Peoria County Election Commission for a ‘Treat Yourself to Early Voting!’ effort,” said Jim Haptonstahl. “The Commission is open for early voting that Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Why unions endorse political candidates

Labor in the 21^st century is powered by technology as well as an engaged rank and file, but effectively organizing for an election relies on members’ “boots on the ground” and union household turnout. That in turn demands a union international or local to look at political candidates’ records or their pledges to represent the interests of regulars working people, determine candidates’ positions and credibility, and endorse their candidacy.

It’s an approach akin to the tried-and-true maxim “Educate. Agitate. Organize.”

Political endorsements are educational in an informative way, because an endorsement isn’t requiring an individual’s action, but requesting their attention to connections between labor’s needs and government’s role in providing them.

“Like it or not, our duty at the United Association and all our local unions is to our membership,” said Mark McManus, General President of the United Association. “We advocate for our members’ jobs and way of life. And that means getting involved in politics to ensure we are not left behind.

“Because we get involved [with elected officials as well as manufacturers, contractors, inspectors and trade associations], our voice is louder than ever.”

The union of plumbers, pipefitters and allied trades must participate in a democracy, whether within a union or the system in which it operates.

“The sideline is no place for the UA to be when the stakes are this high,” he added.
Craig Chladny, president of central Illinois’ Local 193 of the International Alliance Theatrical Stage Employees, says endorsements are informative for the rank and file and also a notice to those who are endorsed that they’re expected to be accountable to supporters.

“Local union endorsements can not only help inform our members about which candidates are looking out for our collective best interests,” said Chladny, who’s also executive vice president of the West Central Illinois Labor Council, “but also remind the candidates who they're going to be representing in office.”

Unions can be key in elections, too, whether a municipal contest with a candidate against Prevailing Wages, or a national race where a candidate whose history shows opposition to labor.

Besides always-relevant issues at the core of organized labor – wages, hours and working conditions –

November’s midterm election is especially timely for working people facing an affordability crisis, a constitutional crisis and an economy and political system increasingly run by the wealthy.

“Workers are ready for an economy, a government and a country for us, not the billionaires,’ said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “We built this country – and by voting for pro-worker candidates in this election, we can take our country back.”

Of course, union members are no more uniform across-the-board in their beliefs than all women, all rural residents or all minority Americans agree on all things.

“That’s good,” McManus said. “Our job is to call balls and strikes and to do what is best for our membership. Our job is to sort through the noise and present the facts on the issues that directly impact United Association’s members’ jobs, wages and retirement security.

“Our membership has so much more in common than things we allow to keep us divided.”

Labor has been effective, too.

According to exit-poll data from Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, union households “punched above their weight” in recent national elections. U.S. union members total about 16 million, but that’s less than 12% of the work force. However, in 2024 Roper reported union households accounted for about 20% of all voters nationwide. That held steady from 2020’s 20% and up from 2016’s 18%.

Speaking with The Labor Paper, Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea has said, “Union members trust their unions to provide election information, including endorsements. People vote for many reasons, but we’ve seen across the board that union members and their families look for facts about the issues and candidates that affect their work and home life. Unions provide the information they can take when they weigh their choices on the ballot.”
Endorsements are part of engagement and voting is having a voice.

One of organized labor’s founders, Samuel Gompers, in 1906 he summarized labor’s response to politicians and other power-brokers: “Reward our friends and punish our enemies.”

Richard Pryor to be focus of new Peoria Riverfront Museum exhibit

Years in the making, a Richard Pryor exhibition is being assembled at the Peoria Riverfront Museum for a mid-October opening.

“Not long after we opened, we asked ourselves, ‘What show should we do?’ and Richard Pryor immediately came up,” said chief curator Bill Conger. “Well, we’re done waiting.

“His career was historic in so many ways,” he continued. “He broke down barriers, and his significant work was as a great entertainer and storyteller but also a thinker.

“Some people think they know all about Pryor,” he added, “and others may have no memory of him at all. So this will be a fresh take on Richard, offering something new, and something for a younger audience.”

Planned to remain on display for several months, the exhibit will follow two related “Peoria Plays America” exhibitions – on Dan Fogelberg (ending Oct. 4) and REO Speedwagon’s Gary Richrath (which ended in April) – and will be one of the last displays in the museum’s year-long series of exhibitions marking 250 years of American art, culture and accomplishments.

Conger and assistant curator Everley Davis hope to include material ranging from clips and a wax study borrowed from Peoria’s African American Hall of Fame Museum, to the unveiling of a special piece of art by Felandus Thames commissioned by the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

Pryor made a profound impact, and we don’t want that history to be lost,” Conger said.

Peoria County starts consideration of proposed wind farm

About an hour before Peoria County’s Zoning Board of Appeals started days of hearings about Four Creek’s proposed wind farm, a heavy-haul semi-truck carrying a long windmill blade passed Interstate 74’s Kickapoo-Edward Road exit, and one wondered whether yard signs or county hearing notices would withstand strong winds.

More than 100 people were at the Holiday Inn / Grand Prairie on Sept. 14 for the first day of testimony, and at press time a few more hearings had occurred with far fewer people in attendance. The first round was set to conclude Sept. 18, with separate hearings scheduled for Sept. 28-Oct. 1. The ZBA will then make its finding, and if any Special Use or Rezoning changes are suggested, the county’s Land Use Committee will review them and forward its recommendations to the County Board.

Four Creeks has opportunities to appeal to the Circuit Clerk.

In the works for about four years, Four Creeks’ proposal is to build 113 turbines, each more than 600 feet tall, in an area between 27,000 and 40,00 acres in Brimfield, Jubilee, Millbrook and Princeville townships in northwest Peoria County. If approved, the $1.5 billion project could be online in 2029, when it would generate about 500 megawatts (MW) of energy, potentially powering more than 160,000 Illinois homes a year.

Opponents – dozens of whom having hired Rockford attorney Rick Porter to represent them – cite concerns such as possible effects on broadcast reception, noise, appearance, risks to birds and effects on property values.

Supporters – Four Creeks is represented by Peoria Heights attorney Seth Uphoff – stress financial benefits to area taxing bodies and landowners willing to host the wind turbines, hundreds of jobs during months of construction, and a sustainable source of power the area needs, according to project manager Carson Robers.

Four Creeks estimates that the wind farm will give school districts in Brimfield, Princeville, Stark County and Wialliamsfield together about $199 million over a 40-year operation, or about $5 million annually. Although landowner terms are confidential, those agreeing to have towers on their land get between $8,000 and $33,000 a year, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

Four Creeks Wind Project is owned by Repsol, a publicly traded global corporation based in Madrid, Spain, with more than 2,000 subsidiaries including Repsol Energy North America and Repsol Renewables.

Repsol builds and runs low-carbon power generation via wind farms and solar installations, and invests in renewable hydrogen, biofuels and electric charging stations. It was one of the first major energy companies to commit to achieving zero net emissions by 2050.

Repsol, which reported an annual net income of $2.073 billion USD) for fiscal year 2025, also works to find and extract crude oil and natural gas, refines oil into fuels, asphalts and other products, distributes products commercially, including a network of service stations, and delivers electricity, natural gas and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) to households.

Presiding over the ZBA hearings was retired judge Scott Shore; attorney Andy Keyt was on hand to represent Peoria County.

5 Questions for Marty Wombacher, a can-do creator

If you tell Marty Wombacher he shouldn’t do something, he won’t hear of it – and it has nothing to do with his hearing.

“People have always told me I can’t do something. Then I do it,” he said., “I’ve never listened to anybody, and it’s not because my left ear can’t hear much.”

I recall Marty getting a field pass to Wrigley Field when a few of us were going to a Cubs game, and before the first pitch he loitered around the dugout and stunned us when he cornered Harry Caray, chatted up the future Hall of Fame broadcaster, and showed off the new issue of P.O.P. magazine.

“This could go bad,” said ICC journalism professor Mike Foster. “Anything could happen.”

But the hometown paparazzi got a picture of Harry holding P.O.P. (originally People of Peoria), Marty’s slick, 6,000-circulation color magazine sandwiched between the long-time Peorian’s initial claim to fame and a series of blogs including his current effort, “A Man Walks into 365 Bars … Again.”

Marty’s lived in Peoria for 57 years, growing up in Northmoor Hills and attending schools at Kellar, St. Vincent’s and Bergan before heading to college and swiftly dropping out. He worked at Fleming Potter, the downtown printing firm for 17 years, when he and buddy Greg Owens thought they’d spoof the popular Trivia Pursuit game with “Trivial Trivia: The Idiot’s Edition.” The rest is history:

* Mid-1980s: The satirical game was rejected by dozens of area retailers until local TV personality Vic Burnett, moonlighting at the Pere Marquette gift shop, encouraged him and recommended a radio interview. WIRL’s Gene Konrad put Marty on the air, newspapers and wires services picked up the story, and media ranging from Jane Pauley on “The Today Show” and Australia’s “Morning Show” to Spin magazine covered it. About 100,000 “Idiot Editions” were sold.

* In the late ‘80s he wrote parody books such as “How to Pick Up Women (Even Though You Are a Pencil-Necked Geek)” and an ersatz cookbook “Gone with the Burp,” thereby outpacing one-book wonders such as humorist John Kennedy Toole and novelist J.D. Salinger.

* Early ’90s: He edited and published P.O.P and wrote for the Pekin Daily Times (despite no training in writing).

* 1993: Marty moved to New York City in ’93, freelanced for Newsday, the Daily News and other publications and launched the quirky fishwrap magazine mocking periodicals and gaining national distribution and attention from USA Today, Men’s Journal and other media.

* Meanwhile; He penned a couple more books, a memoir, “The Boy Who Would be a Fire Truck,” and the travelogue “99 Beers off The Wall” and got more coverage for his 12-month blog “A Guy Walks into 365 Bars” in 2010-11.

* 2012: After short-lived web ventures (“Trippin’ with Marty” and “Marty After Dark”) and 19 years living in a tiny Manhattan apartment and working late shifts in Greenwich Village, Marty returned to Peoria and started the “Meanwhile Back In Peoria” blog, which this year started a feature, “A Guy Walks into 365 Bars… Again,” adding to his global audience of thousands, plus occasionally appears onstage with “Marty Monologues.”

Some snobs have dismissed Marty as “lowbrow” or “vulgar.” These elitists are like learned doctors who mistakenly diagnose mononucleosis, flu or fatigue until they notice a RED BULLSEYE from a tick bite and finally say, “Ah, ha! Lyme Disease!”

Such disdain for Marty probably would reject the equally unsophisticated humor of the Marx Brothers, Jim Carrey, and Bobcat Goldthwait as beneath the hoi palloi – but not most of us who laugh at goofiness. In fact, former teen sports editor at the Pekin Daily Times Dick Stolley – who went on to the Chicago Sun-Times, Life magazine (where he nabbed the Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination), and launching People magazine – became a New York friend, often taking Marty to lunch at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center. Stolley once described Marty with admiration, “He is off the wall. He doesn’t just verge on bad taste. He wallows in it.”

Now, nursing a margarita in Peoria Heights and talking in a machine-gun banter at a “Spinal Tap” Number-11 volume, Wombacher answered some silly questions:

 

Budweiser or Pumpkin Spice?

Pumpkin Spice was my favorite Spice Girl. But I like Budweiser. People used to give me shit, but Budweiser actually called me to offer to sponsor my blog. They offered me thousands, but I would’ve had to have ads and all kinds of things and I didn’t feel like ‘selling out.’ Of course, I’m WILLING to sell out, but I want to be REALLY well paid.

 

Favorite comic?

Emo Phillips. I got to know him a little. He’s almost always in character, and he was in my magazine once [writing a zany autobiographical P.O.P. cover story, “Me, Myself and I”]. Years later, when I saw him backstage in New York, he thanked me – and talked in a regular tone of voice!

 

Substack or digital contents?

Neither. I like print, big-time. I’ve always liked print. You don’t get that feeling online.

 

Best bar snacks?

Ice cubes.

 

What do you think is the bigger problem, housing or health care?

Housing! Regular people can’t afford it. I’d rather have a roof over my head and be sick than healthy and homeless.

Illinois Congressional candidate Paul Nolley weighs in on the issues

Democrat Paul Nolley is running for Congress from Illinois’ District 16, which runs from Peoria and Morton through Streator and Morris to Rockford and Galena. The 36-year-old Illinois State University graduate is married to a special-education teacher, and they have two children. From a working-class background, he’s now director of Project First Rate, a labor-management partnership that works in nine Illinois counties.

He took time away from his campaign to answer a few questions:

Despite little evidence of election fraud or non-citizen voting, President Trump wanted to restrict mail-in ballots and has supported the SAVE Act (which the House passed Feb. 11). That legislation would mandate that people supply evidence of their U.S. citizenship (such as a birth certificate) to vote. How do you feel about attempts to change elections?

Our electoral system faces more scrutiny today than perhaps any time in U.S. history. The process has been litigated in the courts for years, and members of Congress absolutely have the right and obligation to propose electoral changes that would increase transparency and security in our elections. However, with this scrutiny, we know our elections show few examples of voter fraud and are incredibly safe and secure. If elected, I would work with anyone who is attempting, in good faith, to ensure our electoral system is safe from credible threats. The SAVE Act is not a good-faith effort. I would oppose this legislation and the Republican attempts to scare the American people into supporting the weakening of their own voting rights. 

On Sept. 1, the House passed another Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government until Dec. 11. Are Continuing Resolutions the best way to authorize spending, or would you prefer another way?

I do not believe passing endless Continuing Resolutions is the best way to authorize spending, and I would support efforts to pass a full budget each year in Congress. Democrats and Republicans alike have utilized CRs to kick the responsibility down the road and play games with the American people. We must end this gamesmanship in Washington and do a key job representatives are elected to do: pass a budget. 

Polls say that Americans' top priorities are the economy, the war in Iran, better government transparency (esp. concerning the “Epstein files”), and improving immigration enforcement (specifically sharing arrest information, ICE agents not wearing masks, and citizens being able to record immigration officers). However, President Trump often talks about a new ballroom, a new arch outside Arlington National Cemetery, and taking over Greenland or Canada. How do you view this?

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress would rather talk about anything else; otherwise, they might have to explain to the American people why they are failing to keep the promises of their 2024 campaigns. They promised to lower prices and release the Epstein files. Since being elected, all they have done is raise prices, fight tooth and nail to prevent the release of the Epstein files, and sit by while the Trump administration launches a disastrous war of choice without congressional approval. It is a dereliction of duty, and a total failure of this administration and its rubber-stamp Republicans in Congress. 

A recent Gallup poll reports that 71% of the American public opposes the construction of Artificial Intelligence data centers in their communities, opposition that’s Republican and Democrat, rural and urban, and all regions of the country. What do you think?

I think Americans are rightfully worried about the rapid growth of data center construction in their communities and the proliferation of AI in their daily lives, including loss of privacy, job loss, harmful impacts on their children, and far worse. Meanwhile, data center executives have pushed for tax incentives and forced local leaders to sign NDAs, all while insisting this product has to be developed at a rapid pace. 

We have to rethink our relationship with the industry. If elected, I would support legislation that bans tax incentives for data centers, ensures American consumers don’t pay a dime more in energy costs from data centers, and prevents their construction on prime farmland and in residential areas. I would also fight to pass legislation that halts the rush to achieve AI superintelligence, which could destroy humanity as we know it.

The U.S. deficit recently reached $40 trillion. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says that discussions often mix up different ways of measuring debt and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), making the fiscal picture look scarier than the underlying math suggests. Should people be concerned?

Americans are right to be concerned about our rising national debt, which hit a record high under the Trump administration. Taxpayers pay about 19% of the annual budget to service the interest on the debt, leaving less to invest in our schools, health care, and infrastructure.

We also need to be clear about why the national debt is where it is today. For decades, Republicans in Washington have given tax breaks to the wealthy, built in loopholes for huge corporations, and allowed the powerful few to dodge their fair share of the tax burden. At the same time, the ultrarich have seen their wealth grow to unimaginable levels and working people struggle to get by. This, paired with record military spending year after year, driven in part by inflated and corrupt contracts with defense companies, has placed a great burden on our nation’s finances.

We must ensure big corporations and the ultrarich pay their fair share in taxes, while also overhauling our government procurement and contracting system to add transparency and competition, and stop the endless cost overruns on major military projects and inflated defense contracts. We also need to end and prevent wars of choice like the Iraq and Iran wars, which have been devastating to our national finances. We should also pursue other cost-saving reforms, like allowing Medicare to negotiate all drug prices, which would save billions of dollars each year.