Saturday, June 18, 2022

We need better coverage of the 1st Congressional District race

 

Has anyone considered the lack of media coverage for the first congressional district race?  While I haven’t scoured each web page of every news site, from what I have seen, the coverage of where I lived for 12 years has been abysmal, especially considering the significance. This is the 1st time in more than a GENERATION that we have an incumbent-free election that is more open than ever. The choice made could be another Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (who regular gains national attention), or we could have just another of the 400 relatively obscure members, and receive very little for the votes.

 

And why should we care about a PRIMARY?  Well, in Chicago, Only TWO local candidates have ever won in the general election in Chicago in the past 40 years. One of them was state senator James Meeks,  who ran at the height of Salem Baptist church's popularity. Once he was elected, he quickly switched he switched to the Democratic Party so that his re election was assured the next term .

 

The 1st congressional district election is very meaningful to me because I lived in Chatham for 12 years. I have seen which of the candidates had been involved in the community and which have suddenly made and appearance when Bobby Rush. decided to retire to retire.

 

 I'm angry that we have had a lack of coverage, but also the journalists that do report seem to have a complete lack of knowledge of who is actually a community leader in the 1st district as opposed to those who are being promoted due to their association with more famous people  and/or funds. For example, Jonathan Jackson is the son of Jesse Jackson, but in my 12 years in Chatham I have never seen or heard him at any community event.  That is a stark difference to Jahmal Cole who has written a book about the community, and in my time there has risen from being a mere resident to a community influencer that has tried his best to help improve the community through his nonprofit activities (and accolades) that have stretched far beyond even the immediate community.

 

 Journalists have also completely failed to use basic math to show just the uniqueness of this election. For example, if all 17 Democratic candidates who are currently on the ballot were to almost equally get a percentage the winner of that election, then the final candidate would win by only with only 7% of the votes. That would mean over 90% of residents would not be able not be able to get their choice AT ALL. (Unlike the mayoral race, which featured a runoff, so that the 83% of people who did NOT vote for Lori Lightfoot at first, at least had an opportunity to choose from the top 2).  And if you were to be a little more realistic and just only assume that say, the top 4 candidates would get the majority of the votes , that would mean that the top candidate could win with only 26% of the vote. That would mean again over 70% of the voters would not have their choice in office at all .For this election (as opposed to mayoral or aldermanic races) we have no such opportunity for the majority to have their say.  

 

I have not heard one reporter do the traditional journalistic work of actually going out and talking with real people about what they are thinking.  It is not a difficult task nor would it take a lot of time. They can easily go they go to the 79th street, 87th street or 95th street Red Line stations during rush hour and it could easily get a few (or rather several)  opinions the perspectives on the candidates.

 

 While I understand that  in broadcast journalism it may not be feasible to even name all 17 candidates in one story, there is absolutely NO excuse to not refer people to a website that could have a listing of all of the candidates with some basic information on them for a journalist it would take less than a day to research, if not call AND talk with all of those candidates. It should be no problem at all just to find out basic contact information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and websites as well as a short biography (including where they now live, so one could get a sense of what communities they might best represent).

 

Journalists also have access to a number of high quality journalism schools such as Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (which I am a graduate of ) as well as Columbia and others. It would be easy for them to recruit to recruit members from classes. Students would be able to do some of that basic research. One class alone could get the basic information

 

 I am especially disappointed with our nonprofit media, of which we have several distinctive organizations such as Chicago public media, WTTW, Axios, and Pro Propublica, all of which even if they had to share duties, could easily create forums for the public to be able to more adequately research their choices

 

 Also, in this day and age, one could easily take a test online test to see which Harry Potter house 1 could fit would be would fit in with and those things would actually be and that quiz would actually be accurate why could we not set up a quiz that not only speaks on the issues that are most important to constituents but also other items such as communication style leadership abilities or leadership experience that would help voters decide who would best represent them in Congress right now. The question is: will the 1st congressional district have someone like AOC who is able to make a national headlines despite being a freshman or with the representative be someone who would be forgotten amongst the other 434 representatives in the house today

 

I would love to hear from community residents of the 1st congressional district to hear what do they think about this issue of coverage. Do they feel that they are actually being represented in the news, or should things be changed or improved in some way. I also would love to hear from those in the media to see what are they going to do differently to help the residents of the 1st congressional district make a good choice as to who they would want to represent them answer represent them I hope

 

 I would also love to hear from media in the Chicagoland area to see what they are going to do different in the next few weeks before the election so that residents of the area would actually have a choice a fair choice as to who they should pick, and that it's not based on popularity that is predetermined by the media or by other media or by campaign funds

 

 

In a future post (probably October) I will also follow up to see how many Democratic candidates who DID win their primary election have decided to drop out which would allow Democratic Party to install somebody else so which would in effect create voter OMISSION, which is even worse than voters suppression because they would not have a choice at all in the matter that 99.99% of residents would not have a choice in their candidate

 

Please, Chicago media, DO BETTER. And for all Chicago residents who say they are concerned about voter rights – demand better from those who say they are here to inform us. Don’t we deserve it?

 

The following list is on the official Illinois election website.

 

https://www.elections.il.gov/ElectionOperations/CandidateList.aspx?ElectionID=63aIZoIunYs%3d&OfficeID=LMmcDTEwiCK%2fpmC%2ftG8m2A%3d%3d&Status=P2wRQXkiFoo%3d&BallotGroup=FTIb1gd6z9Y%3d&QueryType=xF443FTCAJbIL3atac%2fUjEg7Y4yklgT1&T=637897870742235127

You can also try

https://www.elections.il.gov/ElectionOperations/CandidateFilingSearch.aspx?ID=63aIZoIunYs%3d&T=637897870545532522

or look up candidate filings search at www.elections.il.gov

 

 

Name

Write-In

Objection Pending

Office

Party

File Date

Status

BIRGANS, KIRBY
7524 S. EVANS AVENUE
UNIT 1
CHICAGO, IL 60619

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/14/2022
8:04 AM

Active
3/14/2022

BUTLER, CHRIS
1822 WEST 105TH STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60643

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

CARLSON, ERIC
4 WILD PLUM CT.
LEMONT, IL 60439

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

REPUBLICAN

3/10/2022
12:29 PM

Active
3/10/2022

COLE, JAHMAL
8035 S. WABASH AVE.
CHICAGO, IL 60619

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

COLLINS, JACQUELINE "JACQUI"
7600 S. LOOMIS BLVD.
CHICAGO, IL 60620

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

DeJOIE, STEVEN
8440 SOUTH KING DRIVE
CHICAGO, IL 60619

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/14/2022
9:21 AM

Active
3/14/2022

DOWELL, PAT
4414 S. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DR.
CHICAGO, IL 60653

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

GOODRUM, CASSANDRA
7300 S. CONSTANCE AVE.
CHICAGO, IL 60649

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

JACKSON, JONATHAN L.
6828 SOUTH CONSTANCE
CHICAGO, IL 60649

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

LEWIS, MARCUS
3146 HOLDEN CIRCLE
MATTESON, IL 60443

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

MATTHEWS, AMEENA
16719 ANNE MARIE AVENUE
TINLEY PARK, IL 60477

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/14/2022
5:00 PM

Active
3/14/2022

McGRIFF, NYKEA PIPPION
6139 S. DREXEL AVENUE
CHICAGO, IL 60637

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/14/2022
5:00 PM

Active
3/14/2022

NIX, DARIUS "DEE"
7145 S. CALIFORNIA AV.
CHICAGO, IL 60629

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/9/2022
12:43 PM

Removed
4/21/2022

NORINGTON-REAVES, KARIN
8232 S. WABASH AVE.
CHICAGO, IL 60619

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

O'KEEFE, MATTHEW "MATTO"
9930 S. WINCHESTER AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60643

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

REPUBLICAN

3/14/2022
2:34 PM

Withdrawn
4/7/2022

PALMER, ROBERT A.
7315 S. UNIVERSITY AVE.
CHICAGO, IL 60619

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/11/2022
3:51 PM

Active
3/11/2022

REGNIER, JEFFERY T
24104 S. OLD FARM ROAD
MANHATTAN, IL 60442

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

REPUBLICAN

3/14/2022
5:00 PM

Active
3/14/2022

ROSNER, TERRE LAYNG
7442 W. LAKESIDE DRIVE
FRANKFORT, IL 60423

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/10/2022
2:45 PM

Active
3/10/2022

SPAULDING, STEPHANY ROSE
10929 S STATE STREET, UNIT 1
CHICAGO, IL 60628

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/10/2022
11:27 AM

Removed
4/21/2022

SPILLER, HOWARD L.
9840 S. PULASKI RD
OAK LAWN, IL 60453

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/14/2022
2:06 PM

Removed
4/21/2022

SWAIN, JONATHAN T.
1130 E. HYDE PARK BOULEVARD,
APARTMENT 1
CHICAGO, IL 60615

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/14/2022
5:00 PM

Active
3/14/2022

THOMPSON JR., MICHAEL A.
4238 SOUTH WABASH AVENUE UNIT 1
CHICAGO, IL 60653

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/7/2022
8:00 AM

Active
3/7/2022

WHITE, PHILANISE
8447 S. PHILLIPS STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60617

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

REPUBLICAN

3/14/2022
8:04 AM

Active
3/14/2022

WILLIAMS, CHARISE A.
1726 EAST 87TH PLACE
CHICAGO, IL 60617

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

DEMOCRATIC

3/14/2022
5:00 PM

Active
3/14/2022

YOUNG, GENO
8858 S. KENWOOD, AVE.
CHICAGO, IL 60619

 

 

1ST CONGRESS

REPUBLICAN

3/14/2022
5:00 PM

Active
3/14/2

 

 

 

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