From the NG:
Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz says her easy victory in Tuesday's Democratic primary shows at least one issue her Republican opponent this fall is pressing doesn't resonate with voters.
In the primary, Urbana attorney Alfred Ivy III criticized Rietz's office for a lack of consistency in the charges it files for various crimes. He said they were overly harsh in many cases, involving both youths and adults, particularly minorities, creating disparities in whom the county prosecutes and how.
Rietz in the fall will face Republican Janie Miller-Jones, an assistant public defender in Champaign County, who wasn't opposed in the GOP primary.
Rietz won four of every five votes cast, taking 15,533 to Ivy's 3,568.
Maybe someone will help Mr. Ivy continue with his postponed move to Chicago.
I wondered whether Ivy was being used to grind someone else' ax.
This doesn\'t bode too well for the Republicans in the SA race in the general election. Having been at and watched the debate at the U of I, it\\\'s pretty clear that there wasn\'t much difference between \"The\" Alfred Ivy and Ms. Miller-Jones. Both seemed to be competing for who could coddle criminals more enthusiastically. It\\\'s clear that having worked as a public defender for many years, Ms. Miller-Jones has definitely \"drank the Kool-Aid.\"
If the pro-crimnal platform didn\'t work for The Ivy with an audience of loony Dems, it seems pretty unlikely that the same message is going to do much better in a bipartisan election in November.
Considering the limited amount of time that Ivy spent in the campaign I think it is pretty impressive that he managed to even get one out of four votes. Another factor to consider is the increased voter turnout from the Democrats. It will be interesting to see what a bipartisan election will yield.
Peace, Marti
"Considering the limited amount of time that Ivy spent in the campaign I think it is pretty impressive that he managed to even get one out of four votes."
I disagree. Devan Cowsen, who ran against Brendan McGinty for county board district 9 got 24% of the vote, while Ivy got about 19% in his race. The big difference between their two campaigns is that Ivy ran and Cowsen didn't. Cowsen didn't mail, didn't talk to the News-Gazette, didn't hold any public forums, didn't knock on doors, or do anything even remotely resembling running a campaign. Basically, he filed, and that was the last thing he did. And he got a higher percentage of votes than ivy did. So, I don't buy that Ivy's 19% is 'impressive'.
I'd guess that in both races the challenger's votes are more due to unhappiness with or a protest against the incumbent than anything related to who the challenger was and what they stood for.
And just for the record, 19% is just almost one in five, not one in four.
And just for the record, 19% is just almost one in five, not one in four.
I stand corrected.
I'd guess that in both races the challenger's votes are more due to unhappiness with or a protest against the incumbent than anything related to who the challenger was and what they stood for
Good Point!