Robert Brandt
Campaign '99
for Village of Woodridge Trustee:
4/13/99 UPDATE: The election was held on April 13th and I received 35 write-in votes. That is slightly less than 2% of the total votes cast. I received votes from many different precincts in Woodridge, not just from my neighborhood. That is very encouraging.
I encourage anyone who is interested in running for Village Trustee or Mayor to do so in April, 2001. Nomination papers will be available in November, 2000 and you only need to get 106 signatures to get on the ballot. Please contact me if there is anything that I can do to assist you.
Thank you for your support. I enjoyed meeting hundred's of Woodridge residents during my campaign. I truly appreciate all of the e-mails that I have received. Thank you all for your support. Check back periodically as I intend to stay involved with the Village Board and make sure they live up to the high standard that we demand of our elected officials.
RECAP:
I am a "write-in" candidate for Woodridge Trustee for the April 13th election. My name will not be be listed on the ballot (for details on how that happened, see below) so in order to vote for me, you need to not vote for any of the listed Trustees and follow the instructions for write-in candidates which are listed in the voter's booth - "Woodridge Trustee, full term, Robert Brandt" in the write-in voter section located on your ballot card. Thank you for your support!
Questionnaire sent to Woodridge officials:
On March 11th, I sent a questionnaire to the Mayor and Trustees about several issues - park referendum, their contact information, etc. I asked them to return their survey by March 21st so I could post their responses on this website prior to the election. You see the questions by clicking here, you can download the survey in Word format by clicking here. Their responses are as follows:
Write-In Candidate Robert Brandt - click here
Mayor William Murphy - no response
Trustee Raymond Byrne - no response
Trustee James Hundman - no response
Trustee Stephen Stansbury - no response
Trustee Mary Ann Frank - click here to read response letter
Trustee Robert Murphy - no response
Trustee Chester Szerlag - no response
Trustee Candidate Gina Cunningham - no response
Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed that our elected officials chose to ignore the questionnaire. It took me just 10 minutes to fill out the survey myself. I'm sure all the residents of Woodridge would be interested in their responses. If they won't address the questions and concerns of their constituents, why did they become elected officials?
Regarding my Campaign for Village Trustee - here is what has happened so far:
Back in January, I picked up information from the Woodridge Village Clerk's office about running for Village Trustee. There are three Trustee positions up for election every two years. I wanted to get involved in local government so I thought I would attempt to get on the ballot for the April 13th election.
I had two weeks to gather 279 signatures. I gathered 304 signatures and filed them with the clerk's office on the first day for filing. In fact, I was to be listed as the second candidate on the ballot out of the four candidates.
After the filing deadline, Woodridge Mayor William Murphy publicly endorsed the other three candidates (click here for the newspaper article).
Then my nomination papers were objected to. A resident of Woodridge was "desirous that the laws governing the filing of nomination papers...are properly complied with" (click here for the Objectors Petition). The Woodridge Progress reported that the objector was a former Woodridge Trustee and long-term supporter of Mayor Murphy. There was a hearing scheduled for February 12th to litigate the objection (click here for the newspaper article) (click here for the Call to Hearing).
At the February 12th hearing, I was present, the objector did not show but he sent two attorneys to represent him. The hearing was in front of the Municipal Officers Electoral Board consisting of Mayor William Murphy, current Village Trustee Robert Murphy and Village Clerk Dorothy Stahl. The city attorney from Gorski & Good advised the Board during the hearing.
I asked Mayor Murphy to remove himself from the hearing board for two main reasons: (1) he had publicly endorsed the other three Trustee candidates (see above) and the hearing board's decision could remove me from the ballot, leaving the three endorsed candidates on the ballot; and (2) Mayor Murphy was the head of a Political Committee entitled "Continue the Progress" which has endorsed the other three candidates. Despite these reasons, Mayor Murphy refused to remove himself.
The Board, upon the advice of their attorney, unaminously denied all of my technical motions to strike the objector's petition. There were several errors made by the Village Clerk's office, one being that the clerk failed to time- and date-stamp the Objection so I was unable to determine whether it was filed on time.
Upon the advice of the Village Attorney (whose law office was paid over $240,000 last year by the Village of Woodridge), the hearing board upheld the objection to my petition papers for the following reason - I collected 304 signatures on my petition. However, only 273 of those signatures were found on the official voter's list of DuPage County. The number of signatures required to get on the ballot is 279.
Since I fell 6 names short of the required number of signatures, my name will not be on the April 13th ballot. (click here to please read the official Board Decision). For a newspaper article from the Woodridge Progress about the hearing, click here.
I had until February 25, 1999 to appeal the Board's decision with the Circuit Court of DuPage County. I have purposely allowed the deadline to pass without action on my part. I decided that I didn't want to get back on the ballot this way i.e. based on technicalities. Some people may think that is okay, but I do not. I will wait until the time where my candidacy can be decided on my merits and at the ballot box, not at the courthouse.
