Debates Are Over - The Home Stretch is Near

Hello again. It has been awhile since I have written. It has been a very busy time in the campaign. It seems like every time I get ready to give an update, something new happens

There have been three candidate forums since I last wrote. To say that they have been getting livelier by the moment is an understatement. Every one of them has featured the mayor wandering further away from reality. However, he outdid himself this past Thursday when he denied taking money from Napleton Cadillac and said he is opposed to taking money from companies doing business with the City.

What? Napleton's $1,OOO contribution to the mayor for his last campaign is posted on the State's website. So are the two contributions he received from Park Ridge Taxi, the first of which he got two days after voting to continue that company's monopoly on taxi service in Park Ridge and the second of which he received last month after that company again requested that its monopoly be preserved.

Lest anyone forget, the mayor followed up his contribution from Napleton by voting to give Napleton over $2 million of your tax money. As I said at the debate Thursday night, all of this "doesn't just smell, it reeks."

Things are looking good for our campaign, because the truth is finally catching up with the mayor and the voters are catching on as well. We are close to running out of a second batch of yard signs. The requests have been rolling in from all parts of town.

The pace of "meet and greet" parties has picked up as well. My thanks go out to the Rendinas and the Sweeneys for hosting events and to newcomer, Gwen Ritter, for arranging for me to speak with the Uptown Condo Owners Association. Even though there are only 1O days left before election day, I will be attending events hosted by the Anya Dudzik, the Dorts, the Burgises, and the Holihans, and there are a couple more in the hopper which I'll write about next week.

The election night victory party is set for Uncle Dan's. To make sure it is a festive occasion, please do all you can to help us in the final stretch. First and foremost, don't forget to vote. Early voting continues at City Hall through Thursday April 2. Also please help by contributing, even if it is only $5O or $1OO, and by volunteering to walk precincts and work on election day either as a pollwatcher or phone caller.

It has been a great ride. Let's work together to bring it to be a successful conclusion.

Hi again.

Things are happening so fast, I am having trouble keeping up with all of the developments. The big news the past week, of course, was our wildly successful fundraiser at Uncle Dan’s followed by a rousing mayoral debate at City Hall. Over 150 people attended the Uncle Dan’s event, which is more than double the number who attended my opponent’s Uncle Dan’s event in January. Draw your own conclusions; I have drawn mine. Guests were treated to superb entertainment by Spakl, a band featuring local legend, Tom Kasznia, on drums. To keep the peace, we raffled off both Cubs and Sox tickets. The crowd was lively, the food was great (thanks Dan and Sean) and positive energy filled the air.

That event was followed by an equally lively debate where the mask was torn off by opponent’s so-called positive campaign. While I spent the evening responding to questions with specific answers and ideas about how to remedy the problems of our city, the mayor spent almost the entire time engaging in personal attacks. The only time he was not attacking was when he was taking credit for something someone else had done, such as the sound wall at Park Ridge Pointe obtained by Senator Dan Kotowski, the lower property tax levy engineered by Alderman Frank Wsol or the new businesses in Uptown which came here no doubt through the efforts of the developer’s leasing agent, not the mayor. Fortunately, the people of Park Ridge caught on to the mayor’s shtick some time ago, so the biggest response he got from his grandiose claims was an audible snicker from the crowd. At the end, the debate moderator chastised the mayor not once, but twice, for spending his time attacking me instead of touting his record. When he was given one more chance to talk about his record, he had nothing to say. Guess that says it all.

This past Monday, Gerry Butler and I went over to the Senior Center and were given a tour. We received a very warm reception from the folks over there. I’d love to think they were all excited to see me, but truth be told, I think that Gerry was the real draw. After that, we went over to Summit Square and had lunch with the residents there. Judy and Jack Barclay came along with us and helped distribute cookies which went over big with the hungry crowd. Again, it was Gerry who seemed to get more attention than me, but I’ll get over it. Gerry has been a huge help during the campaign. She has been much more than just a figurehead chairman of my campaign committee, she has been active in writing letters, making phone calls, and doing what she does best, giving sage advice. The mailer we sent out with her endorsement of me has had a great impact. Almost immediately after it hit the mails, we were receiving calls from seniors who wanted to get yard signs and help out with the campaign. If we pull off this victory, which I am confident we will, Gerry will deserve a lion’s share of the credit along with our dozens of volunteers who have worked hard to put us in a position to win.

There is some bad news: we ran out of yard signs. But there is some good news: we ran out of yard signs. We have now distributed a full 1000 yard signs. We know that evil forces absconded with 50 or so, but sign theft seems to have slowed to a trickle since the local papers ran a story about it. We have ordered another 300 signs, so do not despair if you want one. Just go to http://www.electdaveschmidt.com/ and click on the yard sign icon, or call the office at (847) 384-0818, and we’ll set you up.

Finally, I urge everyone to take advantage of the weather and go to City Hall for early voting. Early Voting runs from Monday, March 16th through April 2nd. Hours of Early Voting are 9am to 5pm Monday-Friday and 9am to noon on Saturdays One never knows what the weather will be in early April or if something might come up on election day which keeps you from the polls. Stay tuned for details on the April 7 victory party!

As the great Harry Caray used to say, "hello again, everybody!"

This weekend's rain storm drove home the central point of our campaign and the reason residents are flocking to our cause. Many residents experienced their fourth instance of flooding in just the past six months. We have had enough "hundred year floods" to transport us with Buck Rogers to the 25th Century. (Anyone under 4O may need to Google that or ask their parents.)

The mayor's plan to deal with it? Float a bond (pun very much intended) to build a new police station. My plan? Upgrade and better maintain our sewer system, build more and bigger main sewers and relief sewers, seek federal funding for building retention areas under what is left of our city's open space, lobby our state and federal legislators to get communities upstream along the Des Plaines River to build retention areas of their own, and do whatever else we can think of. Now! In general, leave no stone unturned. Enough is enough!

The residents of this community should emphatically reject Frimark's plan to unbalance the budget and increase our city's debt to build a new police station while you wade around in your basements yet another year. Vote no on the police referendums, and vote no on Frimark.

On a much lighter note, I want to thank the talented performers at Washington School and Field School who treated me to delightful performances at their V-Shows last weekend. I had a great time. However, there was one disturbing moment during the Field School show when a third party candidate for mayor came on stage and made a pitch for votes. I would like to have been given equal time. I call upon all voters in the Field School district to reject the candidacy of that Quimby guy. You cannot trust him.

I also want to thank Cheryl Parmet and Bridget Urban who hosted gatherings for me last week. As with the other meet and greets, the company was great and the questions were thoughtful and sincere.

The debates start this Thursday. Stay tuned. It's about to get very interesting. Talk to you soon.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

Hi everyone. The past week went by so fast, I did not realize I had not written since last Monday. The past week was fairly eventful. We are receiving dozens of sign orders everyday. It seems that as soon as one goes in the ground, two more people call and say they saw it and want one of their own. Unfortunately, we are also receiving calls from folks who had a sign and then woke up one morning to find that it had “mysteriously” disappeared. Some are starting to call it “Oberweis 2.” No matter, we have plenty of signs, and plenty of volunteers who are willing to head out and replace the stolen signs. We will not be denied.

I attended another fun gathering at Mark and Carole Brun’s house last Friday. Stay tuned to the website for pictures of that gala event. Saturday evening I dropped by the Youth Commission Dodgeball Tournament which was a huge success. Congrats to Tom Carey, Missy Ryan and all the others who were involved in the planning. My guess is that many kids are already thinking about fielding teams at next year’s event. Sunday, I met with a group of neighbors who live near the old Napleton property and are very concerned about how that area will be developed.

I will be meeting with a group of folks on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Parmets on Sylviawood. Wednesday, I’ll be meeting with people at Bristol Court to find out about their views and concerns, and this Saturday I’ll be at Bridget Urban’s house on North Greenwood for another get together. Friday and Saturday night, I’ll be treated to fun and laughter at the Washington School and Field School V-Shows. I am very much looking forward to those. The following Tuesday, March 10, is our fundraiser at Uncle Dan’s. One of my neighbors, Tom Kasznia, talked his band, Spakl, into playing at the event. This will be a good warm up for their big April gig at the House of Blues. Should be a lot of fun.

Then comes Debate Season. I cannot wait. It will be good to finally go one on one with the incumbent instead of having to run around setting the record straight because of his whispering campaign. I have all of the issues on my side, so it will be interesting to see how he plays it. Check the website for the debate schedule. Hope to see you there.

Zia's fundraiser and a lot of door to door visits

What a great weekend! About 100 people packed into Zia’s Trattoria on Saturday evening to celebrate our surging campaign. We raised thousands upon thousands of dollars which will help us get out our positive message of open government and fiscal responsibility. Guests were treated to fabulous food and great entertainment and decorations arranged by Fred Bailey, one of our devoted volunteers. And the guests were delighted to have a chance to rub elbows with Gerry Butler, one of our town’s most beloved citizens. There was even a “guest” appearance from a local blogger who had been predicting a Frimark victory, but must now surely be re-thinking the issue after having to force his way through the throng to get to the buffet table.

This was no ordinary fundraiser. Usually, these events are populated by the same old crowd of politicians who go to each other’s events. Not ours. The people who attended this event are the same folks who drive their kids to school very day, pay taxes, fret about the state of the City’s infrastructure and have been tirelessly giving of their time to help our grassroots campaign grow and prosper. I cannot thank them enough for attending, and I also need to thank those who could not attend but sent contributions anyway. I also want to thank Steve and Caroline Bachert who graciously donated four box seat tickets to a Cubs game for our raffle and to Bonnie Canavino for donating a spa gift basket.

But that was not the end of the evening. I went straight from Zia’s to a party hosted by my friend Debby Usher where there was more great food, stimulating conversation and plenty of laughs. A good time was definitely had by all. We did not want it to end, but Debby finally threw us out at 1am.

This weekend I traveled parts of the Seventh Ward whose residents rightfully feel they have been neglected by our City government. I promised them that my administration will not turn a blind eye to their needs. I make the same pledge to the residents of other “forgotten” parts of town who believe the City has spent too much time focusing on Uptown redevelopment at the expense of taking care of the basic needs of the people living in the outlying wards.

Another great part of the weekend came in the form of numerous calls and e-mails expressing support for me in light of the nasty letters to the editor penned by three of the aldermen who have tied themselves to the mayor’s coattails. Many sent me copies of their own letters to the editor which no doubt inundated the local press. Add to that the joy of seeing so many residents sporting their beautiful new blue yard signs, and it was a heartwarming weekend indeed.

Thanks again to all of you who have helped and expressed their support. I hope to see many of you out and about this weekend as we kick off the City-wide canvass. Talk to you soon.

My Packed Weekend - Including a Tour of the "Police House"

A lot has happened since I wrote the first installment of the “blog.” On Thursday evening, I attended a meet and greet at Rosalie DiCola’s house. It was a great experience. There is no question that there is deep dissatisfaction with Howard as mayor, but many people still don’t know who I am or what my vision is for Park Ridge. That is why these “meet and greets” are so beneficial. Rosalie did not beat around the bush. She was very direct in asking me to explain why I am running for mayor. I told her and the others that it boils down to being a resident myself and wanting what is best for residents in terms of having an honest and open government, development which complements the character of Park Ridge rather than changing it, and a responsible budget and spending policy which emphasizes infrastructure maintenance and improvement (sewers, streets, sidewalks, tree trimming, snow removal) over “luxury” items such as Howard’s plan for buying land and building a big new police facility.

On Friday morning, I met with Mike Lake, the last of the four Des Plaines mayoral candidates I had not spoken to. I have now had face-to-face meetings with each of the candidates, and all agreed that Park Ridge and Des Plaines have many common interests which make it beneficial for the towns’ new mayors to have a good working relationship in place and ready to go when we take office in May. All four of the gentlemen said that we need to work together on flooding issues, including lobbying our state and federal legislators to come up with a comprehensive plan for dealing with the lack of retention facilities along the northern part of the Des Plaines River. Three of the four candidates also agreed with my position that Des Plaines and Park Ridge will need to work together in keeping the area around the new casino safe for local residents, and they pledged to consider financial assistance to Park Ridge for expenses we will incur in connection with increased traffic on Devon and the need for increased police patrols.

Friday evening, I toured the house on the 200 block of Courtland Avenue which had been purchased by the City for the purpose of tearing it down to build a new police facility on the property. You may recall I suggested the City consider renovating the interior of the house and relocating some police department functions to that location to help ease overcrowding in the present facility. I was joined by City Manager Jim Hock, Alderman Frank Wsol, Charlie Melidosian and Jim DiCola, a local contractor and son of Rosalie, who brought along a co-worker. While there is no question the interior needs some work, Jim DiCola’s assessment is that the interior and the exterior are both structurally sound, and that the house is certainly usable. Charlie took some video and I took some still pictures which we will post to the website as soon as possible under the police facility issues section in case anyone wants to see for themselves. Charlie apologizes for the quality of the video. He has done much better work in the past, as many of you have seen. It will now be up to the staff and City Council to determine whether they want to further explore using this property. I hope they will at least give it serious consideration.

On Sunday, I met with my friend, Gerry Butler, Marty’s widow. Gerry was the pivotal person in my decision to run when she encouraged me last summer to consider it and pledged her support if I decided to throw my hat in the ring. She is a remarkable woman who loves Park Ridge more than life itself. Gerry was the first person named to my campaign committee, and she has been very active in the campaign, giving advice freely without bothering to mince words. It is no wonder people loved Marty and the way he went about being mayor. You know the old saying: “behind every successful man…”

Anyway, that will do it for now. Things are going very well, but we have to keep at it. Talk to you soon.

My Inaugural Blog

A political campaign is a fluid thing, and many things arise on the campaign trail which are of interest to residents but might not be suitable for a press release or a news story. So I have decided to use this space on my website to ruminate about the campaign and let folks know a little bit more about what is going on. I plan on updating the content on a periodic basis, so I encourage you to come back often to see what is new.

For my inaugural piece, I thought I would thank the people who have opened up their homes to host parties and “meet and greets” for me. These events are a great way to get to know new people and find out what is really of concern to residents. Very often, the residents have great ideas for solutions to various problems facing the City which neither I nor other elected officials have thought of.

The first event was way back in early December at the home of Phil and Karen Donahue on Fairview. It got the campaign off to a smashing success. About 40 people showed up who asked a lot of great questions that helped me learn more about the issues which mattered most to them and began helping me sharpen my message as a candidate. A few days later, an old law school friend, Carla Owen, (I don’t mean you are old, Carla) hosted an event which drew about 20 people, an excellent turnout for a weeknight. The end of that same week, another old law school friend, Linda Coyle, (you aren’t old either, Linda) tossed a great (and crowded) party with her husband, Shaun, which spilled over into Linda’s Amphora-decorated living room and their beautifully-refurbished basement which is actually more like a sports bar.

Since then, Bob and Sara Horak have thrown a standing room only event where about 50 people were treated to a sumptuous buffet and an impressive bar. Sadly, everyone stayed upstairs by the food and drink, meaning that all the hours Sara spent fixing up the basement went for naught. That was the first party I was smart enough to bring a camera to. You can see some photos from that event here on the website. Not only that, Sara contributed the leftovers for the Grand Opening of our campaign office. Sara was also good enough to gather a group of “Washington School moms” together last week on a Thursday morning where we hashed over the O’Hare and casino issues among other things. This week, I am headed to a party at Rosalee DiCola’s house on North Merrill to meet some of her friends. The next few weeks will see more events at the homes of Debby Usher, Bridget Urban, Marty Maloney and my good friends and neighbors, Mark and Carole Brun. I expect that one will run pretty late. Thankfully I live right across the street.

I cannot say enough about how wonderful it has been to meet so many different and interesting people during my run for mayor. Many of the people I have met at these parties have become committed volunteers for the campaign. And the list keeps growing day by day. It is easy to see why Park Ridge is such a great place to live and why it is worth fighting to keep it that way. These folks are why I decided to run for mayor in the first place, and they are why the campaign is going as well as it is.

Like I said, stay tuned for more updates on the campaign. It’s been a great ride, and it promises to get even better. Talk to you again soon.