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.