Neo-Liberalism Reigns Supreme in BloNo
April 6th, 2021 was a devastating blow to Bloomington-Normal’s Left. All four candidates in the People First Coalition,1 a group of progressive candidates running together for Bloomington City Council, finished last in their races.
State Farm executive Sheila Montney defeated NAACP Vice-President Willie Holton Halbert 1,260 to 593 in the Ward 3 race replacing incumbent Mboka Mwilambwe.
Nick Becker, who operates a data-storage company based in Colorado, defeated High School teacher Patrick Lawler 723 to 523 in the Ward 5 race replacing incumbent Joni Painter.
Ward 7 choose the spiritual over the material, with Mollie Ward, a spiritual director at Carle Medical Center, defeating local socialist & home project manager Kelby Cumpston 420-263.
Finally, local entrepreneur Jackie Gunderson finished third against capitalist Mike Straza and incumbent politician Mboka Mwilambwe. Mwilambwe won with 4,544 votes, Straza finished 2nd with 4,248, and Gunderson received 2,780 votes.
In Normal, septuagenarian and local capitalist Chris Koos won a 5th term as mayor against competitor Marc Tiritilli 4,396 votes to 4,008.
Incumbents Kevin McCarthy, Scott Preston, & Chemberley Cummings defeated anti-establishment conservative challengers. This includes David Paul Blumenshine, insurrectionist cosplayer and what Mr. Clean would look like if he listened to Rush Limbaugh non-stop. The results aren’t surprising. Normal elects councilmembers at-large, meaning the candidates represent the whole city as opposed to individual districts, and at-large elections tend to favor the establishment candidates while marginalizing candidates with minority or heterodox views.
The biggest winners of the local elections were neo-liberal groups like the McLean County Chamber of Commerce & Responsible Cities PAC. The latter is a group of radically centrist political actors who clutch their pearls anytime a criticism of the establishment threatens to be “too divisive” to neo-liberalism & austerity. Mike Straza, who previously worked as a campaign manager for Mayor Chris Koos, was the original treasurer of the Responsible Cities PAC before he decided to run for election. In their endorsement of Mollie Ward for Ward 7, they praised Ward’s attitudes toward TIFs (Tax Incentive Financing) which typically amounts to austerity for local schools by taking the taxes school districts receive and providing it for “economic development.” They endorsed Koos for mayor of Normal and all of the candidates that won Town council seats. They endorsed Sheila Montney for Ward 3. Yes, they endorsed Mike Straza, but Mwilambwe is no less of a neo-liberal than Straza; and, their endorsement of Straza was more a political decision than a policy decision.
We can expect very little help from the City of Bloomington with regards to COVID relief. Montney, Becker, & Mwilambwe all hold the belief that government has little role beyond the barest of standards regarding infrastructure and public safety. Neo-liberalism fetishizes voluntarism, the idea that private charity organizations (and especially churches) are more effective at providing assistance to the needy than the government. Mayor-elect Mwilambwe believes that non-profits can fix the inequities caused by COVID. However, this has never been the case in American history. The Great Depression of the 1930s showed the inadequacy of private charity so clearly, society overwhelmingly believed a strong social safety net was necessary for the infrastructure of society leading to the New Deal policies. We’re currently coming out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Sure, these neo-libs will give out the pittance given to the city by the Federal government, but don’t expect a dime of the $20 million Bloomington has stashed away being used to help working people in this community. Becker accused his opponent Lawler of wanting to give out government subsidies. It’s funny how neo-libs think government giving relief is a handout when given to working people but tax abatements, TIFs, and subsidies for developers are “economic development” when given to the establishment class. Don’t expect much help when eviction & utility shutoff moratoriums end despite this likely decreasing the economic recovery and leading to more consolidation of wealth by the wealthy.
The other big winner is the Police Benevolent & Protective Association Unit 21 which represents Bloomington Police Officers. Not only did they endorse both Sheila Montney & Nick Becker, they donated $11,900 to each campaign, the largest donation by the group to politicians in at least the past 30 years. This is larger than the $10,500 they gave to current-Mayor Teri Renner back in 2013, the $10,000 they gave to former-Gov Pat Quinn in 2010, and the $6,000 they gave to former-Illinois Speaker Mike Madigan.
This money will pay off. The union is currently renegotiating their contract with the city. Controversial contract language will likely go unchecked. Section 5.4(c) of the contract guarantees any officer who is under investigation for any infraction be given at least 72 hours to get their story straight before they are questioned. Section 5.8 prohibits the city from compelling any officer to testify before the Public Safety & Civilian Review Board (PSCRB) preventing any effective civilian review of police misconduct. Finally, Section 20: Managed Competition prevents the city from hiring anyone but a union police officer for “traditional police behavior.” BPD assistant Chief Wamsley confirmed to DSA BloNo at the March PSCRB meeting that this clause could prevent the city from hiring alternative first responders (medics, social workers, crisis professionals, homeless & youth advocates, etc.) to respond to non-violent & non-criminal calls for emergency services because traditionally armed police officers respond to these.
While we can expect austerity with regards to other government services, we can expect increases in the police budget. During the campaign, Montney, Becker, and Mwilambwe all trotted out the same talking point that Bloomington is actually understaffed with regards to our population. This metric (recommended officers per 1,000 population) is disputed by many including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Center for Public Safety Management, mainly on the grounds that there are more important variables in determining patrol staffing standards than municipal population. But, more officers mean more union dues, and that is the primary concern of police unions.
At the April 12th, 2021 Bloomington City Council meeting, the lame-duck council passed a proposed police budget of $21,172,423 for Fiscal Year 2022. The PBPA #21 falsely accused People First Candidates of planning to reduce the BPD budget by 50%. This was based on Black Lives Matter BloNo endorsing all four People First Coalition candidates. Last Juneteenth, BLM BloNo released updated demands calling for a 50% reduction in police spending. However, none of the People First Coalition members ever stated this was their intended goal, though they all did have varying degrees of support for some Defundist policies.
A Welcoming Ordinance further limiting interactions with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) is less likely though not impossible. Montney, Becker, & Mwilambwe all said they believe the Illinois Trust Act (which only limits cooperation with ICE regarding non-judicial warrants) was more than enough. Immigrant justice activists have been pushing for a strong Welcoming Ordinance for at least 5 years. Actions were largely stalled in 2018, when the Bloomington City Council publicly opposed it and Mayor Renner pulled it from consideration. DSA BloNo2 started the discussion again last October when news reports showed that some ICE detainees were being forcibly sterilized without their knowledge. DSA was effectively mobilizing on this issue and had over 70 volunteers contacting city council, giving public comments, writing letters-to-the-editor, and ready to start canvassing on the issue. However, Ward 6 Alderperson Jenn Carrillo, who was involved in the prior organizing on the Welcoming Ordinance and ran on supporting this issue in her city council race, intervened in December. It was her opinion that supporting a compromise ordinance (which would have still allowed some ICE communication in very specific conditions regarding terrorism or human trafficking) was a bad idea. Instead, she believed people should stop trying to get this passed prior to the local election and should focus their efforts on getting the People First Coalition into office. Then, the Welcoming Ordinance could be made as strong as possible.
To counter immigrant justice support, Ward 2 Alderperson Donna Boelen introduced the Welcoming America initiative, a nonprofit private organization that provides guidance to municipalities to become more inclusive toward immigrants and all residents. Boelen said she introduced this initiative as an alternative to further restricting contact between ICE and law enforcement. She maintained she still opposed the Welcoming Ordinance advocated by immigrant justice advocates despite the fact Welcoming Americas supports limits between law enforcement & ICE. The name familiarity between the two policies has successfully caused a great deal of confusion. Carrillo quickly posted on Facebook her own Welcoming Ordinance which does limit interactions with police. It was even placed on the city council agenda for discussion, but Carrillo pulled it until after the election. Even if activists can find 5 votes in favor of restrictions on communications with ICE, Mayor-elect Mwilambwe can still veto it, meaning they’d need at least 6 votes.
In response to Montney & Becker defeating her preferred candidates, Carrillo announced her grand master plan on Facebook essentially promising to troll her new colleagues for the next two years while calling them dangerous authoritarians for their acceptance of police union money & propaganda.
At the April 12th city council meeting, Mayor-elect Mwilambwe publicly condemned Carrillo’s statements saying they were unbecoming of a councilperson. Mwilambwe is “asking for a special meeting, and is requesting staff to come up with a way for the council to formally express its disapproval. He also wants staff to develop a code of conduct providing ‘clear expectations’ of what’s expected of elected officials… Mwilambwe said Carrillo is setting a bad example for young people, and he said constituents are demanding and deserve better from their elected leaders.” To be clear, the council does not have the authority to remove or punish a council member. The Mayor-elect wants to waste city resources on formally cancelling Carrillo instead of figuring out ways to help residents from being evicted or getting their utilities cut off. All of this is ultimately click bait; performativity on both sides. Whether you agree with Carrillo or Mwilambwe, this only serves to manufacture discontent. The media loves this stuff because it gets more likes, reacts, and eyeball attention from people carefully siloed into their respective ideological camps by Facebook algorithms.
A full autopsy will need to be done regarding the People First Coalition campaign loss. A couple of initial thoughts:
- The Left flew too close to the sun running four candidates (not that I think they were bad candidates or ran bad campaigns), and probably should have focused on one or two city council races.
- Unless the Left can increase local turnout above 20%, they will lose every time.
- Defunding the police is very unpopular among the establishment that make up the majority of the 20% turnout (not that this is surprising).
- The Left needs to become better organizers than police unions.
- The Left needs to work more on creating non-political activities to engage the community creating a base of support.
- Socialist & DSA BloNo Co-Chair Cecelia Long won her race for Heartland Trustee, so that’s awesome. Long: because sometimes the size of the boat does matter.
This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com and has been updated.
