Last Monday night, August 10th,, the unified Democratic township organizations of Naperville (DuPage, Lisle, Naperville, and Wheatland Townships Democratic organizations) met to hear from and endorse candidates for the 2027 races for Naperville Mayor, City Council, Park District, and School Districts 203 and 204. Elected PCs were given a weighted vote – equal to the number of votes they received in the 2026 primary election – to cast for candidates of their choice. The following races were not contested for endorsements and, therefore, the candidates present were endorsed:

Naperville Mayor: Benny White
Naperville City Council: Laurie Donahue, Kristine Gericke, Supna Jain, Marc Willensky
Naperville Park District: Carole Jones, Amy Phillips, John Risvold

District 203 vote totals (3 open seats / endorsements):

• Joe Kozminski – 2774 (ENDORSED)
• Robert Lang – 1504 (ENDORSED)
• John Doyle – 1241 (ENDORSED)
• Maura Boland – 1170
• John LaLoggia – 175

District 204 – 4 year term vote totals (3 open seats / endorsements):

• Shelby Schultz – 1521 (ENDORSED)
• Mark Rising – 1361 (ENDORSED)
• Andrew Bernard – 1341 (ENDORSED)
• Stefanie Harrison – 1067

Additionally, Bertha Jackson has been endorsed for the 204 / 2 year term position.

We encourage all PCs, Democratic elected officials, volunteers, and voters in their districts to support the endorsed candidates. They will all be collecting petition signatures for the next few weeks and the election will be in April 2027.

The SAVE Act has no chance of passage, and my top concern is interference ranging from intimidating voters to seizing ballots under the pretext of fraud; if the latter happens, the chain of custody is broken, and these voters are out of luck. I’ve been looking for specific actions citizens can take to fight this.

Indivisible has initiated a Hands Off Our Vote program, and to quote from the signup page: “By signing up you’ll get notified of key voting deadlines in your state, get updates on any threats to your voting rights and learn how to counter them, and be ready to mobilize in defense of your vote. You’ll also play an important role in rapid response moments whenever and wherever they try to pull those dirty tricks.”

Significantly, people in states most at risk listed at the bottom of this page can sign up for a more vigorous effort, the Election Defense Corps, which includes “strategic updates via email and text, training opportunities, and critical calls to action during key election protection moments in your state.”

Again, please sign up at mobilize.us/indivisible/event/966594 to receive timely information about how you can help.

P.S. You can read here about Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin’s Protect Our Polls Act. (Many of the actions covered are already illegal, but …) Excerpt:

The bill comes after Trump said he would not rule out sending the National Guard or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel to polling places in November …

Slotkin’s legislation … would require approval from Congress before the president could deploy uniformed military or federal law enforcement.

It also would ensure lawmakers have 48 hours’ notice before any forces are deployed — in addition to requiring intel, legal justification and evidence that proves state or local government cannot handle a threat on its own.

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The Texas National Guard is leaving Illinois after sitting here for a month without being deployed, truly ironic since some of the immigrants are here because Texas shipped them here. DHS is closing its staging area for its subordinate agencies in the Chicago northern suburbs. Customs & Border Patrol and its nasty chief have moved on except for its regular presence at places such as airports and a few harbors on Lake Michigan. (When you think of inland CBP, it’s usually those bored people in booths checking passports and visas.)

However, this is far from over. The horrible ICE–Immigration & Customs Enforcement–detention center in suburban Broadview is open and remains the center of large protests and arrests by multiple agencies, often in violation of rights of speech and assembly. ICE has been here for a long time albeit without so many agents, and isn’t going anywhere, and while they may be marginally less awful than the enforcement division of CBP in normal times, this isn’t normal. They seem to have thrown training and decency out of their playbook, grabbing people, even with “papers”, some violently, based on appearance, forcing them to abandon jobs and leave kids, pets and cars on the street. State and local LEOs are breaking our sanctuary law and ordinances. The federal Administration is spreading its nonsense about crimes and gangs, but the lies are being called out and their response, while aggressive, shows them as bullies who are on the defensive.

The pressure is still on, and it is working. I am very grateful to everyone who is physically able to protest and monitor and reach out to victim families at risk their own safety.