Insert Clever Ballot Series Name Here
By Sam Bakken in News on Nov 2, 2004 6:40AM
While some people have already cast their vote (Bush is up 12 votes and all 26 voters turned out in Dixville Notch), hopefully your giving us a quick look before you head out to the polls. Wait though, did you read that? Dixville? Moving on, information on these last couple of races on the ballot is hard to find. Especially on the race for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commission. Does that mean they're not important and we shouldn't vote on these positions? Well according to the Daily Herald the Republican challengers for the three seats don't know either.
So, Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, what do they do? Well for one thing they oversee the fourth-largest budget in the state ($1 billion annually). They mostly deal with sewage and rainwater, our favoritest liquids by far, and their most notable accomplishment is the 3-decades-long Deep Tunnel project that controls flooding. Hey...we know a town that could use a couple of Deep Tunnel projects. It's called Dixville! Ha! Or we mean Dixville Notch. Or wait, could the Notch be considered a Deep Tunnel? Oh, but c_n we say "Deep Tunnel"? Maybe we should just call it the Dixville Notch. Or maybe we should stop with the Dix 'n' Tunnels jokes. But only if you say "Dix 'n' Tunnels" right now, out loud, at work.
All three Democrats are running for reelection to the all Democrat commission are Patricia Young, Barbara McGowan and Gloria Alitto Majewski. All three incumbents support a bill recently vetoed by Gov. Blago that puts the district in charge of flooding as opposed to the county government. Apparently it's something they say the MWRD does anyway (so then why pass the bill?) though it will raise taxes a bit. Well, since we haven't had many sewage or flooding problems lately, or sewage floods (TOTALLY GRODY BRODY!), we're willing to pay a couple more bucks. Plus, Democrats are sexier than Republicans, case in point the name "Deep Tunnel". The Republican candidates don't have much to say about the whole thing anyway except for one, John Michael O'Sullivan, that says he'd like to see more accountability through single-member district voting. Oh and it's hard for a Republican to get elected in county-wide vote in Cook County.