Close to 75 people attended a forum on Sept. 22 for independent candidates who said they were hoping or planning to run for village of Skokie elected offices in the spring 2025 election.
Village Trustee James Johnson, who has declared his candidacy for village clerk, hosted the event at the Emily Oaks Nature Center.
Eleven candidates spoke about why they were running for the positions of mayor, clerk, at-large trustee and district trustee. Most of the candidates had never run for an elected position before, and some said they were influenced to do so after recent changes to the village’s election code were implemented.
“In four years, in one term, Skokie has gone from having truly one of the worst local electoral systems in the state of Illinois and absolutely abysmal candidate turnout to now truly having one of the best local electoral systems in the state. And now we are seeing the results,” Johnson said. “We are seeing basically the highest candidate turnout that Skokie has seen since the 1950s.”
Gail Schechter, a local activist and founder of the Skokie Neighbors for Housing Justice, is running for an at-large trustee position. Two such positions will be on the ballot in the spring election.
“Skokie has everything going for it, most of all, the diversity of our people. And we wouldn’t have this diversity if we didn’t have decent transportation options, proximity to Chicago, a healthy mix of different types of housing stock, great schools, different diversity in terms of our economic development,” Schechter said. “We’ve become something of a quote new Ellis Island in terms of immigrants come straight here and bypass the central city.”
Schechter and other candidates expressed dissatisfaction with the current and previous village board and commissioners, “all deriving from the same pool of residents.”
Lissa Levy, the organizer of Meet up on Main events in Skokie, is running for an elected position for the first time.
Levy said the changes the village made by creating a district trustee position encouraged her to run because the number of voter signatures needed for a petition are lower than for village-wide positions. This, she said, allows her to focus on the district.
Pramod Joshi, a member of the Skokie Community Caucus, which is described on its website as a newly-formed organization, and a commissioner on the village’s Fine Arts Commission, said the caucus is neutral on independent candidates running for village positions.
“All we are trying to do is to educate people about everybody who is running for office,” Joshi said.
Johnson told Pioneer Press that he will not officially endorse any of the candidates, nor create a slate with any of them during the election season. “I’m not creating a political party,” Johnson said.
With the newly instilled amendments to the village’s election code, which are trustee districts, non-partisan elections and staggered terms, Johnson said “our new system is equitable. It is a level playing field. Candidates don’t need my support. Good candidates with good ideas should feel very empowered to run in the scope with our new system.”
Pioneer Press will be reporting on candidates once they officially file their petitions for the spring election. That is expected to occur in late November and early December, per the Cook County Clerk’s website.
