[Peace-discuss] *News Gazette Front page coverage of Referenda*

[Jan & Durl Kruse]



Voters get opportunity to weigh in on war, Bush
By Mike Monson
Monday October 30, 2006
URBANA – Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden fields lots of phone  
calls during election season. Of late, many of them have been from  
irate Republicans, outraged to see the wording on some of the  
advisory referendums on the Nov. 7 ballot.

What's making them so mad?

Voters in Champaign and Urbana – in Cunningham Township and City of  
Champaign Township specifically – are being asked whether they  
support an "orderly and rapid withdrawal" of U.S. miliary personnel  
and bases from Iraq.

Voters in both townships are also being asked if they support the  
impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney "for  
misleading our nation into war" and "for permitting the illegal use  
of torture" and permitting domestic spying.

In Cunningham Township, there's a third advisory referendum asking if  
the Illinois governor should resist, to the extent of his authority,  
any further mobilization of Illinois National Guard units for service  
in Iraq on the grounds the war is "illegal, immoral and harmful to  
the well being of the people of the state."

Shelden said the callers to his office generally "are upset because  
they don't like the language. They think it's kind of skewed language."

Skewed or not, voters in Champaign-Urbana on Nov. 7 are going to  
provide an indication of the local level of support for the war  
effort and for the Bush administration itself.

The questions got placed on the ballot when members and supporters of  
AWARE, the Anti-War, Anti-Racism Effort, a local anti-war group,  
jammed the annual town meetings in Cunningham and City of Champaign  
Township on April 10 and made motions to place the advisory  
referendums on the ballot, as they are entitled to do under a little- 
known state law.

Durl Kruse of Urbana, an AWARE member, said the idea to use the town  
meetings to place advisory referendums on the ballot came from Rich  
Whitney, the Green Party candidate for governor, who was in Champaign- 
Urbana in early April to speak at a state conference for the Illinois  
Coalition For Peace & Justice.

Kruse said he called Carol Elliott, the Cunningham Township  
supervisor, and Linda Abernathy, the City of Champaign Township  
supervisor, and found out that town meetings could be used that way.

There was no opposition to the advisory referendums at the Cunningham  
town meeting, but there was a spirited debate and close votes at the  
City of Champaign town meeting, with veterans and Champaign Mayor  
Jerry Schweighart leading the opposition.

Kruse said he thinks the advisory referendums will get majorities in  
Urbana, and "I like to think they could pass" in Champaign.

"I think you're seeing a growing awareness and acknowledgment there  
has been blunder, after blunder, after blunder," Kruse said. "We have  
the right to hold them accountable."

Schweighart said opponents of the referendums have only themselves to  
blame. He said he tried to publicize the town meeting and get people  
to attend to oppose the referendums.

"We attempted to bring this to the attention of the people and we  
didn't get enough turnout, and we lost it by about two  
votes,"Schweighart said.

Shelden, a Republican, said he personally thinks it should take  
petitions signed by residents to get an advisory referendum on the  
ballot.

Currently, outside of the town hall meeting, it takes signatures  
equivalent to 8 percent of the people who voted in the last  
governor's election within a jurisdiction to get an advisory  
referendum on the ballot, he said.



Find this article at:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2006/10/30/ 
voters_get_opportunity_to_weigh_in_on_war_bush
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