As of Sept. 4, the next mayoral election in Park Forest will be 19 months or some 579 days away, but politics being what it is these days, the election campaign is already underway with Mayor Jon Vanderbilt holding a reelection fundraiser kickoff party at the Aqua Center that day.
This will not be a handshake, hot dog and beer get-together. The mayor’s reelection committee is thinking big and asking for lots of dollars. A flyer describes the three-hour event as a family friendly business showcase with food, drinks, music and, of course, swimming. It will cost attendees $50 to rub elbows with other elbow runners.
Businesses are encouraged to do more than that.
Want your sign next to the pools and the waterslide? That will cost $5,000, but you get free admission for 30 people. A $2,500 donation puts your name in front of the “amenities” area and you can comp 15 of your best friends. If this is still too much, there is an “entertainment” package for $1,250 which gets your name mentioned during a DJ “shout out.” Perhaps some of those seven friends who got in on your dollars will thank you for their passes.
I have one question. What’s the rush?
“We want to get our message out to the public,” said Vanderbilt, who noted that in the recent past money from his campaign fund went for food deliveries, the purchase of nearly $1,000 for personal protective equipment face masks as well as yard waste bags and village stickers to help residents clean up from the 2020 tornado that struck a small portion of the village.
During the pandemic, Vanderbilt is a visible figure at food giveaways organized by a weekly tabloid and estimates his campaign chipped in more than $1,000 for groceries.
A fourth generation Park Forest resident, Vanderbilt won the 2019 mayoral election by 14 votes over fellow trustee Mae Brandon. Since then, his community strategy has been simple. He never seems to miss an opening in Park Forest, a community event, a celebration of any kind or a comment on social media.
But local politics can either be convivial or cut throat and there are always rumors, hints and knowing nods about people who are thinking about running for office. Vanderbilt’s strategy could be seen as an effort to dissuade others from running against him in 2023.
Although the door is open for big donors, Vanderbilt shrugs off the cost and said he does not expect numerous large donations flowing into his campaign coffers, while acknowledging this event is the start of his reelection campaign. Others, however, see big money as a portent of things to come.
If the Vanderbilt fundraiser is a new and expensive look in local government, both former Park Forest Mayor John Ostenburg and longtime political activist Doug Price sound warnings over the high cost of running for office.
Ostenburg, who was a state representative and a village trustee before serving 20 years as mayor, noted with sadness the changing face of running for local office.
“Park Forest is not a wealthy community so when I ran for office I wanted the public to be as comfortable as possible,” he said.
He recalled his fundraising efforts usually capped tickets at $20 to $25 and thought that asking for large donations of more than $500 from businesses could open the door to a “what’s in it for me” response.
“I know the days are gone when (former trustee) Marge Freidman told me she spent $7 when she won an election,” he said. “We are no longer in an everyman’s campaign.”
Price is treasurer of Park Forest’s Birch Street Co-op Town Homes and also serves as head of first-term village trustee Erin Slone’s political committee.
If Vanderbilt sees his fundraiser as an effective way to raise money to help the village, Price, who sees no harm in a $50 contribution to anyone’s campaign, complains that large donations will allow an easy way for more “greedy people” and “big check writers” to get their feet inside a community’s financial doors.
He also says the days when a person seeking office in Park Forest could discuss issues to as many as 500 people in up to 10 candidate forums are long gone and believes when a community has fewer financial resources, fewer people have time to give to public service, thus allowing “greedy people” to step in.
The next local election is 21 months off.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
