There Are No Losers in Local Elections

By Warren Ali

          The day before last Tuesday’s election, I received an e-mail from The Hinsdalean requesting some time for an interview between 8 and noon, the day after the election.  As one of six candidates for four, 4-year seats on the D86 School Board, their request was expected.  I immediately started to organize my thoughts for the call regarding the election outcome.  By Tuesday night, I knew that I had not been elected.  So, on Wednesday morning I kept one eye on the clock and one on the phone, anticipating the call.  As the time moved past 11 a.m., it dawned on me that only the winners would be called.

 

          Though I didn’t have a winning campaign, I didn’t feel like a loser.  As a first time candidate, I had placed my name on the ballot and had courageously knocked on over 600 doors in the district during my campaign.  For the most part, people showed me kindness and appreciation for making the effort to stand on their front porch personally, ask for their vote, and explain what I stood for.  It’s a wonderful part of the process.  A process that allows citizens like you and me to participate in our democracy.  To get involve in our community and serve our fellow citizens.

 

          I felt like a winner.  I’d reached out to my families for support.  My immediate family provided words of encouragement before, during, and after the election, as well as financial support.  My work families from the many companies that I worked with over a 40-year career did the same, as did my Rotary family.  My church family offered their prayers, their vote, and their campaigning on my behalf.  My fraternity brothers and my family of intimate friends went to bat for me.  And a new group of supporters appeared and took up the cause to elect me with fervor and provided me with coaching on the process.

 

          The other five candidates and I focused our message on why we should be elected, not on why someone else shouldn’t be elected.  All of our interactions were respectful and supportive.  There were many aspects of district performance that we agreed on and some areas that we disagreed on regarding the solution or the sequence of resolution.  With only a couple of years in the district, I am fortunate to have not experienced previous election dysfunctionality or the infamous in-fighting of the D86 Board.  Many I talked to during my campaign questioned my sanity for seeking a board position because of this recent history.  Fortunately, throughout this school year, the D86 Board has been stable with very little drama.

 

          We are fortunate to have fantastic administrators, faculty, and staff at both high schools and equally fortunate to have passionate residents in the communities that provide our great students.  I truly enjoyed the interactions with every one of those stakeholders and wouldn’t trade that aspect of the campaign for anything.  Former President and then U.S. Senator Barack Obama spoke of his travels in southern Illinois during his first term in the Illinois legislature in his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope.  He saw pieces of himself in those he met.  He felt a sense of familiarity with the people he met wherever he traveled in the state.  He said in his book. “Not so far beneath the surface, I think, we are becoming more, not less, alike.”  After my campaign, I feel that way, too.  We all win when that happens.