Last Tuesday, the Champaign City Council deadlocked over which candidate they will appoint to Kyle Harrison’s recently vacated seat. In one corner sits Vic McIntosh, an establishment Republican who, over the years, has held seats on the council as an at-large representative and as a representative for District 3. Since relinquishing his seat in 2008, he has kept himself busy serving on the city’s Storm Water Utility Commission. In the other corner sits businessman Tony Pomonis who had his political coming out party in 2008 when he fell just 155 votes short of unseating Democrat C. Pius Weibel in the Champaign County Board election. Pomonis has since gotten some publicity for being one of the organizers responsible for bringing Ron Paul to our town in March.
In these two men, the council must choose between a candidate who is a known commodity, and a candidate who has established himself as an entrepreneur with a bright future in public service.
Of course, I’m a bit biased in this description, but what can I say? Despite the significant chasm separating our personal political beliefs, I consider Tony to be a friend and I fully support his bid to represent District 3. I support him now, I supported him in his run for county board, and I’ll support him when he runs for District 3 in April. My reasons for supporting Tony are are two-fold, and have very little to do with politics: he is a service-minded individual with deep ties to Champaign and its residents, and he has shown himself to be a flexible thinker who is willing to advocate on behalf of the city’s best interests.
I fall back on these two points all the time when defending Tony to my more liberal friends who, upon hearing that I back him, cock their heads to one side or another (usually to the left) and ask, “Isn’t Tony a crazy Ron Paul supporter?”
Of course, Tony is a crazy Ron Paul supporter. This is something we’ve discussed a great many times, and try as I might, I’ve been unable to disabuse him of his own personal political leanings just as he’s failed to disabuse me of my own (I remain a Pinko-Leftist who reluctantly supports Barack Obama’s pathetic attempts at promoting a liberal agenda through centrist politics, while ignoring the fact that he has a secret list of Americans he’d like to kill). Tony and I just flat out disagree about how we’d like the federal government to function, but we don’t disagree about what we’d like the government to do: provide people with the opportunities to be as successful as their natural disposition allows them to be.
And honestly, that matters a hell of a lot more to me than which candidate Tony cast his ballet for in the last presidential election. Truth be told, I care hard about national politics just like you do, and just like Tony does, but when the rubber meets the road, I don’t really give a shit about what Tony Pomonis or Karen Foster or Paul Faraci think about the federal trade deficit or the constitutionality of the federal healthcare mandate; I give a shit about what they’re willing to do for my hometown.* To that point, here’s what I know about the decision our council has ahead of it:
- Despite Vic McIntosh’s continued service to the city, of the two candidates, Tony Pomonis has shown the most upside when it comes to being an active force for progress in our community. This cannot be overlooked when taking into account the steps those on the sitting council have been able to make in the past months. It’s time to build on these significant steps, and of the two options, Tony is far and away the best candidate to do just that.
- Regardless of what the council decides when they reconvene on the issue, Tony will fully commit himself to the people of District 3 and run a passionate and, very likely, successful campaign when that seat goes up for election April.
There are people, I’m sure, who are skeptical about the former, and doubtful of the latter. These people overlook quite a bit in Candidate Pomonis, and even more in Tony Pomonis, son and protégé of Stacey Pomonis: Tony’s father is one of the most intense, stubborn, and committed men I’ve ever met. As an immigrant and a entrepreneur who built a life for his family in Champaign out of next to nothing, Stacey instilled in his son a sense of community and general goodness that more people in politics ought to aspire towards.
I’ve personally seen Tony exercise this goodness. Even as he’s transformed himself into a shrewd, compassionate businessman, he’s found ways to align his interest with those of his employees, creating life-changing opportunities for many of them. But Tony has also inherited some of his father’s drive. This is something I’ve seen since he expanded upon his family business to make Merry Anne’s Diner into the growing brand it is today, something I saw in 2008 when he ran a campaign for Champaign County Board with a passion and intensity that few in our community expected to see from a political newcomer running for what must be the most trying job in local politics. In that time, he’s also managed to work with marginalized and at-risk populations as a volunteeer and an advocate (most recently serving on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters), and push for greater transparency in local government.
Honestly, there are few people I’d support as strongly as I do Tony, politics be damned. Tony has been an incredibly productive, and an incredibly generous, member of our community, something I think everyone on the council realizes. Those who support him are encouraged by his trajectory as a public servant and want to take advantage of what he has to offer as soon as possible. Those who don’t, I assume, see in his opponent someone who has experience working in city politics. Their point is a good one: there is an opportunity cost associated with showing a new council member the ropes. Indeed, the more experience a council member has working with the city and with his or her district, the better equipped that council member is to serve in the short-term. It’s clear to me (just as it’s clear to Don Gerard, Tom Bruno, Marci Dodd, and Will Kyles) that Tony’s long-term potential as a public servant makes the cost of introducing him to the inner-workings of the city time and money well spent.
As it stands, Paul Faraci, Karen Foster, Deb Frank-Feinen, and Michael LaDue have thrown their support behind McIntosh, who — based on the sparseness of his application** — must have expected a few more votes than he ended up with. Now that the council has come to an impasse, each council member must choose whether or not to double down on their candidate, or cross over to the other. On July 10th, at least one of our council members will have to reconsider his or her initial vote and decide who the newest member of the Champaign City Council will be. Both of these men are worth doubling down on, but based on his promise as a public servant and his willingness to represent everyone in his district (regardless of personal background or political affiliation) only one of them is actually worth crossing over for.
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*Did you know that Karen works with William Jones (owner of Rose & Taylor’s Barber Shop) to do regular food deliveries for residents of Champaign who are in need? I don’t fucking care if she voted for John McCain or Ron Paul or whoever the hell Republicans vote for — this is the kind of person I want running my city.
** A copy of Tony’s for comparison.
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Opinion pieces published in Smile Politely are the sole opinion of the author, and not the opinion of other writers or managing staff. Smile Politely does not guarantee the veracity of any claims made by the author.