As America settles in for the coming four years with more arguably more uncertainty than can be remembered in history, Champaign County remains — politically — as it has been for years.
It’s a sea of blue surrounded by the deep red of the counties on its borders and beyond. In the central part of the county, Champaign-Urbana is the nucleus of blue surrounded by a red perimeter. And a further microscopic examination will showcase that same pattern, as at the center of our community sits the University of Illinois, a bastion of mostly progressive professors, researchers, students, and administration.
And when it comes time to cast a ballot, this community places its trust in Gordy Hulten, a long time voice in the local Republican Party, and someone who tends to buck tradition when it comes to how to truly listen in a bipartisan way.
I recently spoke with him about this past election, how he feels about the future of the country, and how to grab votes from both ends of the political spectrum.
Smile Politely: So, 2016 was a beast. How are you holding up post-election and post-recount?
Gordy Hulten: 2016 was a beast. It was the largest turnout in Champaign County’s history, with almost 93,000 votes. Post-election, our team was able to refresh a little bit. Everyone took at least a little time off, even though we had to perform the largest recount in County history in December.
SP: Have you had to do a recount before? What’s the process like?
Hulten: This was the first recount we’ve had in my six years as Clerk, so it was interesting and a valuable learning experience.
The process sounds simple (“count these ballots again!”) but our early voting and voting by mail procedures and volumes complicate it quite a bit. In Illinois, a losing candidate asks for a recount by asking for up to 25 percent of precincts to have the ballots recounted (or retabulated, more precisely). Because we have 10 early voting locations that can handle voters from any precinct, to recount the ballots in any given precinct requires a lot of searching and sorting. For example, to recount City of Champaign #1, we have to sort through all our early voting and vote by mail ballots (over 40,000 of them) to find all the ballots cast in that precincts at all locations. We have to do this while keeping each location’s ballots separate from each other. And we have to do this for each of the 29 precincts requested. Once we find them all, we can then run them through the tabulators again and compare results to see if anything changed. Sorting the ballots took considerably longer than recounting them.
It’s important to note, also, that this was a “discovery recount,” so regardless of what we find, it doesn’t change our official results for this election. The information learned can be used by a losing candidate to go to court to ask a judge for a full recount, or to contest the official results.
In this case, the discovery recount showed that count was accurate, and the losing candidate has announced he will not pursue court action.
SP: You’ve been here in Champaign for a long while now, and famously, or infamously, ran Illini Pundit for a long while. Do you ever miss being a bigger part of the polemics as opposed to being in an elected office?
Hulten: For the most part, I enjoyed IlliniPundit.com while I ran it, but stepping away from it when I began serving on City Council was the right decision, and I don’t miss it now. I still enjoy friendships, both in person and online, with a number of folks I first met through the blog.
SP: The landscape has changed so much since it was active, you sort of have to wonder if it would have been as effective now that Facebook basically rules the internet when it comes to online discussions. Being such a politically-minded citizen, is it hard for you to stay out of discussions publicly?
Hulten: Sometimes. This past presidential election was very frustrating, as is the current situation in Springfield, but I’ve also learned that local politics and community action is the most important and where one person can have the most impact, so I try to stay locally focused. I’m excited about many of the things happening and the people involved locally, especially at the City of Champaign and Champaign Unit 4.
We’re fortunate as a community to have some wonderful people step up to run and serve in positions that are often overlooked elsewhere, and I think the high quality of our local government is a reflection of those who serve.
SP: That’s really focused, and refreshing to consider, I think. Obviously, you are a Republican, and proud of it. I’ve long been impressed with your ability to attract voters on both sides of the aisle, myself included. What does having a President-elect like Donald Trump mean for someone like you? For your party, moving forward?
Hulten: Prior to November’s election, I was asked in interviews several times why people should bother to vote when so many were unhappy with their choices for President. My response was to remind people that there are lots of things on the ballot other than President, and that, regardless of who someone votes for, whoever is elected President will inevitably disappoint them.
As I did for President Obama, I hope the country thrives under President Trump and that he exceeds my expectations. His successes, to some degree, will soon be America’s successes. However, I remain convinced that our quality of life is impacted much more profoundly by our school boards and City Councils than by our Presidents.
SP: Now that is the sort of answer that wins elections, my friend. But you bring up a good issue, and so I am curious, do you think Obama did a good job, now that he’s on the way out? And to speak to your second point, what do you think is the single biggest challenge Champaign County faces moving forward?
Hulten: I don’t think Obama did a particulary good job, in part because I am measuring him against what he said he wanted to accomplish when running in 2008.
Champaign County’s biggest challenge is to continue to thrive in a era of diminishing state and federal support for higher education. Neither has surplus resources, and higher education hasn’t been a priority for either political party for many years.
SP: Well, I’d argue that Obama’s failures were mainly as a result of the GOP led Congress essentially blocking almost everything he wanted to accomplish, save for a very convoluted and second-tier healthcare plan that’s been under attack since the moment it passed. Could a President Trump thrive under a Democratic-led Congress?
Hulten: I’m not President Trump will be able to thrive regardless of who controls Congress. His complete lack of governmental experience and understanding is a huge concern for me.
SP: How can Champaign County combat the lack of success the State of Illinois has had recently? It’s no shock that our state saw more people move away than any other this past year. So, what’s the solution?
Hulten: The solution is a sane bipartisan budget, combining some measure of reforms (education funding, governmental, etc.) with some measure of revenue increases. At the state level, things have been managed so poorly for so long that the massive tax increase that is coming won’t do much more than pay off old bills and obligations. Infrastructure, social service, K-12 and higher education funding won’t see funding growth and will likely see further cuts, even with a large state tax increase.
SP: Do you think a state like Illinois would benefit from legalizing and taxing the sale of recreational marijuana? Feels like something like that could really help to offset tax increases where we might not need them if we can avoid it.
Hulten: Yes.
SP: Lots of elected officials end up in a bit of a quagmire professionally, in that without term limits, it’s sort of a constant campaign. Do you want to stay on as County Clerk for a while, or do you have ideas about changing it up, going private perhaps, or finding a different office to serve in?
Hulten: I love serving as County Clerk. It’s been six years, and the job is certainly still interesting, challenging and rewarding. We have an incredible team and lots of ideas yet to explore. Campaigning and serving a county as large and diverse as Champaign County is energizing and the election we just completed was incredibly fun to work on.
That said, opportunities in politics and public office are often about luck and timing. It’s no secret that I considered running for State House last year, and I am considering running for County Executive instead of County Clerk next year. As I said above, serving in local government has a huge impact on our community and its quality of life. Some time after the April election, after lots of conversations with friends, family and community members, I’ll make a decision about which service opportunity seems like it will have the most positive impact.
SP: Seems like in this County, bi-partisan support is the name of the game. There’s a lot of cross over, and it’s a tight space, so naturally, you’ll be shooting for votes from the other side no matter what. Are there any parts of your political outlook that appeal to the left that you are particularly proud of?
Hulten: I think there are lots of things, in part because local government lends itself to problem solving instead of the partisan standoffs we see in Springfield and Washington.
For example, I think our treatment of same sex marriages was the right thing to do and indicative of our “serve the customer” mentality, though it was controversial at the time.
I think this appeals to both left and right, but we’ve expanded access to voter registration and voting in Champaign County in ways that have been surprising to some. I think it’s fair to say that Champaign County’s voters have greater access to voter registration (especially on election day) and early voting than anywhere else in Illinois.