Paul Osborne
Editor/Publisher
As I’m writing this column, it has been a week since the General Election was held and I think most of us are ready for “politics” to take a back seat to football, basketball and the approaching holidays.
It’s time to “unwind” from all of the campaign comments, polls and pleas for political contributions.
Since last week’s edition of this newspaper was printed on Tuesday afternoon, before the polls closed, allow me a few observations before filing away the General Election of 2024 results.
The terms “red state” and “blue state” have referred to U.S. states whose voters vote predominantly for one party—the Republican Party in red states and the Democratic Party in blue states—in presidential and other statewide elections.
As I was watching some of the media maps during the election returns, Illinois was a “blue state” surrounded by a host of “red states”.
That’s what always makes the Decatur and Macon County election returns so interesting and shows that our residents who vote are pretty independent and can’t be group-colored with red or blue.
For instance: out of over 45,000 votes cast by Macon County voters, nearly 60% went to Donald J. Trump and JD Vance. That means, although Illinois is a blue state, when it came to Macon County and the voters’ choice for President of the United States, color the choice with “red”.
Macon County also went “red” in electing Republican Michael Burkham as our next coroner with over 60% of the vote over Democrat Tiffany Hall.
While all of the other county races had only one candidate, in the Illinois House 96th District race that involved Macon County, Democrat Sue Scherer of Decatur, won re-election including 55% of our county’s vote over Republican Lisa Smith. (Color that blue.)
In the contested Illinois House race that involved Macon County, in the 95th District, Republican Mike Coffey had nearly 80% of the county vote over Democrat Kristen Chiaro. (Color that red.)
In the Illinois House 87th District, Republican William E. Hauter had 75% of the vote to beat Independent candidate David Gill. (Color that red.)
In the only contested Congress-ional Race involving Macon County voters, Democrat Nikki Budzinski had 54% of the county’s vote over Republican Joshua Lloyd. (Color that one blue.)
So, considering the contested races involving some, or all of Macon County voters, there was twice as much “red” as “blue”.
• VOTER turnout in Macon County was about 68% of the registered voters, which means one-third of the registered voters in Macon County didn’t bother to vote. (That’s difficult to believe that so many people didn’t care about voting in this election!)
As I’m writing this column, “official” results aren’t yet available. If you are interested in learning about the vote totals of each race, you can go to the website with specific information at https://il-macon.pollresults.net
• ONLY TWO — In the part of Macon County where I live, my ballot had only two races where I had to make a choice between candidates — the race for President of the United States and the race for Macon County Coroner.
Those who represent the area of Macon County where I live had no opponents. They are all Republicans and include Congresswoman Mary Miller of Oakland, State Representative Brad Holbrook of Shelbyville and State Senator Steve McClure of Springfield.
Obviously, none live in, or very close to, Decatur, or this constituent.
• ABOUT LETTERS — I received several letters to the editor to print before last week’s election — both for and against the two candidates for United States President.
Every letter (except one where the writer had submitted a similar letter just two weeks earlier and we have a one letter-per-month policy) was printed.
I received some nasty, profane anonymous letters complaining about me being bias in printing letters that didn’t agree with the anonymous letter writers’ political views.
I guess those anonymous letter writers don’t understand that I would actually be bias if I withheld any letter about any candidate because some readers might disagree with it.
When we get to the point that newspapers only print “letters to the editor” that all readers agree with — the “letters page” will be blank in publications across the nation!
Hopefully, with the 2024 Election in the rear view mirror we can learn to be more tolerant of the opinions of others in our community.
• FOR MANY years on Election Day, I eagerly looked forward to covering the elections, securing the vote totals, talking with the winners and providing all of that information to our readers in the Tribune the next morning.
In fact, every election day, we held up going to press for several hours so we could get the results to our readers.
It was always an all-night experience and, many years ago, a reader sent me a postcard with the following words printed on it: “Thanks for the election results. I’m sure you were up all night getting them.”
Sometimes, when an editor receives a message like that, it makes his or her whole effort seem worth it.
I always think of that card and message every election day.
A kind, appreciative comment can inpact a person’s thoughts for many years.
• WITH the advent of the internet with “instant news” and websites carrying vote totals as they are counted, my all-night work on getting the vote totals in the Tribune ended.
I do remember the last election day I stayed up all night covering — it was the night I was elected to my first term as mayor.
After watching the vote totals come in, meeting with my supporters at the Downtown Cafe and doing interviews with the television news stations, I headed back to the Tribune office to make sure the election results were printed in the paper when we went to press a few hours later.
A photographer from the Herald & Review went with me back to the Tribune and shot some photos of me working on the election results.
When he left, I worked the rest of the night finishing the Tribune — and only minutes after it was sent to press, the sun was shining brightly.
I headed home, took a shower and changed clothes, then headed back downtown to be interviewed by Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. before speaking at the Business Expo at the Decatur Civic Center!
When the Tribune made it to the post office and the newsstands, I started to unwind.
As I recall, I had no trouble falling asleep about as soon as my head hit the pillow.
That was an election day, night and next day, that will always hold a special meaning to me, both as a newspaper editor and former mayor-elect.
• OUR OBITUARIES printed on pages 20 and 21 of the print and online editions records the passing of another one of Bob and June Fallstrom’s sons, Erik, who passed away on Nov. 3. Last month, another of their six sons, Rolf Alan Fallstrom, died Oct. 4th and his obituary was in the Tribune.
Thanks to another son, Jerrold, for letting me know of their passing.
As most of you know, Bob Fallstrom, who died in 2015 at age 88, was with the Herald and Review in Decatur for 66 years and served as a reporter, sports writer and editor. His wife, June, passed away in 2000.
Despite working at different newspapers in Decatur, Bob and I grew close over the years and he certainly was a big supporter when I was mayor.
Bob particularly appreciated our joint connections to the history of Decatur and Macon County and we were grand marshals in Decatur’s 175th Anniversary Celebration.
During the last phone conversation we had, Bob told me something I’ve never forgotten.
He said, “I’m not going to retire. People die when they retire.”
Two weeks after his last day at the daily newspaper, Bob passed away.
Now, two of his sons have passed away and that makes me feel sad as I’m writing and remembering Bob and his family members today — and others in our obituaries I’ve known who have passed on from this life.
• I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co., every Thursday morning at 7:00.
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This post was originally published on here
