For those of you who weren't able to make it to our meeting Thursday night, I wanted to report on the discussion concerning the 204 referendum. Representatives from groups in favor of the referendum (204 The Kids) and opposed to the referendum (Citizens for Options) were invited to present, and each took about 15 minutes to make their case.

A vigorous discussion followed, and a motion to oppose the referendum was made. It failed, and a follow-up motion to endorse the referendum was made, which passed by a vote of 10-3. You can read the press release about our endorsement here.

Hi everyone. Bear with us over the next day or so as we upgrade the Naperville Democrats website. Things will look a little off-kilter for a while, but all of the content is still here, and in very short order we'll have a lot of new features to share with you. We'll update you when things are back to normal.

Update: As of this evening (slightly after midnight on Saturday), most of the major kinks seem to be worked out. As always, please let us know if anything seems out of the ordinary... In the meantime, Steve and I will work on a quick summary of what's new here, what's improved, and how you can get more out of the website. Thanks for stopping by!

Benjamin Franklin said that those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither. I was quite saddened to read Tim West's column supporting President Bush's illegal wiretaps; these wiretaps are expressly forbidden by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Just last year President Bush explained that "a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way." Yet two years prior, he secretly approved (and has done so more than 30 times since then) the illegal surveillance of Americans without any oversight whatsoever. President Bush lied last year when he claimed that "nothing has changed" - by his actions (and his attempts at hiding these actions from the American people) he has betrayed our trust.

Naperville Democrats Pledge Support for 204 Referendum

Group Urges Community to Pass Bond Measure on April 5

Naperville, IL -- Voting overwhelmingly in favor of the measure at their monthly meeting, Naperville Democrats passed a resolution on Thursday supporting the Indian Prairie School District 204's bond referendum.

"Our school system is the crown jewel of Naperville," said Rick Klau, Chair of the Naperville Township Democratic Organization. "The 204 referendum presents our community with an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to a superior school system. Its passage will ensure that we can look forward to a future in which Naperville's students can continue to receive the best education possible."

Wondering where your polling place is on Tuesday, April 5? We have a handy form you can fill out to find your registration status and polling place.

If you're interested in our candidates for Naperville Township Trustee, you can read the Naperville Sun profiles here: Rick Klau and Janice Ilg.

Don't forget to vote on April 5!

FYI, Matt Freeman, who spoke at last week's meeting and who is running for Naperville City Council, now has his website up. Check out the site, and check out how to help out.

Last night's Caucus was a success, we have two candidates for Naperville Trustee: myself (Rick Klau) and Janice Ilg. You will be hearing more from Janice and me about our candidacies in the days and weeks ahead; currently we have some paperwork to fill out to make the candidacies official. Thanks to all who came out to the Caucus last night, your support is much appreciated!

I have set up a website for my campaign here; I will post there periodically about what I find important, answer questions that are posted, and keep people apprised of what's going on in the campaign. We'll be getting Janice set up with a website soon.

It was wonderful to see so many people at today's holiday party. With a record turnout and a number of new faces, it was a terrific event. Special thanks to Susan Burke, Shelby Meyer and Robin Klau for their help putting the event together, and thanks to everyone who attended. We'll follow up with a detailed report in a few days!

Happy holidays!