The consensus among attendees of the July 10 Bloomington League of Women Voters Forum for Primary Candidates is that the "At Large" City Council race is among progressives. SD49 Republicans will not be making a formal candidate recommendation.
The video for the entire debate is now available. CLICK HERE to view it.
These Four City Council – At Large candidates will be on the ballot for the August 13th primary election.
The listed campaign sites all are on Facebook, navigate from FB
• Jenna Carter: (FB) Jenna Carter for Bloomington City Council
• Brian "Clem" Clemens: (FB) Brian "Clem" Clemens for Bloomington Council
• Judy Gelina: (FB) Judith Gelinas
• Larry James Hotchkiss: tbd
Three of the four candidates’ for the City Council – At Large position attended the debate. Larry James Hotchkiss had a family situation and could not attend. Candidate responses clearly showed a progressive liberal bias.
Unlike the questions selected for the mayoral debate, there were many audience questions regarding diversity, inclusion, racial equity, sanctuary cities, and illegal immigrants.
All three of the candidates had derogatory remarks regarding Bloomington’s “welcomeness”. The candidates indicated they would not cooperate with federal law enforcement officials in advising them of illegal immigrants in Bloomington and several suggested Bloomington become a sanctuary city.
Unfortunately, Mr. Hotchkiss does not have a web site or facebook site allowing us to assess his views, so at this point we feel there is no candidate in this race who is not liberal or progressive and is acceptable to Republicans. If this disappoints you (too), please think about how you can prepare to run for the City Council in the future.