Will Mudron 5 Make Nick Palmer City Manager?

JOLIET, IL — On Wednesday morning, an email showed up in my inbox from the Nick Palmer For County Executive campaign. "Join Nick Palmer at our final fundraising event before the Illinois Democratic primary. It's cold outside, but we'll warm up and fuel up for the last few weeks of the primary season," the email blast read.

Palmer is on the March 17 election ballot for Will County Executive. He has the endorsement of his long-time boss, four-term Will County Executive Larry Walsh Sr. of Elwood. Palmer is active with the Wheatland Township Democrats. His family lives in Bolingbrook.

Palmer is a likable fellow, a down to earth personality, but this is his first major political campaign and I'm pretty certain Palmer is not going to win his election on Tuesday, March 17.

State Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, who is battle-tested, has name recognition and has a track record of success in political campaigning, is positioned to beat Palmer by a whopping margin.

On Wednesday, another political press release showed up in my inbox. The subject read: "Poll Finds Jennifer-Bertino-Tarrant Leading In Executive Race." With just six weeks before the March 17 primary, "A new poll released shows Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant leading her opponent by a two-to-one margin," the press release proclaimed.

While Palmer is relying on the support of his soon-to-be retiring boss, Bertino-Tarrant has locked up Democratic support from: outgoing seven-term Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil, two-term Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley, County Board members Tyler Marcum, Ken Harris and Mark Ferry, State Sens. Patrick McGuire and Michael Hastings and State Reps. John Connor and Natalie Manley.

Perhaps even more important, Bertino-Tarrant has locked up the support of 19 different labor union organizations across Will County. Poll numbers continue to trend in her favor - not Palmer's.

"A poll released by ALG Research finds Bertino-Tarrant in a strong position to secure the Democratic nomination for Will County Executive," Wednesday's press release from Bertino's campaign declared.

According to the non-profit Illinois Sunshine website, Palmer has raised about $110,000 for his quickly approaching March 17 primary. On Dec. 19-20, Terry D'Arcy gave Palmer $500, Bill Aeschliman gave $1,000, Herb Lande, chairman of the city of Joliet's Police and Fire Commission, gave $2,000, D Construction gave $1,000, Basinger's Pharmacy gave $2,500 and George Barr, chairman of the board at First Community Bank Joliet, gave $1,500.

Lots of Palmer's big Democratic donors, as you can tell, are prominent Joliet businessmen. And that brings me to my next point: division.

Palmer's run for political office against Bertino-Tarrant has created a wedge within the Will County Democrat primary.

The Will County Executive Chief of Staff is now in his 16th year on Walsh's staff. There are few guarantees in life, but I'm sure of one thing: if Bertino-Tarrant wins the March 17 primary, she won't be keeping Palmer around as her next chief of staff.

That puts Palmer out of a job, period.

And that brings us to this week's curious Joliet City Council meetings.

Even though the council's Mudron 5 coalition whittled their list of job finalists for the open city manager post to two candidates, none of the council members made a hiring recommendation.

The two remaining finalists are Will Jones, who has spent most of his life living and working in the North Shore. He currently works as city administrator in the affluent Milwaukee suburb of Mequon, pop. 25,000. As for Mark Rooney, he previously worked as village manager in Carpentersville and Wheeling, but he is now trying to springboard out of his current town manager position in Westerly, Rhode Island, pop. 22,800.

Rooney recently celebrated his first anniversary on the job by interviewing in Florida as a finalist for a city manager opening Panama City Beach.

The Joliet City Council met Monday night in closed session, but again, no hiring recommendation. Instead, councilwoman Sherri Reardon convinced her colleagues to require the two remaining finalists to undergo a written personality test, costing the city another $1,600 to administer.

Patch has learned that the personality test may be nothing more than a smoke screen. It may be a way to persuade Jones and Rooney to withdraw their city manager applications or, if they agree to take the test, give the council an easy excuse for rejecting their candidacy.

I believe the Mudron 5 might be using the personality test as a stall tactic. It may be a way to drag out the hiring process to close to the March 17 primary. It's looking more likely that the Mudron 5 want to reopen the hiring process so new applicants -namely Nick Palmer - can apply.

During a short interview Thursday night, Palmer initially laughed when asked about the possibility of taking over as the next city manager of Joliet.

However, he did say that people have approached him and talked to him about being a good fit for the Joliet city manager post.

Palmer, who was driving home from a political campaign event in Wilmington, emphasized that he is 100-percent focused and determined to win the Will County Executive's race.

He laughingly said that the same people suggesting he should be the next city manager of Joliet should also confer with Bertino-Tarrant about pursuing the position herself.

Palmer grew up in the Sugar Creek area of Joliet, and he went to Joliet Central High School. He said his dad's side of the family has established roots in Joliet.

"Joliet's a great city," Palmer said, "but I've not had any serious conversations about it ... I don't want people (supporting my campaign) to be discouraged. I'm very focused on this contest and I'm committed to this race. I feel the momentum is coming my way."

On Monday, Palmer's team issued a press release announcing that Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly was endorsing his candidacy for county executive.

"Over the past 15 years Nick has fought for all of the working families of Will County. I am proud to support Nick Palmer for Will County Executive," Kelly said in a press release.

Palmer is not going to win the Will County Executive's race. I don't see it happening. Political observers don't see him winning. The polling data doesn't show him coming close to victory.

Palmer will be out looking for a new job come mid-March. The Mudron 5 knows this and that's why I suspect they orchestrated Tuesday night's charade involving the personality tests.

Bertino-Tarrant as the next Will County Executive and Palmer in a much-better paying position as the next city of Joliet manager would go a long way to healing the divisions and friction that currently exists in Will County's Democratic Party.