Argoudelis Remains Best Choice for Mayor of Plainfield

There was a very poorly done anti-John Argoudelis for Mayor of Plainfield campaign flyer in the mail a couple of days ago from a political action committee calling itself Citizens for Ethical Leadership in Plainfield (La-de-da!). I looked at it and thought, “Wow, this is bad”. Not in the way its makers intended it to be “bad”. If you are responsible for the flyer, never tell anyone. Because the flyer’s main effect is to make a voter think that Margie Bonuchi’s opposing campaign is not very smart or good and that leads to thinking their candidate isn’t, either.

No one is moved by reading oddly redacted, six plus year old, unattributed content from an unidentified source (nice going on the details). If you do read it, the more you do, the more harmless it sounds. Did Argoudelis do something he shouldn’t have? Yes. Was he held to account and paid a price for it? Yes. Did it cause great harm to anyone? No. Is there any evidence of his doing anything similar or worse since? No. If this is all you got, you got nothing. Next!

There’s no alternative given, around the bizarre directive to “vote no” on something that isn’t a yes/no question. “We deserve better in Plainfield”, but doesn’t say who is “better”. The candidate this ad is “for” isn’t even mentioned. In an ad for any a candidate it’s kind of important to use their name.

Turn it over and you get a repeat of the first side, adding that it’s “the only fact you need to know”. That’s certainly patronizing and dismissive. News for Bonuchi and crew: voters need and use a lot more facts than that and it’s not your place to tell us how much we need to know.

Holy cow. The flyer puts “Plainfield Mayoral Candidate John Argoudelis” in large, contrast color type here. You know, the way an ad for John Argoudelis might. Face, meet Palm.

At least the bit lifted from the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin covers the missing attribution for the content. Thank goodness that other people know how to be thorough in making a statement, right CELP?

The final parts are just plain funny. Pulling three thin quotes from the snippet on the other side to fill all the space because you’ve got nothing else to say. Those repetitive phrases about “assisting fraudulent conduct” and “false statements” or remarkably similar ones can fairly be applied to Margie Bonuchi, too. The honesty and ethics markets haven’t been cornered by her, either. Then the punch line: “We do not need these qualities in a Mayor at Plainfield Village Hall”. So now the one thing this ad beats to bits—not multiple things, one thing—is a “quality”? And “at Plainfield Village Hall”? Where else!? Maybe use English in a normal way, like stopping after the word “Mayor”.

They even failed “Campaign Lit 101--Making the Opponent Look Unattractive and Scary”. At worst, the photo they use of John Argoudelis makes him look a little bored, like a so-so driver’s license picture.

This ad was very obviously pulled together in a panic, and by people who are bad at this. It’s not effective against Argoudelis. Bonuchi is worried because Argoudelis can win. She must be hearing his footsteps, and not so much behind her as alongside her. People across Plainfield are simply frustrated and unhappy about the direction we keep heading and the choices being made under leadership and a twisted political clan that Bonuchi has been part of for over a dozen years. Plainfield has been trudging along in a muddy rut, mostly due to the same faces who spend more energy trying to circle wagons then they do trying to move forward. Neither of these candidates are flawless and neither is a rotten person, but one is better for Plainfield’s needs now, for where we can go as not just a “little old village” but as a growing suburb in a major metro area in the 21st century. Vote for John Argoudelis for Mayor if you want a different approach for the future of Plainfield.