I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and give you an update about yesterday’s election.
We’re currently down 111 votes, or just under 1%. There are some absentee and provisional ballots still outstanding. It’s going to be an uphill climb to make up that difference, but we will do everything to ensure that all votes are counted. Voters deserve to have confidence in the process, and that means knowing their voice is heard.
But whatever the final total may be, today we are celebrating all that we accomplished.
We built a movement in this neighborhood. Voters across the district stood together and demanded something better. Thousands of people said that our community was tired of the same old machine politics and corruption in Springfield. They said that government ought to be fighting for working people, for those most vulnerable in our society, for decent schools and decent wages and for a basic human decency that’s been denied so many of our neighbors for so long.
Our dedicated volunteers faced a tidal wave of cash, of mailers, of TV ads, of endorsements from just about every entrenched political interest in the city – and we stood tall, and fought hard. I couldn’t be more proud of everything we’ve accomplished.
Now, we get back to work. We keep fighting for progress on the same concerns that have motivated us from the beginning: improving our schools, protecting our communities, restoring the economy, and making government truly accountable to those who it’s meant to serve.
I cannot express the depths of my gratitude to everyone who has supported the campaign. Everyone contributed financially – who gave $5 or $5,000 – to give us the resources to challenge the Machine. Everyone who gave their time – a couple hours on Election Day, or two sifts a week since August – to have thousands of conversations with voters that brought us this result.
I am profoundly grateful to every one of you. We should all be enormously proud of what we’ve built together.
Let’s get back to work.
Will
Fred Klonsky 