Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw, who drew national attention as one of the “Broadview Six,” is running for reelection.
Straw officially announced his campaign in a recent video posted to Facebook. The election will be held April 6.
“Four years ago, I ran for village trustee to help shape Oak Park’s future for our children and grandchildren,” said Straw in the opening of the video. “I challenged us to imagine the Oak Park of the next 50 years, an Oak Park that takes care of its neighbors and fights for common sense solutions rooted in our shared values.”
Straw listed some of the current board’s accomplishments and his priorities going into election season, as he strolled down the sidewalk of one of the village’s neighborhoods. He featured a biker, a school bus and ending at the North Fire Station on Augusta.
He highlighted passing the secure storage ordinance, the Vision Zero bike and pedestrian safety plan, and the community efforts to rally around immigrants in a time of fear and uncertainty.
Straw was notably one of the “Broadview Six” who were federally prosecuted after protesting outside of an ICE processing facility during the time of Operation Midway Blitz. All charges were dropped in May.
“I will forever be in awe of what Oak Park can accomplish when we stand up for our neighbors and work together. And my family will always be grateful for how this community stood with us,” said Straw in the video.
He also emphasized making sure Vision Zero becomes a reality and following through with building an updated North fire station as work that still needs to be done should he be reelected.
Straw shared another video on Facebook describing his “over 100 conversations” with community members at the Oak Park Farmer’s Market while getting petition signatures and encouraging the open dialogue.
In an interview with Wednesday Journal, Straw said he believes Oak Park residents “are really informed and understand that there are a lot of things going on,” about issues of concern residents have going into the election season. There is one discussion that has remained at the forefront for months: single-family zoning.
“This topic of housing affordability and how we can sort of preserve the historic character of Oak Park … for a long time, it was difficult to get people to engage and come out and attend,” said Straw. “It’s been exciting to see people get engaged, and I think that over the last couple of weeks I’ve heard that engagement become much more balanced.”
He also shared that he feels “we all have to do a better job of communicating regarding any policy change,” and he has found a lot of support and understanding when he is able to have direct conversations with people about their concerns on this issue.
Straw was first elected in 2023, and this will be his first time managing his duties in the role while running to be elected for it.
“That is going to be an important thing to balance because this is budget season, and we have a lot of important policy decisions to make,” said Straw. “It’s exciting to be able to continue doing that work while being able to get out and talk to voters.”
He is the fourth candidate to publicly announce his plans to run for the three open seats on the village board this April.
Jim Farrell, an Oak Park resident and president of management consulting firm JP Farrell & Associates, announced his campaign at the board meeting on Sept. 1. Sarah Abboreno Corbin and Trustee Derek Eder shared their campaign announcements last month. Trustee Cory Wesley has not said whether he plans to run for reelection.
Straw said he is looking forward to all of the candidates interacting with voters and having important conversations, and he hopes all who participate do so respectfully.
“Anybody who is looking to run for local office is doing so because they care deeply about this community, and they have a heart for service,” said Straw. “It isn’t an easy job, but it’s an incredibly important job, because local government is one of the places where you have the biggest impact on the people living in your community.”
Potential candidates were able to start getting petition signatures on Aug. 25, and there is still time to decide to run as candidate petitions and certificates of nomination are not due until November.