Stone vs. Dolar

Updated - see below

Today, in Chicago's 50th ward, there are aldermanic run-off elections.
Bernard Stone, the incumbant, is running against Naisy Dolar.

As Stone, who is Jewish, only received 48% of the vote in the elections held a number of weeks ago, this runoff was required. Following those elections, there was a great effort by the Orthodox Jewish community to get people registered to vote. Many frum registrars popped up like hotcakes making phone calls and announcements in Batei Kenesset and Batei Midrash to turn those not registered into registered voters. The implicit, if not explicit, intention was to get people to vote for Stone.

I'm a bit embarrassed to tell you that I had never voted before. I usually care more about the Israeli elections than I do about the ones here. Today, however, I am now one of those people who is newly-registered, and I voted today.

(As an aside, there were some flyers that were received in the mail showing a local Kosher bagel-shopowner who was advocating for Dolar. I heard rumors that some people will now boycott that store because of his support for the non-Jewish candidate. I believe that, even though they are within their rights to do so, such a boycott is unjust. As we say in America, "It's a free country". I just hope he doesn't lose money for this. And, Ahdut in the community is too important - much more important than this election.)

Like Harry M., I voted for Bernard Stone, basically for the reasons Harry listed.

Also, here's a corny Remez to vote Stone from the Rambam in Hilchot Shabbat:

נוטל אדם את בנו שיש לו געגועין עליו, והאבן בידו; אבל לא דינר--שאם ייפול הדינר, ייטלנו האב בידו.

Ok, that was pretty bad, but I really voted for Stone for his helping the Jewish community throughout the years.

Update: Stone won. See Frumhouse's post and election results here.

Candidate	Votes	Percent
Bernard Stone	5,965	53%
Naisy Dolar	5,304	47%

This means Stone won by 661 votes. Pretty close. The community's strategy seemed to pay off.