Nearly 100 candidates, officials address Arab Democratic Club forum Sunday
Watch the video below of the event and speeches from candidates and officials (The Facebook Live Video was CENSORED by Facebook as a part of Facebook’s anti-Arab and anti-Muslim policies)
The Arab American Democratic Club (AADC) Hosted its pre-election Candidates Forum & Brunch today at Nikos Banquets, 7600 S. Harlem Avenue.
More than 100 candidates including in statewide, county and local races and many judges addressed the forum that ran from 10 am until 1:30 PM.
Keynote speakers included Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who gave a powerful and impressive speech on how she has helped improve Illinois ending the 8 month long backlog on payments to now only 3 days.
Also keynoting was Arab American Institute President Jim Zogby who received the Miriam Zayed Community Service Award.
ShawnTe Raines-Welch and Nick Kantas, both running for the 4th Judicial District, were among the first group of speakers.
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Here’s a link to watch the Facebook live stream of the event. Click here to view video.
Speakers, Honored Guests and candidate’s who were acknowledged and or spoke included:
Kari Steele for Cook County Assessor
Lyons President Christopher Getty
Pat Hynes, Lyons Township Assessor
Mike Porfirio State Senate Candidate in the new 11th District
ShawnTe Raines-Welch, candidate 4th SubCircuit Judge
Nick Kantas, candidate 4th SubCircuit Judge
Abdelnasser Rashid, candidate for State Representative
Rena Marie Tyne, Judge
Congressman Sean Casten 6th District
Congresswoman Marie Newman 6th District
State Rep. Fran Hurley 35th District
State Rep. Bill Cunningham 28th District
Dan Calandriello 17th Cook County Commissioner District
Congresswoman Robin Kelly, 2nd District
Jim Gleffe, Judge
Vernard Alsberry 5th District CC Judge
Elizabeth Ryan, Judge
Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa
Karin Norington-Reaves, Congress
Tracie Porter, Judge
John Ehrlich, Judge
Cook County Commissioner Frank J. Aguilar
Delia Ramirez, State Rep. 3rd District
Jane Nolan Palos Township
Tasneem Abuzir, Palos Township Trustee
Alexi Giannoulias, Secretary of State candidate
David Moore, Secretary of State candidate
Fritz Kaegi, Cook County Assessor
Bob Maloney, Palos Township Assessor
Palos Hills Mayor Gerald Bennett
Patricia Flynn, MWRD
Mariyana Spyropoulos, MWRD
Patrick Watson Dem State Central Committee
Carmen Quinones, Judge
Yolanda Harris Sayre, Judge
Frank Avila, MWRD
George Cardenas, Board of Review
Lamont Williams State Rep. 16th District
Patricia Joan Murphy Worth Township Committeewoman
Judge Ruth Gudino
Mary McMahon, Judge
Thomas More Donnelly, Judge
Sharon Waller, MWRD
Russ Hartigan, Judge
Charisse Williams, Congress
Daniel Pogorzelski, MWRD Judie
Lyn Smith, Judge
Andre Smith, Cook CountyCommissioner 2nd District
Patrick Watson State Central Committee 6th District
Aileen Bhandari, Judge 11 SubCircuit
Michael Weaver, Judge
Deidre Baumann, Judge
Judge Rouhi Shalaby
Judge Bill Haddad
Hassan Nijem, President of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce,
Jeffery Leving DadsRights.com
The program also include Roxane Assaf who sang the National Anthem to open the program, and board members Samir Khalil, Sonia Khalil, Rima Sweiss, Bilal Muaref, Saad Malley and Wissam Shehada helped organize the entire event.
The event emcee was former Chicago City Hall reporter and Urban Strategies Group President/CEO Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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