A new political group has been formed in Oak Park in an effort to bring village politics a little closer to the middle.
The new group, called Elevate Oak Park, was the brainchild of three former volunteers working the unsuccessful village president campaign of Ravi Parakatt, who received only 37.17% of the vote in his unsuccessful bid to oust Oak Park Village President Scaman.
Scaman and most of the other winning candidates in Oak Park’s April village elections were backed by progressive activist group Activate Oak Park, which was formed in 2020. Candidates backed by Activate Oak Park won races for village president, as well as village, library and school boards.
While Activate Oak Park is not a party and didn’t run candidates, some candidates were active in the group before deciding to run for office. Others, such as Scaman and four Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 candidates, three of whom were elected, made alliances with Activate Oak Park during the campaign. They were supported by Activate Oak Park members and were active on the Activate Oak Park Facebook page during the campaign. Activate Oak Park also printed a slick pamphlet that was handed out at the polls on Election Day that circled the candidates they endorsed.
Brynne Hovde, an Activate Oak Park leader, described Activate Oak Park as just a Facebook page and a monthly pizza party.
Chris Saam, one of the founders of the Elevate Oak Park, said the success and power of Activate Oak Park were reasons he wanted to start an alternative group, one he said will give voice to those with a somewhat different perspective.
“What we saw in the campaign was that the Activate Oak Park group was very well organized, and the candidates that lined up with them performed very well,” said Saam, who described himself as a liberal Democrat.
About 35 people gathered Sept. 4 in a small room on the second floor at One Lake Brewing in Oak Park for the first meeting of Elevate Oak Park. The crowd was mostly a mix of middle aged and older people and included only two Black people.
“If I’m honest, that’s something I’m very worried about,” Saam said. “There’s a lot of groups of, kind of, the old guard liberals that skew a little bit older in this community and we don’t want to get branded as that. If we do this right, the next time we have a gathering I would hope that it would be a much more diverse crowd and I would hope that it would skew a little bit younger. I’m 50, I want to be a bit above the median age of the group, not below. To be successful we need a much larger cross section of Oak Park.”
The people at the meeting were curious to learn about Elevate Oak Park. Many expressed frustration at what they viewed as an unresponsive village government that only listens to those on the activist left.
“I feel like special interests are kind of running the show,” said Cece Sykes.
Some were frustrated by the Village Board’s decision to build a protected bike line along Harvard Street despite the vocal opposition of many people who live on or near Harvard who objected to the loss of street parking that the bike lane will cause.
“The village seems not to listen to any input,’ said Kurtis Todd, who opposed the Harvard bike lane.
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Saam, Angela Spinillo and Sarah Spelman were the Parakatt volunteers who came up with the idea to start Elevate Oak Park. They were soon joined by former Oak Park Village Board member Simone Boutet, who lost a race for the board in 2023, and newly elected Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 school board member Josh Gertz. At the event at One Lake Brewing, Gertz highlighted that he was the only candidate in the April election that defeated an Activate Oak Park backed candidate. Gertz edged out write-in candidate David Schaafsma for the fourth seat on the OPRF School Board in the April election after Activate Oak Park backed candidates won the first three spots.
Saam said that Elevate Oak Park would offer an alternative to Activate Oak Park for those who want to get involved in local politics.
“There shouldn’t be just one advocate group in town running candidates,” Saam said. “That being said, we’re in no position today to run candidates, to compete with their brand and what they’re doing in this community. They’re two orders of magnitude larger than we are. They’ve been around for five or six years. We’ve had one kick off meeting with 35 people.”
Saam wants Elevate Oak Park to focus on issues. He said that he views Elevate Oak Park as a group that will push for open discussion of issues and be open to those with a range of ideologies. He would like to focus on solutions and not endless discussion.
“In terms of ideology, I would like to find the middle of what Oak Park is,” Saam said. “I do think it’s liberal Democrat. That’s one of the reasons we moved here.”
The political divide in Oak Park between older liberals and the mostly younger progressives was perhaps most apparent in the Oak Park Public Library Board race in April, in which three Activate Oak Park backed candidates were elected along with one person from a different slate that appealed to a decidedly older base.
Saam said that Elevate Oak Park must move beyond complaints and frustration with the village government.
“We need to change that frustration into action and we need to reach out beyond just our core group,” Saam said.
Saam was encouraged by the turnout at their first meeting.
“I like the turnout, we have a long way to go,” Saam said.
Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.