Citizens of Metea hosted their Spring Candidate Fair in preparation for the upcoming local primary elections on Feb. 10. With the 2025 Aurora mayoral election being held on April 1, 2025, Citizens of Metea members welcomed six mayoral candidates, including incumbent Richard Irvin, as well as two candidates running for Alderman at Large and three for Alderman/Alderwoman.
As the bi-partisan civic organization hosted a fair this past October, they highlighted the importance of being aware of the political candidates in preparation for both the 2024 United States presidential election and local elections. However, the Spring Candidate Fair shifted its focus and concentrated on local office candidates.
“Last time around we focused on the referendum questions and talked about members of Congress, but that is not on the ballot this time,” Citizens of Metea advisor Susan Fuhrer said. “This time around we are going to have the mayors sit at a table in front and ask them questions to make more personal connections.”
With 11 candidates in attendance, Citizens of Metea student representatives introduced each one at the start of the event. Citizens of Metea Political Directors Chloe Stables and Zoe Rountree began with brief one-minute introductions of Ron Woreman and Keith Larson, candidates for Alderman at Large. They then introduced Brandon C Tolliver (Ward 7), Shweta Baid (Ward 10), and Patty Smith (Ward 8).
Proceeding with introductions of the remaining mayoral candidates, each mayor candidate had the opportunity to speak during a Q&A that explained their goals for Aurora and how they became politically engaged. Mayor candidate Ted Mesiacos publicized what he would do as mayor.
“I want to make sure people understand that their tax dollars are being spent where they’re supposed to be spent,” Mesiacos said. “We need to focus on Aurora that’s grown from the neighborhood up, Aurora is strong when our neighborhoods are strong, our kids need to know that we’re there to help them.”
Before running for mayor, Mesiacos owned an architectural design firm in Aurora, IL. With his background in architecture, he explains that mindset can be applied when in office to form his policies and plans.
“When you’re an architect, you have to plan, work within a budget, and reach your goal with a set amount of dollars that the client like the city council, gives you, and maximizing it for the community/the people that expect you to take care of them,” Mesiacos said. “Our judiciary responsibility is not wasting tax dollars and giving them more than less.”
While the event mainly consisted of the mayoral candidate Q&A session, students were able to walk around and meet all six mayoral candidates. This enabled students to ask questions and learn more about their local government. This event also offered opportunities for students to engage with campaigns, valuable for future endeavors.
“As the election is not till April 1, students could get involved in some of these campaigns and work on passing literature out, work on the campaigns, and get some internship opportunities,” Fuhrer said.
Despite the great turnout of candidates from the Aurora area, the process of getting these individuals to the event is difficult. Citizens of Metea members utilized different outreach methods along with connections with other organizations to provide a successful Candidate Fair.
“We did reach out to the League of Women Voters to help us make some connections,” Fuhrer said. “I will say we were assertive with candidates, knowing that in a local election, it might be 10 votes difference between who is runner up and who isn’t.”
While Citizens of Metea had to make a decision not to include Naperville candidates, government students will be informed about other similar events where they can connect with candidates from Naperville.
“Since there are Aldermen in Aurora, and there are city councilmen in Naperville, we ultimately decided since Metea is an Aurora school to just invite Aurora candidates only,” Fuhrer said.
For additional information about Citizens of Metea and future candidate fairs, reach out to club advisor Susan Fuhrer.
