University of Illinois Professor and former City Council member Eric Jakobsson has joined the small group of conspiracy theorists who believe the City of Urbana is under attack by “terrorists”. Jakobsson said he is in complete agreement with the terrorism theory put forward by Urbana City Council member Erik Sacks. According to Sacks, the wave of newcomer candidates running in the election are part of an extremist right-wing group dedicated to overthrowing democracy.
Sacks, also University of Illinois Professor, was appointed to the Ward 2 seat by Mayor Diane Marlin in late December, which was left vacant when Jakobsson quit the position. Sacks is also running as a candidate in the Democratic Primary election to be held on February 23rd.
Sacks posted a “Letter of concern” to the West Urbana Neighborhood Association email list on February 6th. The letter contained a litany of conspiracy theories, centralized around one of his opponents in the Ward 2 race, Christopher Hansen (myself).
Jakobsson, a professor of biochemistry, was the first person to jump in and agree with Sacks’s allegations – posting less than an hour after Sacks, “I agree completely with Erik Sacks’ characterization…”
“Urbana, our City, is under attack.”
According to Sacks and Jakobsson, Hansen and other candidates on “the entire ballot” are part of an extremist right-wing movement to overthrow democracy, all orchestrated by the government accountability group, the Edgar County Watchdogs (ECW’s). Sack and Jakobsson have drawn this conclusion from the fact that the recent Open Meetings Act (OMA) lawsuit against the City of Urbana lists myself and the two founding authors of the ECW news site.
Sacks, an “assistant professor of perennial grass breeding”, goes on to cite as evidence a website that seems to have been designed specifically to defame the ECW’s. According to the site, the ECW’s “are far Right wing extremists and are being called American Terrorists who are trying to destroy American democracy, laws, and the government”.
The claims made by Sacks and Jakobsson are especially curious since the vast majority of Urbana residents whom they attempt to implicate are actually from the progressive left on the political spectrum. The vast majority of them have never even heard of the Edgar County Watchdogs, and besides the OMA lawsuit and having conferred with them on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) issues, I haven’t personally had any type of political discussion with them. I doubt they are even aware that I’m running for office. I’m pretty sure the two veterans who run the ECW news site are not “terrorists”.
Sacks also alleged that I spoke against an anti-racism resolution written by a black wardsperson, implying that my motivations were racist. My full commentary, on which Sacks based his claims, can be heard here:
Sacks’s letter may be the most remarkably twisted and dishonest representation by an elected official that has come across the Check CU desk, but you can be the judge of that:
