: Hillary Clinton and Democratic leaders will continue to give Bernie Sanders space as to not alienate the large following of young voters the Vermont senator has compiled, according to Christopher Z. Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)

Jerry Delaney of Oak Park, who has been part of the feminist movement since the 1960s, is excited to see Hillary Clinton as the first female presidential candidate for a major party.

“It is a huge thing, especially for my generation,” said the 72-year Democratic committeeman of Oak Park. “We fought so hard for so many years to get to that place. Other countries have done it. I couldn’t figure out why we were not able to do it.”

With the buzz around U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts being a possible vice presidential candidate, Delaney said she is amused by the question being posed of whether the nation could support a female vice presidential candidate with a female presidential candidate.

“It’s always been two men and no one questioned that,” she said.

Merle Widmer, a Republican member of the Peoria County Board for 10 years, said he will vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump, but not because he is enthralled with either the man or his message.

“These are probably the two worst candidates since I’ve been voting,” said Widmer, who turns 90 this month. “They are both flawed. It’s the one you view as more flawed that you will vote against. It is not a very good choice.”

Widmer, who represented the north side of Peoria on the County Board, said he will go with Trump because of his business knowledge.

“I pick Trump over Hillary because he has a better understanding of the business world,” Widmer said. “The Dow is down again. (Financial manager) Bill Gross says we are headed for a major (fiscal) disaster. We will need someone with business knowledge.”

The Peoria conservative said something must be done to tackle the growing national debt.

“Some people say ignore the national debt. The debt goes from the federal government down to individuals,” Widmer said. “People buy and go into debt. As a younger person I did not have that opportunity to keep buying what I couldn’t afford. Today, you do not always know if you will have a job because of specialization.”

Merle Widmer, a Republican member of the Peoria County Board for 10 years said he thinks “the Republican party is facing a real challenge in terms of how do we reconcile all of the negativity that comes from Trump and how do you reconcile it with the voters?” (Photo by Marc Nozell)

The Peoria resident expects many people will simply stay home and not vote.

While it is unlikely he will skip the voting process, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood may bypass the presidential race on his ballot. The Peoria Republican said he has already ruled out voting for Trump because of his remarks about Muslims, women and other Republicans. As to whether he would for Clinton, LaHood said time will tell.

“Like many Republicans, I am very disappointed,” the former Republican congressman told reporters after the recent Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Springfield. “I think the Republican party is facing a real challenge in terms of how do we reconcile all of the negativity that comes from Trump and how do you reconcile it with the voters?”

Political expert Christopher Z. Mooney said this is one of the most unpredictable presidential races so far.

“We know Clinton’s problems and strengths and it seems unlikely people will change their attitude about her,” the director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois said. “The wild card is Trump. He could go one of two ways. With the party in an uproar, he can think about it and learn to read off of the teleprompter and everything will be forgotten, except in the Clinton commercials, or he can keep saying one crazy thing after another and the party will be doing triage on how to keep its Senate seats.”

Mooney said that despite high negative feelings running rampant on both Clinton and Trump, the possibility of a successful third-party run wanes with each passing day. A third candidate in the race could be a spoiler however, he said. History shows that Ross Perot’s third-party bid helped Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and that Ralph Nader’s third-party run helped George W. Bush in 2000, Mooney said.

He said the Electoral College system and people being born into the two major parties make its tough for a third-party candidate to prosper.

“No matter who won for each party, there is a core base of voters they can count on and that’s about 40 percent of the electorate, and there are a certain amount of states that a party is going to win right off the bat. A third-party doesn’t get that support. No one is born a Libertarian — except maybe Rand Paul —  or a Communist.”

Hillary Clinton and Democratic leaders will continue to give Bernie Sanders space as to not alienate the large following of young voters the Vermont senator has compiled, Mooney said.

The party will work to bring those young Sanders supporters into the Democratic fold. If they can’t, that could spell trouble for Clinton, he said.

Oak Park’s Delaney said those millennials are not just key voters, but keys to revamping the American political system.

“I don’t know how to fix it,” Delaney said of the current system. “The millennials, I think, hold hope. So many young people have been involved with the Sanders message. I think things will change with them. They are disgusted with what they’re seeing. I hope they can be the ones to bring back more graciousness.”

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