Four candidates are now vying for two at large seats. 5:08 pm, May 14, 2021 ×
Ashlie Castaldo
Ashlie Castaldo will formally announce her campaign for an at large Duluth City Council seat at noon Monday in Enger Park.
Castaldo, age 34, was born and raised in Duluth and now serves as the digital marketing director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights.
A graduate of Denfeld High School, she went on to earn a bachelor s degree in religion and sociology from Greenville University in southern Illinois and a master s degree in behavioral health from the University of Illinois Springfield. But Castaldo said that after several years away, she longed for home.
Aaleiyah Spaulding of Springfield said Thursday she had not been on the University of Illinois Springfield campus since the school went to remote classes in March 2020.
Spaulding was taking part in a stage experience at Sangamon Auditorium, marking her graduation with a degree in psychology. That experience may have kept down the number of guests because of COVID-19 , and Spaulding couldn t celebrate with all of her classmates, but it was memorable nonetheless, she said. I was worried we weren t going to do it because of COVID, Spaulding said before the short ceremony. Even if it s just six guests, I m just happy. My family is here. That s enough for me.
Every ten years, county board districts are redrawn to reflect changes in population.
Last year, when I ran for a second term, I promised, if re-elected, to present a fair map.
And that’s what I did. On Tuesday, I presented a map drawn by the geography department of the University of Illinois Springfield, reducing the number of board districts from 29 to 25.
Current map is here; proposed map is here.
In the contract, I specified “no bias” and to follow Illinois law, which requires districts to be a) nearly equal in population, b) compact, and c) to follow township, municipal and precinct lines, if possible.