A minor Brookfield political mystery was solved recently, when residents received on their doorsteps “Volume 2” of a political newsletter bearing the title “Brookfield First.”
In June 2009, the first volume of Brookfield First made the rounds in the village, touting itself as “a group of residents who are seriously concerned with the direction that our village is headed.” The 2009 newsletter was anonymous, although it had some ties to the VIP Party and attacked the PEP Party-dominated board of trustees. Two months earlier, VIP had been swept in a third-straight village-wide election.
When contacted at that time both Bill Russ and Wil Brennan, who had been on the VIP ticket, said they were not part of Brookfield First, although they supported the group’s aims. Both also said at that time that they would not be seeking office in 2011.
No one would fess up to being behind Brookfield First in 2009. Brennan, Russ and others said that those behind it were afraid of retribution.
Fast forward to 2011. Both Brennan and Russ are back on the VIP ticket for the April 5, 2011, election. And Brookfield First, according to the last page of the recent newsletter, is the work of the VIP Party.
The author of the piece, according to the document, is Mitch Mierop, president of the “New V.I.P. Party.” Mierop ran as a VIP candidate for trustee back in 2005, finishing sixth in a field of six candidates.
The newsletter promotes VIP’s slate of candidates for the April 5 election, making comparisons in the state of village finances by looking at the final year-and-a-half of VIP’s rule in the village versus the last 4-plus years of PEP rule.
Asked last week about the new piece, Russ said that VIP appropriated the name Brookfield First after the founders of the original group, described by Russ as “eight or nine people,” faded away.
“The people that had it busted it up, it dissolved,” Russ said. “The name wasn’t copyrighted, so I said we’re going to go with the name and keep it going. It sounds better than The Sentinel [VIP’s former newsletter].”
– Bob Uphues