THE COMPANY THEY KEEP. THE CAPITAL THEY WANT.

Socialism is seeking a foothold in Illinois’ capital. The candidates, alliances, and governing ambitions taking shape in Springfield deserve scrutiny before voters hand over the power.

Staff Writer | October 17, 2026

The police chief’s explanation was simple: when Springfield officers needed their armored vehicle, it would not start.

The approximately 20-year-old BearCat had become unreliable. Chief Joseph Behl wanted a replacement that officers could depend on during dangerous encounters, when the vehicle’s protection could matter to civilians as well as police. The request came to the City Council with a $445,000 price tag.

Roy Williams Jr. and Jennifer Notariano voted against it.

Williams objected to police militarization and suggested the nearby Illinois National Guard as an alternative. Notariano questioned the expense and whether cheaper, less intimidating options were available. Their objections were part of a legitimate spending debate, but the department’s account made the consequences clear: equipment intended to protect people had failed when needed.

The council approved the replacement. The disagreement remains a revealing part of the record as Springfield approaches an election that will decide who makes those choices next.

Across the city, candidates are asking residents to trust them with decisions about protection, property, and public money. Behind some of those campaigns, socialist organizers are working to build influence. Alongside them, according to City Hall sources, stands a former mayor whose involvement has surprised people who once regarded him as a moderate.

The story concerns the government those relationships could help build—and the people who would have to live under it.

Williams and Notariano also worked together on the landlord-registry debate, sponsoring the unsuccessful 2025 effort to put an advisory question before voters. A separate, nonbinding proposal now brings registration, inspection, and licensing to the November 3 ballot.

Supporters describe a way to improve housing conditions. Residents in unsafe buildings deserve enforcement that works. But the program’s final fees, staffing, procedures, and enforcement requirements remain to be established. Those details will determine how much authority City Hall gains and what property owners and taxpayers must spend to support it.

For a small landlord, another obligation can affect the money available for repairs or the decision to keep investing. For tenants, those choices can affect the condition, availability, and future cost of housing. The consequences will depend on the rules eventually adopted, long after the reassuring language of the ballot question has served its purpose.

Together, the registry effort and police-equipment votes provide local decisions against which voters can examine a broader political direction. Both touch areas central to the Democratic Socialists of America’s agenda: demilitarizing police and expanding government’s role in rental housing.

According to chapter-page activity identified by FactsFirstus, Notariano, Ward 8 candidate Teresa Tran, and Williams appear in connection with the Land of Lincoln Democratic Socialists of America. The activity described includes campaign assistance for Notariano and Tran and event attendance by Williams.

The relationships differ, and a local registry or equipment vote does not establish support for DSA’s entire program. But the overlap makes the organization’s goals relevant. Campaign assistance brings volunteers, visibility, and access to voters; the organization providing it hopes to gain something through the people it helps elect.

DSA publishes its ambitions openly. Its national program calls for public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries, universal rent control, and a democratic socialist republic. Its policing agenda identifies an explicit destination.

“As steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system.”
— Democratic Socialists of America, 2026 national program

That is the movement’s stated position. The candidates’ own commitments deserve equal clarity before they receive authority over Springfield’s services and spending.

Former Mayor Jim Langfelder understands the importance of those decisions. He also understands the relationships that help candidates reach office.

City Hall sources tell FactsFirstus that Langfelder is supporting candidates who associate with local socialist organizers. People interviewed for this story describe him as still bitter about his 2023 defeat by Misty Buscher. They view his involvement as an effort to recover political influence through Springfield’s next government.

For those who regarded him as moderate, his reported support is a striking development. A former mayor’s backing carries credibility. It can help candidates gain a hearing from residents who remember his administration and trust his judgment.

That influence will outlast the campaign. The candidates he helps elevate would make decisions affecting residents whose interest is a functioning city, regardless of the political rivalry surrounding the election.

In Ward 1, the connection reaches directly into Langfelder’s administration. According to information provided to FactsFirstus, Juan Huerta is challenging Alderman Jeff Cox. City records document that Langfelder appointed Huerta director of Springfield’s Office of Community Relations in 2015. The former appointee now seeks a council seat carrying votes on budgets, ordinances, and policies affecting the entire city.

The treasurer’s race adds a citywide target. According to information provided to FactsFirstus, April Pool is challenging City Treasurer Colleen Redpath Feger. City Hall sources say socialist organizers recruited Pool to run against the incumbent and are backing her campaign.

Cox and Redpath Feger have drawn praise from residents across the political aisle during their time in office. Their challengers seek to replace incumbents whose support extends beyond party loyalties. The political relationships behind those challenges therefore deserve attention alongside the candidates’ plans for exercising the authority they want.

The mayoral race brings another familiar figure into the picture. Former Ward 2 Alderwoman Gail Simpson has announced her intention to challenge Buscher. Simpson served two council terms, lost the 2015 mayoral election to Langfelder, and lost the drawing that settled her tied 2019 Ward 2 contest against Shawn Gregory.

Now she wants the city’s top office. Illinois Times reported that her announcement appeared in a video on activist Ken Pacha’s Facebook page.

Pacha’s activity connects the campaign story to a separate issue of public judgment. The Springfield Pooch has attributed violent social-media statements to him, including language celebrating the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, invoking guillotines against wealthy people, and encouraging violence against federal immigration agents.

The publication attributed this statement about Sen. Lindsey Graham to Pacha:

“Turn him into ashes. Pound his face until it’s a fine mist. Bury him in an unmarked grave.”
— Ken Pacha, as quoted by The Springfield Pooch

The Pooch also attributed remarks envisioning violence against Sam Altman and tampering with Riley Gaines’ brake lines to him. Its reporting places Pacha in Notariano’s campaign activity, while Illinois Times documents his page’s role in circulating Simpson’s announcement.

The language reported depicts opponents as targets to injure or silence. Candidates’ treatment of useful supporters helps reveal their standards. An election is the time to examine that judgment, before it becomes authority over other people’s safety and rights.

The larger danger of socialism concerns that authority: who holds it, how far it reaches, and what independence remains outside it.

Socialism takes different forms, but its defining concern is social or collective ownership and control of productive resources. DSA advocates extensive public ownership. Under such arrangements, political institutions can acquire greater responsibility for the services and opportunities people depend on.

Someone still decides where resources go, which investments proceed, and whose needs receive priority when money runs short. Public ownership transfers those decisions. It also makes accountability essential, particularly when residents have fewer alternatives to a failing institution.

Ronald Reagan expressed the concern in his 1964 address, “A Time for Choosing.”

“A government can’t control the economy without controlling people.”
— Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964

The freedom to choose another provider, start a business, invest in property, or pursue work outside political favor protects people in practical ways. Those choices become more valuable when an institution fails. A policy promising security should be examined for how much independence it asks citizens to surrender.

History supplies severe warnings about concentrated authority. The Library of Congress documents how Stalin’s forced collectivization disrupted agriculture and contributed to catastrophic famine in 1932 and 1933. Venezuela followed a different path, where nationalization, mismanagement, corruption, and concentrated political power contributed to profound hardship. Oil dependence, falling oil prices, and sanctions also shaped that crisis.

Neither history determines Springfield’s future. Both demonstrate the human cost when political ambition outruns competence and institutions fail to correct destructive decisions.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who endured Soviet imprisonment and forced labor, warned about the relationship between violence and falsehood.

“Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence.”
— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel lecture

That warning gives weight to the obligation to scrutinize political language, political allies, and the power they seek.

In Springfield, the examination begins with a record already taking shape: police equipment opposed, housing oversight pursued, candidates promoted, and experienced political figures working to influence who governs next.

The city’s position as Illinois’ capital gives successful organizing here visibility beyond its neighborhoods. But the first consequences will be felt inside those neighborhoods, by people who need dependable protection, maintained housing, and a reasonable chance to build a life.

The officer needs equipment that works. The tenant needs repairs completed. The small owner needs an investment that remains practical. Each depends on decisions made by people the election will empower.

That is why the company candidates keep belongs beside the policies they support. Campaign relationships can become governing influence, and promises can become obligations residents must finance and obey.

The company they keep may help them reach City Hall. The power voters give them will reach everyone else.

Official and Primary Sources

• Democratic Socialists of America, “Workers Deserve More,” 2026 national program.program.dsausa.org

• City of Springfield, Ordinance 190-06-15, approving Jim Langfelder’s appointment of Juan Huerta as director of the Office of Community Relations, June 2015.cityclerk.springfield.il.us

• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, “A Time for Choosing,” October 27, 1964, official transcript.www.reaganlibrary.gov

• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel lecture, published by the Nobel Foundation.www.nobelprize.org

• Library of Congress, “Internal Workings of the Soviet Union,” documentation of collectivization and famine.www.loc.gov

Secondary Sources

• The Springfield Pooch, “Springfield Alderman Jennifer Notariano Turns to Local Socialist Party for Help Gathering Signatures,” October 7, 2026, and “The Violent Fantasies of Springfield Activist Ken Pacha,” September 20, 2026, as identified and quoted in the supplied article.

• Illinois Times, “Sending the wrong message?” Reporting on Springfield’s aging BearCat and the replacement justification.www.illinoistimes.com

• Woodward Community Media Springfield, March 17, 2026, reporting on the armored-vehicle purchase and opposing votes.wcmspi.com

• Capitol City Now, reporting on Williams’ and Notariano’s equipment concerns.capitolcitynow.com

• Illinois Times, “City Council denies public vote on landlord registry,” November 19, 2025; Illinois Policy, reporting on the November 2026 advisory question.www.illinoistimes.com

• Illinois Times, “Gail Simpson joins race for Springfield mayor,” October 13, 2026.www.illinoistimes.com

• Council on Foreign Relations, “Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate,” updated July 31, 2024.www.cfr.org

• City Hall sources and interview accounts relayed to FactsFirstus concerning Langfelder’s support, assessments of his motivations, and the reported recruitment and backing of April Pool. Current candidacy information for Huerta and Pool and the community praise described were provided to FactsFirstus.