Special Education teacher wins Rockford’s 9th Ward seat from Ald. Bill Rose

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Dawn Granath defeated incumbent Ald. Bill Rose to become Rockford’s 9th Ward alderman in Tuesday’s Primary Election.

Granath, a Democrat, won 65% of the vote.

Currently, she is a Special Education teacher for Rockford Public Schools, and formerly served as the president of the Rockford Education Association union.

“The voters of the 9th Ward wanted somebody that was going to actively go out and work on the issues of the ward,” Granath said on Wednesday. “I think that they just wanted somebody that was going to be actively doing [that] type of nuts and bolts work for the ward.”

Citing her experience leading the educators union, Granath, a 24-year resident of the 9th Ward, said her years of working with those with opposing viewpoints to find common solutions makes her well-equipped for the job.

“I understand that there has to be a collaborative spirit between the people on City Council and people here in the administration building, here at the city,” she said. “I bring the ability to bring all those folks together because that’s what I did when I was a union president. And so I think what I bring is, I want to do the work. And I did the work when I was union president. And I want to continue doing that advocacy work as an alderman.”

Ald. Rose said in a statement, “I am encouraged by the fact that we had multiple candidates who were opposed, based on their support for Barber Colman, and three out of five candidates won those campaigns. It shows that our general public understands the impacts these projects have on our city and how we need to continue to improve the lives, housing, transportation, and economic development in our west and southeast sides of town. There is a lot more work to be done, and I look forward to staying active in local politics for years to come.”

As for Granath, crime, housing, and infrastructure are amount the biggest concerns she’s heard from her constituents.

“As a teacher, I know that a lot of times when you walk into new situations, especially when you’re dealing with the kids, and I guess every school year, everybody’s a little nervous, not for sure knowing what’s going to happen,” she said. “But then, you set up opportunities to have conversations. And we have we have more things in common than we don’t. And so I think just sitting down and having to talk about our kids or about what these issues are, and then we can get into the tough issues that we know are going to be faced in front of us when we come into the city council.”

New city council members will begin their terms shortly after the Consolidated Election on April 1st.