Incumbent Rita Ali has advanced to the general election in her bid for another term as Peoria’s mayor, but it remains unclear who she will face.
“I’m just full of gratitude right now, full of gratitude that the people have supported my leadership. And, it’s not over — I have to say that twice, it’s not over,” said Ali, who received 51.7% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary to determine which two of the three candidates will advance.
Six-year at-large city council member John Kelly received 24.7% in the unofficial totals while longtime council member Chuck Grayeb had 23.7% — a difference of 127 ballots out of 12,653 votes cast, making the race too close to call.
“I feel pretty confident. We’ll see mail-in [ballots] come in, and they’ll probably split in approximately the same way the vote is split thus far. So I’m fairly confident,” said Kelly.
Attempts to reach Grayeb for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday night. In a social media post early Wednesday morning, he did not concede the election was over.
“127 votes is too close to call. We look forward to the FINAL certified election result,” he wrote, adding a thanks to all the voters.
The Peoria County Election Commission will certify the official results on March 12, adding any outstanding provisional ballots and vote-by-mail ballots not yet tallied, as long as they are postmarked no later than Election Day. The general election is April 1.
Ali, 67, is seeking her second term after serving as an at-large council member for two years. She narrowly defeated Jim Montelongo in the 2021 race to replace the retiring Jim Ardis after his 16 years in office. She is the first African American and first woman to serve as Peoria’s mayor.
“I think it's because we’ve done a good job over the last four years, and we planted some important seeds. I think that they want to see things through, through my leadership,” she said when asked why more than half of the voters supported her.
“I honestly believe that the best is yet to come for Peoria, and I want to help to move Peoria forward. We’ve got a new five-year strategic plan; pretty soon, we're going to have a dashboard that shows how well we’re doing in those six categories that we prioritized. I think working together through collaboration, that’s what we’ve done over the last four years with key stakeholders in the community. That’s how I work, is through collaboration, and that’s how I’ll continue to work.”
Kelly, 75, is a retired financial advisor who has served as an at-large city council member since 2019, when he received 12.1% of the vote to place second behind Ali in a 10-way race for five seats. Two years ago, he placed second out of 10 again with 14.8%.
“I didn’t have any real expectations. I had really no idea how it was going to go, truly I didn’t. Anywhere from being the total leader and blowing everyone away, to almost not showing up. I’m happy with the outcome,” said Kelly.
“I think my message will be very much the same as it has been; I don't know if I’ll change some emphasis here and there, but I think it'll be fundamentally the same. I don't think the status quo is serving [residents], and it’s a matter of public policy. We need to go after public policy, make this a growth city. That takes care of all kinds of problems.”
Grayeb, 74, has served more than two decades on the council, with three terms as an at-large member before being elected to represent the 2nd District in 2013. He previously ran for mayor in 1993 and 1997 in races eventually won by Jim Maloof and Bud Grieves, respectively.
His decision to run for mayor meant he would not be seeking another term as the District 2 council member.
Figures posted by the election commission put voter turnout at 17.9%. By comparison, turnout was 16.6% for the 2021 primary with five candidates and no incumbent on the mayoral ballot, along with three others running as write-ins.
