More From The Tarbell Farewell

Not that he's really actually going anywhere, but still there was a party Wednesday night at Arnold's for recently resigned former Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell.




The bar, which he owned until nine years ago, was packed with supporters, fellow council members, family members. In the crowd: former council colleagues Chris Monzel and John Cranley; Phil Heimlich; Norma Walker and Ron Wahl, who worked for Tarbell and now work for Roxanne Qualls; Qualls; Tarbell's wife, Brenda, his son, David, his sisters. And tons of other people.




Tarbell talked about his filing for school board as a write-in candidate. He said he did it in case he decides he wants to run, but that he would take the next week or so to gauge whether he has enough support out there to wage a write-in campaign before committing to doing so. Winning that way, he acknowledged, would be a miracle.




"But I believe in miracles," he said.



He wants to run mostly because he wants to help pass the CPS levy. If it doesn't pass this time, another try probably won't pass either, he said, and two levy failures would send the district into receivership - "which is just unacceptable."