VIDEO: Common Council President Issues Challenge to Illinois Mayor
If Packers win, Lemont mayor has to wear a Packers jersey to Village Board meeting. If Bears win, watch for Paul Ybarra in a Bears jersey at next Common Council meeting.
Waukesha Common Council President Paul Ybarra threw down the gauntlet and Mayor Brian Reaves of Lemont, IL, accepted.
The game? Football. The stakes? Pride. The winners? The Packers, Waukesha and Ybarra.
Ok, so Waukesha Patch and Ybarra hope. We asked Ybarra if he would be willing to bet with the mayor of Lemont for the Chicago Bears/Green Bay Packers football match up.
It took a small amount of convincing but Ybarra agreed. Ybarra starts a little trash talking in a video and Reaves responded. Ybarra offered to wear a Bears jersey to the next Common Council meeting if the Bears win.
Too bad for Reaves, because he agreed to wear a Packers jersey at Lemont's next Village Board meeting if the Packers win.
"I accept his challenge, and I know that the Bears will be triumphant," Reaves said.
Obviously, he's wrong. The Packers will win.
As the Packers get ready to face the Bears during Sunday's NFC Championship, Patch sites in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois are busy brewing their own battle.
Waukesha Patch has teamed up with Lemont Patch in Illinois to bring football trash talk all week long, but the trash talk comes at a price.
On Wednesday, the editors talked about the three keys to the game. When the Packers win, Lemont Editor Amanda Luevano will wear a Packers jersey and issue an apology video to Waukesha (and in the rare chance that the Bears win, I will end up having to do the same, so GO PACK).
This article was also published on Lemont Patch in Illinois. We encourage you to follow that link, find this article on their site and comment with some good (clean) smack talk.
Will Common Council President Paul Ybarra be wearing a Bears jersey at the next meeting?
Tell us in the comments.
Jim Murphy
5:13 pm on Thursday, January 20, 2011
Ybarra must have interest in this news operation. He's in the pages every day! Sleeping in the cold, betting on the Pack, commenting on a legislative proposal. Obviously he's running for mayor. Never before has a Waukesha Common Council president been so visible in the media. Why not give some background on the guy, like education, work experience outside of the part-time city council stint, etc. His official post has a nice photo but little background material.
Years ago I covered council meetings, along with the Waukesha/Milwaukee County Boards, the state Legislature and have seen many politicians work over reporters with their ever present availability to comment on anything. He fits the mold.
Why not even talk to the mayor sometime, the people voted for him across town, not just in one ward.
Sarah Millard
6:04 pm on Thursday, January 20, 2011
Hi Jim,
Just for a clarification and for the sake of transparency, I did ask the mayor first to participate in the bet with the Illinois mayor. However, when the mayor declined because he said he did not want to betray his home team, the Packers, I asked Ybarra if he would participate and he agreed.
Ybarra has made many public statements that he is not seeking the mayor's position.
If you have interest in a profile piece about the aldermen, that is something we can work on in the future.
Thanks,
Sarah