‘Our people are more important than our parties’: Moore announces plans to run as independent for mayor

QUINCY — When Linda Moore retired from her position as city treasurer on Dec. 31, she was prepared to volunteer and support her favorite causes.

Then she watched the presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27.

“It was a debacle. It was embarrassing,” Moore said. “I’m having a conversation with my mom (Mary) about how of all the hundreds of millions of people in this country, is that really the best we could do? We talked about how we need better candidates at every level.

“In the meantime, I had talked to both of the existing campaigns about being on their teams. My mother said to me, ‘If you’re going to work that hard, why don’t you run for mayor?’”

Moore, 64, announced her candidacy for mayor on Monday morning during a gathering at Krazy Cakes, 512 Hampshire. She’s the third female candidate in city history, following Democrat Nora Baldner in 2021 and independent Ursula Flinspach in 1993.

Former alderman Dan Brink was the first person to declare his candidacy for Quincy mayor in October. Mayor Mike Troup announced on March 11 his plans to run for a second term. Brink and Troup will face each other in the Republican primary on Feb. 25. With no Democrat yet to file, the winner of the primary will face Moore in the consolidated election on April 1.

“This was the first time Mom actually thought it was a good idea,” she said. “Different times when I’ve mentioned it over the last seven years, she has been the one who said, ‘Don’t do that. Don’t go there.’ And I would think, ‘You know what? She’s right.’ 

“Now, if I want better candidates to run for offices at all levels, then I need to put my money where my mouth is and run. If my campaign does nothing more than inspire other good people to run, I’ve won.”

Moore said she decided to run for mayor just before she left on a three-week European vacation with her mother. She had been working for the past several months as a consultant for the city to resolve issues with the city’s health insurance. Her last day on the job was the day before she left for Europe.

“For the last year, I’ve asked for a sign. You know, like, ‘God, is this what you want me to do?’” Moore said. “Before I left, I thought I wanted to do this, but let’s take this trip, and let’s decompress. I just felt I needed time away before I said anything to anybody. I really needed to make sure that, yes, this is what I want to do.

“While I was away on the trip, I got a text from an employee that said, ‘Quincy needs you.’ Wow. I had a phone call the minute I got home from somebody who said, ‘We really need you.’ I don’t know that they need me, but they need somebody they can trust, and I think I’ve developed that trust. So why not? I may win. I may not win. If I can inspire others to do good things, nobody can do it on their own. Mike Troup can’t. Dan Brink can’t. It takes all of us working together to make good things happen for our community.”

She will run as an independent, even though the Adams County Democratic Central Committee recommended Moore in 2017 to serve the rest of Peggy Crim’s term. Moore ran unopposed for treasurer as a Democrat in the 2021 election.

Moore said she probably has voted for more Republican presidential candidates in her lifetime. While working for ESPN as senior director of business operations and planning, she said elections in Connecticut were non-partisan.

“In Connecticut, I didn’t always know if I was voting for a Republican or Democrat, because all I knew was the literature I got and what I read in the newspaper, because I traveled 30 weeks a year,” she said.

Moore is the fourth independent to run for mayor since 1960.

Frank Wells collected 102 votes in 1985 when Democrat Verne Hagstrom (5,912 votes) edged Republican Richard Magliari (5,885 votes). Flinspach received 468 votes when Democrat Chuck Scholz earned his first of three terms with 6,044 votes ahead of Republican Bill Hoffman (5,689) in 1993.

Jeff Van Camp fared the best of Quincy’s independent candidates, losing 4,844 to 4,204 to Republican incumbent Kyle Moore in the 2017 election.

“I feel very strongly about being an independent, as opposed to one party or the other,” Moore said. “Our people are more important than our parties. I don’t agree with 100 percent of either party’s platform.

“I’ve had Republicans who came to me and wanted me to run. I’ve had Democrats who came to me and wanted me to run. Many of them are very, very high in their parties. They felt if I ran as the other party, they couldn’t support me at the level they wanted to as an independent. Now they can both support me.”

Moore said her campaign will focus on taking care of what the city has, starting with its streets.

“Our streets are a mess,” she said. “There’s a pothole on every corner, and we’re not fixing them fast enough. We’ve got this (pothole-filling) machine we spent $350,000 for a few years ago. Do we not have enough people? Do we not have enough supply? Have we not trained them? Are we not taking care of the equipment we have? Did we get a lemon? Do we need to hire a crew for a week and divide the city into quadrants? 

“If we want to expand tourism, why would tourists come here when they’re going to ruin their cars on our big potholes? They’re going to say, ‘I’m not going back to that tournament next year.’ Let’s take care of the roads we have.”

Moore wants to get more homes off the fix-or-flatten list with preventive maintenance that would bring more pride to Quincy’s neighborhoods.

“Instead of spending $12,000 to tear down a home that is now worthless, can’t we somehow take that $12,000 and put it in the home at an earlier time to keep it from falling down?” she said. “Maybe there’s an elderly couple who doesn’t have any children in town and they need a new roof, and they don’t have the means because they’re on a fixed income. They pay their taxes. They’ve been good citizens. Is there a way we can help them? 

“Instead of spending money to bring in new residents, why aren’t we taking care of our current residents and our current homes? We need more homes for just about every segment of our population, and we keep building new outside of the town limits or right at the edge. We’re expanding our footprint but we’re not raising our tax base. We need to incentivize and do something with our existing tax base within the geographic area.”

Moore said she would like to adopt something similar to Illinois’ Adopt A Highway program, which brings citizen volunteers into partnerships with the Illinois Department of Transportation to pick up trash and keep roadsides clean. 

“Why don’t we have an Adopt A Block program?” she said. “We’ve got churches and nonprofits and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who would probably love to help out. Maybe it’s painting a banister, or there’s a block of concrete that needs leveling or fixing or something, or maybe somebody needs help cutting the grass. Let’s help our neighbors and put pride back in our community.”

Moore said she has similar beliefs about taking care of Quincy’s businesses.

“Instead of spending a million dollars to give to a guy from Nebraska who’s going to bring new development to the city, what are we doing to take care of our existing businesses, and in particular, our bars and restaurants?” she said. “Why don’t we take a small amount of the food and beverage tax and give it back to those business owners? You need a new HVAC system, you need a new roof, you want to enhance the customer experience. Here’s a way for you to get a grant to help pay for that.”

Moore, a 1981 Quincy College graduate, was born and raised in Adams County. She has lived or worked in St. Louis, Denver, Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Bristol, Conn., and New York before returning to Quincy in 2016.

“Like most teenagers, I couldn’t wait to get out (of Adams County),” she said. “Once I got out and into the workforce, I couldn’t wait to come back. There’s no place like home. Quincy has always been my hometown, always will be. I do a lot of giving back. It’s kind of who I am. There’s nothing like giving back to your hometown. 

“If I can do my part to make Quincy even better tomorrow than it is today, we win.”