Four mayors in Du Page and Kane Counties were voted out of office this week after running in what were, for some of them, drawn-out, bitter campaigns that mystified at least one loser.
Mayors lost in Elmhurst, West Chicago, Geneva and Burr Ridge, while their counterparts in Oakbrook Terrace, Addison, Aurora, Bloomingdale, Hanover Park, Lombard, Warrenville, Westmont, Winfield, St. Charles and Batavia won re-election despite challenges.
Personal animosity pervaded the Elmhurst election that saw the defeat of Mayor Robert Quinn in a three-way race. Ald. Charles A. Garrigues (7th) was the victor. Quinn had irritated several members of his own Community Party in his handling of city affairs, and they bolted the party.
The new Concerned Citizens of Elmhurst Party capitalized on the discontent and selected as mayoral candidate Garrigues, a first-term City Council member and Democratic precinct committeeman. Garrigues had first sought the nomination of the established People`s Party for mayor, buy lost out to Abner Ganet, a former two-time mayor who was backed by the county`s Republican hierarchy. Garrigues had been a relatively silent council member until he, like thousands of others in town, became a flood victim in August, 1987.
Naperville: City Council member Toby Hayer, an outspoken advocate of tighter controls on development, failed to shake off an image of being an obstructionist and finished a distant fourth in the six-way race for three council seats.
Hayer said her defeat would mean ”a lot less opposition on the council,” which for the last two years has generally had a five-member majority led by Mayor Margaret Price. Incumbent J. Glen Schneider, an independent who voted with Hayer last year against plans for the controversial new Municipal Hall, received the highest number of votes, followed by restaurant owner Douglas Krause and Plan Commission member Carolyn LeSage.
Villa Park: In the race to succeed Village President Douglas Brandow, trustee Joyce Daly defeated trustee Joanne L. Gross 2,857-1,330. Daly is an ally of former trustee Dennis Keating, who lost a re-election bid two years ago to Gross, but won Tuesday as his party trounced Gross and her slate of Independent Party candidates.
Gross ran last in a field of eight candidates on the ballot for president, clerk and trustee.
Aurora: Mayor David Pierce said his finish with 60 percent of the vote against retired bank executive Donald Nelson ”was an encouraging response to our programs. Now, I`ll concentrate in the next four years to make sure the growth we`re attracting is well-managed and that there`s more redevelopment in the neighborhoods that have been deteriorating.”
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Pierce won despite Nelson`s criticism of the city`s police protection and charges that the city was not adequately scrutinizing the far western suburb`s booming development.
Lombard: Richard C. Arnold, the low-key village president who had a rocky first term, garnered 56 percent of the vote to win a second term after running a campaign that focused on his successful push for a tax increment financing conservation district to help redo downtown Lombard. His opponent, James M. Annes, criticized the redevelopment plan as a means for a few property owners and business people ”who surround Arnold” to gain large profits.
Wheaton: Virginia ”Mimi” Stewart, a member of Du Page County Board Chairman Jack Knuepfer`s kitchen cabinet, went down to defeat in her bid for a seat on the Wheaton City Council. Council member Donald Maxwell was re-elected, and Grant Eckhoff, a Glen Ellyn lawyer who advocates closer ties with the county, also won a council seat.
Geneva: Geneva Mayor Richard Lewis, surprised by his defeat by Ald. William T. Ottilie by a 2-1 ratio, speculated his loss was due to voter disenchantment with Geneva`s recent growth.
”I`ve tried to say that Geneva has been posturing for change for the last 50 years, and that when (development) came, it was just a matter of filling in the voids that had been planned for all along. . . .
”But the people see what`s happened in Naperville, and maybe they`re scared that the same thing could happen to us. They responded by expressing that today,” Lewis said.
West Chicago: Three-term mayor Eugene Rennels` prediction last month that he would be defeated in West Chicago`s race became stunningly true Tuesday when he received only 39 percent of the vote against Paul Netzel. ”The only thing that surprised me was the margin,” Rennels said.
Bloomingdale: Mayor Samuel Tenuto won re-election to a fourth term despite a strong challenge from Village Board member William Horvath. Tenuto received 54 percent of the vote despite being called high-handed and unreasonable with board members. Tenuto and the council are deadlocked over how to deal with flood control in the Indian Lakes subdivision and how to construct a million-gallon tank to store Lake Michigan water.
Lisle: Ronald Ghilardi, the mayoral candidate backed by the outgoing mayor, was elected with nearly 50 percent of the vote over two other candidates. Ghilardi, a village trustee from 1970 to 1981, promised to freeze village property taxes, work to maintain balanced growth and oppose continued operation of the landfill in the Greene Valley Forest Preserve or building an incinerator there.
Ghilardi defeated Henry Van Kampen, who has been Lisle Park District Board president for 18 years, and Andrew Yender, a village trustee from 1977 to 1985.
Westmont: Mayor Frank Bellerive, who promised voters a lower property tax rate, received 67 percent of the vote for a landslide re-election over Village Party of Westmont candidate Robert Armalas. Bellerive, who led a sweep for the village`s Community Party, has been mayor since 1985.
Glen Ellyn: Arthur W. Angrist, candidate of the village`s entrenched Civic Betterment Party, headed off a challenge from independent village trustee James P. Bourke. Angrist, who is Plan Commission chairman, received 68 percent of the vote.
Burr Ridge: Mayor Emil Coglianese went down to defeat in a three-way race won by William Zucek. Coglianese also was challenged by George Thomas, who finished third in the balloting.
De Kalb: Mayor Greg Sparrow, who won re-election to a third term in a five-way race, said his 64.5 percent victory represented a mandate from the voters.