Gayle Franzen, a self-proclaimed insider, shrugged off criticisms of his business dealings, his investment in a riverboat gambling casino and his campaign fundraising efforts to comfortably win the GOP nomination Tuesday for DuPage County Board chairman.
Franzen, 49, an investment banker from Wheaton and former chairman of the Regional Transportation Authority, had held several high-profile public positions, but this was his first run for elected office.
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“We talked about all the issues, and that’s what the people responded to,” said Franzen, as he celebrated with supporters at the Lisle Hilton.
Surrounded by family members and friends, Franzen said he hoped his electon would put an end to the acrimony that has plagued county politics since the election in 1990 of political maverick Aldo Botti.
“It says to me that people are tired of 3 1/2 years of anger, hostility, meanness and fighting,” Franzen said.
According to complete unofficial returns, Franzen had about 40 percent of the vote and a 14,000-vote margin over his closest rivals.
Winning the GOP nomination in predominantly Republican DuPage gives Franzen an all-but-certain shot to succeed Botti who upset longtime incumbent Jack Knuepfer in the 1990 Republican primary but opted not to seek re-election.
Gwen Henry, 53, a County Board member and former Wheaton mayor who had waged an aggressive campaign was second to Franzen in Tuesday’s voting with about 23 percent of the vote.
Judith Crane Ross, 59, a former board member from Downers Grove who ran a low-budget campaign with little organized support, had 22 percent of the vote. She finished second four years ago in the three-way GOP primary race involving Knuepfer and Botti.
Trailing the field with about 15 percent of the vote was Robert Schroeder, 59, a retired public school teacher and board member from Naperville.
“I’m a nice man,” said Schroeder before final returns were in. “Nice men don’t get very far, it looks like.”
Throughout the campaign, Schroeder had joined with Henry and Ross in what seemed at times to be a tag-team attack on Franzen. The comments from the losers Tuesday night reflected those hard feelings lingered on.
“Looking at the numbers, my system didn’t work as well as I thought,” Schroeder said. “I guess a traditional campaign and money makes the difference, I’m sorry to see. One of my main thrusts is that Du Page County shouldn’t be for sale. I’ll work to keep it that way.”
Henry conceded defeat shortly after 10 p.m., saying her campaign may have been hampered because she was the last to declare her candidacy. She also continued to criticize Franzen, contending voters should be concerned about the possibility that he would use public office for personal gain.
Ross, who had said that this would be her last campaign for public office, asserted she would have won if Henry had not been in the race. As for Franzen, she said, “We’re going to get the best government in DuPage County that money can buy.”
Franzen was backed by the Republican Party hierarchy, but he waged an exhausting and expensive campaign.
He raised nearly $540,000 for the primary, including about $125,000 in the last month, and far outspent his rivals. His campaign relied heavily on cable television commercials in the early stages of the campaign, then deluged county voters with direct-mail appeals.
When his opponents stepped up their attacks in the last weeks of the campaign, Franzen kicked in $50,000 of his own money to bolster his effort.
In claiming victory, Franzen was generally conciliatory, though he noted the results were a reward from voters for his decision not to respond in kind to the attacks of his opponents.
“I’d like to think it’s the nail in the coffin of negative campaigning,” he said.
He appealed for help from Botti and his opponents in solving the problems the county faces.
Franzen, a protege of former Gov. James R. Thompson, ran with no excuses, as a political insider, contending that his past contacts with politicians in both parties would work to the county’s advantage in Springfield. He is a former director of the state Department of Corrections and a former executive director of the Illinois Toll Highway Authority.
In other GOP primary elections, two of the 11 incumbent County Board members appeared to have lost their bids for renomination-Wallace Brown in District 3 and Sam Tenuto in District 6.
Incumbents Olivia Gow of Elmhurst and Irene Stone of Lombard held off tough challenges in District 2, but Brown, a veteran board member from Downers Grove, failed in his bid for renomination. The winners in District 3 were incumbent Gertrude Coit of Darien and Kenneth Moy, an lawyer and former board member from Hinsdale.
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In District 6, GOP voters renominated incumbent Roger Kotecki of unincorporated Glen Ellyn, but ousted Tenuto, a former mayor of Bloomingdale. Pamela Rion appeared to have edge Ross Ferraro, village president of Carol Stream, for the second seat in District 6.
In the other races for board seats:
– Republicans William Maio, 48, of Itasca and Floyd Sanford, 63, of Medinah easily won renomination in District 1. Both are longtime incumbents.
– Three-term incumbent Patrica Carr, a Republican from Wheaton, won renomination in the four-way race for two seats on the board from District 4. Randall Hultgren of Wheaton appeared to have won the nomination for the second seat over Grant Eckhoff, 34, a lawyer and member of the Wheaton City Council, and Martin J. Gaughan, also of Wheaton, according to unofficial returns.