Lawyer Robert Schillerstrom, a home-grown product of DuPage’s Republican organization, won an easy victory Tuesday in the race for the GOP nomination for County Board chairman.
Schillerstrom, 46, a former County Board member from Naperville, took advantage of strong support from rank-and-file Republicans and low turnout to win with nearly 56 percent of the vote, according to final unofficial returns.
In celebrating his victory at a Downers Grove hotel, he promised to work with all County Board members, including his two opponents in the primary–Patrick O’Shea (R-Lombard) and Michael Formento (R-Glen Ellyn).
“I will go the extra effort to make sure we’re all on the same page, and I think in doing that, by working together, we can guarantee that DuPage County continues to be a great place to live,” Schillerstrom said.
O’Shea had about 26 percent of the vote, while Formento trailed with 18 percent.
“We ran a campaign on the merits. We ran a clean campaign,” said O’Shea, 47, in conceding about 9:45 p.m. “I have no regrets. This just shows low voter turnout.”
Turnout in DuPage was less than 25 percent in the Republican primary.
If Schillerstrom were to win in November, as is expected in strongly Republican DuPage, it would put the office of County Board chairman in the hands of a GOP insider for the first time in eight years.
The incumbent chairman, Gayle Franzen, was a protege of former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson’s and had been a player in state political circles. But Franzen, who announced last fall that he would not seek re-election, was for the most part an outsider in DuPage politics.
In recent months, the county’s GOP leaders had seemed no more comfortable with Franzen than they had with political maverick Aldo Botti, who tapped into anti-tax sentiment to upset longtime board Chairman Jack Knuepfer in the Republican primary in 1990.
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Schillerstrom, 46, who left the County Board in 1992 to make an unsuccessful run for the state Senate, has been a Republican precinct committeeman in DuPage for 26 years and is a former chairman of the GOP organization in Naperville Township.
He also is a former assistant state’s attorney in DuPage and a former president of the Naperville Park District board.
The battle over the Republican nomination for board chairman was the only contested race for countywide office in the GOP primary.
The other county officials up for election this year–Regional School Supt. Berardo DeSimone, Treasurer John L. Novak, Sheriff John Zaruba and County Clerk Gary King–were unopposed.
Also unopposed were most of the Republicans running for seats on the County Board.
The exceptions were in District 2, where three Republicans were competing for two seats, and in District 6, where incumbent board members Pamela Rion (R-Bloomingdale) and Roger Kotecki (R-Glen Ellyn Countryside) were easy winners over challengers Bruce Sutchar, of Hanover Park, and Neal O’Brien, of Bartlett.
In District 2, board members Olivia Gow (R-Elmhurst) and Irene Stone (R-Lombard) also won renomination by a comfortable margin over lawyer Dan Kordik, of Villa Park.
In strongly Republican DuPage, a victory in the GOP primary virtually assures election in the fall.
No Democrats have filed to run for countywide office, though Kathryn “Tinker” Harvey, Democratic chairwoman in DuPage, said the party intends to slate candidates for board chairman and possibly other offices at a convention this month.
All three of the Republicans running for board chairman had struggled early in the campaign to build name recognition beyond their separate geographic bases, and each also was forced to step carefully around questions about their ethics.
But Schillerstrom had political and financial support from the county’s two political heavyweights–Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale) and state Rep. Lee Daniels (R-Elmhurst), the Republican leader in the state House.
Through one of his political funds, Philip made at least $57,000 in contributions and loans to Schillerstrom’s campaign, and Daniels pumped in a $20,000 loan on Friday, according to campaign-disclosure filings.
Daniels was at Schillerstrom’s side when he claimed victory Tuesday night.
Neither Formento or O’Shea was able to match Schillerstrom’s financial resources.
“It is clear the party was interested in owning this position,” said Formento, 63. “It’s unfortunate they chose to buy an election.”
Though he appeared to be the front-runner in the waning days of the campaign, Schillerstrom’s camp took no chances last week, launching direct-mail strikes that essentially alleged a link between no-bid contracts awarded by the county in recent years and $30,000 in campaign contributions Formento and O’Shea received between them.
The increase in no-bid contracts over the past four years was a major issue for Schillerstrom’s campaign.
He has proposed an ethics ordinance that would prohibit businesses with no-bid contracts from contributing more than $500 a year to the political funds of a County Board member or chairman.