Mayors ruled the day in DuPage County Tuesday in the busiest election day ever staged in Illinois.
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Four incumbents–Naperville’s George Pradel, Oak Brook’s Karen Bushy, Wayne’s Eileen Phipps and Wood Dale’s Kenneth Johnson–easily beat back challenges to earn another four years in their towns’ tops jobs.
For the first time, the odd-year November election was eliminated, so voters in DuPage and Kane Counties were asked to do everything from elect a handful of mayors and municipal, school, park, library and fire board members to deciding whether new school and park district facilities should be built. Some were considering if they should form their own village, while others were merely offering advice.
In DuPage, 427 different ballots were sent to nearly 700 polling places, while Kane County had 177 configurations, election officials said.
In Naperville, Pradel was having no trouble staving off a challenge from activist Ric Romano. With 93 percent of Naperville’s DuPage County precincts reporting, the retired police lieutenant had 84 percent of the vote. He was posting similar numbers in Will County.
Elsewhere, Bushy held back challenges from former state representative James Stange and Park District President David Fichter to win a third term. Unofficial vote totals indicated Bushy had about 43 percent of the vote. Fichter had just over 29 percent and Stange had about 27 percent. Incumbents Phipps in Wayne and Johnson in Wood Dale easily beat back challenges.
In Downers Grove, 36-year-old Brian Krajewski appeared well on his way toward succeeding retiring four-term Mayor Betty Cheever.
With about three-quarters of the vote counted, Krajewski was leading Trustee Marilyn Schnell, a Cheever ally, with about 60 percent of the vote. Krajewski, whose background is in business and technology, collected nearly half the vote in the February primary, which eliminated three of the five announced mayoral candidates.
Pradel, 61, a lifelong Naperville resident, ran for a second term on a platform touting the quality of life in the city. Romano was hoping to unseat the mayor by using Pradel’s image as an approachable city father against him.
“I’m thrilled with this,” Pradel said during his victory party. “I’m going to strive to see that we keep the quality of life we’ve had here during the past four years. I’ll do my best to be part of the team and build on what we’ve done.”
Naperville voters were also busy choosing four council members from among the eight candidates.
The field included incumbents Mary Ellingson and Gary von Behren, and challengers Richard Furstenau, David Fiore, Gerry Cassioppi, Judith Brodhead, Vincent Ory and Paul Segalla.
With 93 percent of Naperville’s DuPage precincts counted and better than 50 percent counted in Will County, the two incumbents were the leading vote-getters.
Fiore was running in third late Tuesday by earning 17 percent of the Will County vote, with Furstenau and Brodhead just behind him.
In Naperville, however, it was the race for three school board seats in Unit School District 203 that drew the most attention. All of the candidates have called for unity in the upheaval surrounding the controversial dismissal of longtime Supt. Donald Weber, but no one expects the acrimonious debate to soon subside.
Incumbent Osie Davenport was seeking another term. The other candidates were former board member William Steinke, Isabella Dudreck, Thomas Webb, Michael Casey, Ronald Doweidt, John Tableriou and Charles Geitner.
With 93 percent of DuPage precincts reporting, the leading vote-getters were Steinke, Tableriou and Davenport.
Unlike municipal officials, who will take their seats in the next several weeks, newly elected school board members won’t be sworn in until November.
Naperville voters were also being kept busy with a controversial Park District proposal to build a $16 million recreation center near Diehl Road and Mill Street, but they appeared in no mood to use tax dollars to build a 96,000-square-foot center that would house a 50-meter swimming pool, a gymnasium, an indoor track and a fitness center. With much of the vote counted, more than 80 percent of Naperville voters were rejecting the measure.
The largest money-seeking item came in Kane County, where voters appeared to enthusiastically endorse the Forest Preserve District’s $70 million bond issue to finance future, unspecified land purchases. With nearly all of the votes counted, the issue was being approved by a 2-1 ratio.
Backed by the Naperville-based Conservation Foundation and aided by a volunteer group chaired by former St. Charles Mayor Fred Norris, the proposal sparked little opposition. Forest preserve officials were hopeful funding would be approved so the district could jump a step or two ahead of onrushing development and buy up as many as 5,000 acres of pristine property.
One question on some Kane ballots was pertinent to fewer than 1,000 voters, but residents of the unincorporated Prestbury subdivision near Sugar Grove were keenly interested in the outcome of a ballot question asking whether or not Prestbury should be incorporated into a village. Apparently it won’t. With two of three precincts reporting, residents turned thumbs down by a 2-1 ratio.
In DuPage, money was also on the table in a number of cities and villages, but the most heat was generated by a ballot initiative that doesn’t really count. Even though the Lisle Village Board earlier this year overwhelmingly approved a proposed 215,000-square-foot Meijer superstore on 60 acres near Benedictine University, opponents of the controversial retail giant garnered enough support to place an advisory referendum on the ballot asking citizens if they want it. With 21 of 25 precincts counted, 60 percent said no.
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School officials in Wheaton-Warrenville and Batavia were celebrating approval of multi-million dollar proposals to add space. By a 59-41 ratio, District 200 voters agreed to a $35 million proposal to renovate several schools. The proposal was a scaled-down version of a $67 million bond issue that district voters had previously twice rejected.
In Batavia Unit School District 101, a $26.3 million proposal to build two new elementary facilities had about 56 percent approval.
In Glen Ellyn, Park District Commissioners want to go in with the village and DuPage Forest Preserve District to buy the Maryknoll Seminary property. The $3.5 million issue voters approved with a 56 percent yes vote Tuesday would include $2 million going toward the estimated $6 million selling price, with the rest earmarked for improvements to existing facilities.