An expected political showdown in Barrington has turned into a declaration of independence, with several candidates for the board of trustees saying they’re not taking sides in the feud between the board and the village president.
“If an independent person like myself doesn’t get in, it’s going to go one way or the other,” said Bill Powers, one of six people seeking three open seats. “The village president will get a rubber stamp, or it seems [the board] will try to block everything he wants to do. I don’t really like either one of those notions.”
As the filing deadline for the April 1 local elections passed Tuesday, a few other lively campaigns took shape in a sea of uncontested races.
Park Ridge will have its most hotly contested municipal election in years, with a slew of independent candidates opposing the long-ruling Homeowners Party. Turbulent Harper College will see eight people seeking three seats on the board of trustees. Other robust races await in Des Plaines, Wheeling and Rolling Meadows.
But Barrington’s race may be the most intriguing. Since taking office in 2001, Village President Marshall Reagle has shaken up once-sedate village politics by using vetoes, executive orders and even a lawsuit to pursue his goals.
A majority of the six-member board of trustees has shot down many of Reagle’s appointees and used its own legal advisers to block some of his moves. The two sides have bickered over development issues, the budget and how much power the president should possess. This year’s election, the first since Reagle came into office, puts half the board’s seats up for grabs and is considered by many to be the day that finally settles the feud.
Brian McManus Jr., whom the trustees refused to appoint to the plan commission last year, is seen as an ally of the village president. Jim Daluga plans to campaign with Trustee Karen Darch, a frequent Reagle foe who is seeking re-election.
But the other three candidates–Powers, incumbent Trustee Paul Hunt and retired human resources executive David Horslev–are casting themselves as autonomous.
“I’m fiercely independent,” Horslev said. “I can’t side with either one. I think there’s a middle ground that can be met, that can satisfy everybody.”
Hunt, a Reagle appointee who often has voted against the president, said he, too, wants to stop the partisanship.
Reagle once said he viewed the April election as an opportunity to gain control of the board, but this week he changed his tune.
“I’m not asking for a puppet,” Reagle said. “I want individual thinkers because I’ll be challenged. I want people to challenge me, but I also want people who will do the right thing.”
In Park Ridge, Mayor Ron Wietecha and all 14 aldermen belong to the Homeowners Party, a local political organization that bloomed in the 1960s. But the party is under serious assault this year, with independent candidates filing against the party’s choices in all but one of the city’s seven wards.
The most contested Park Ridge race is in the 7th Ward, where incumbent Frank Bartolone is running as an independent after the Homeowners Party slated Steve Henley to replace him. Independents Jeffrey Cox and Richard Barton fill out the field.
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Harper College’s board is holding an equally boisterous election that some candidates are calling a referendum on the school’s presidency and a natural outcome of the recent faculty strike.
Incumbents Barbara Barton and Patrick Botterman, traditionally strong administration supporters, and incumbent Leon Shure, a vocal critic of the Palatine community college’s president, will face competition from William F. Kelley, Matthew Murphy, Ryan M. Mahoney, John W. McManus and Michael Minton.
Des Plaines voters will elect aldermen in the city’s even-numbered wards, but only two races are contested. Michael Lake and Steve Antonoff are challenging incumbent Tom Christensen in the 2nd Ward, and Mike Sweeney is running against 4th Ward Ald. Dick Sayad.
In Wheeling, incumbent Village Trustees Judy Abruscato, Robert Heer and Pat Horcher are seeking new terms against challengers Kenneth Brady and Pamela Dorband, both of whom are on the planning commission, and Steven Telow. The top three vote-getters will win.
Two alderman seats will be contested in Rolling Meadows. Newcomers Lawrence Buske and Raymond Collins are running for the 3rd Ward seat held by Suzanne Jungmann. Jungmann did not file her petition in time.
Three candidates–Kenneth Jenssen, Steve Holish and Sue Walton–are vying for Kenneth Nelson’s slot in the 1st Ward. Nelson is running unopposed for mayor, replacing Thomas Menzel, who cannot seek re-election because of term limits.