The avuncular George Pradel handily won a fourth term as Naperville’s mayor Tuesday, beating his challenger, City Councilman Doug Krause, by a 2-to-1 ratio.
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The lopsided returns attested to Pradel’s popularity and a lack of significant campaign issues.
“For 40 years I’ve been committed to this city and I’ve tried to be a servant to the city. I think that’s coming back now,” Pradel said Tuesday night from the Kendall VFW Hall.
In Wheaton, with 100 percent of 61 precincts counted, Michael Gresk had taken an apparently commanding lead with 65 percent of the vote. His opponent, Alan Bolds, had 35 percent of 9,517 votes cast.
“It was about running a positive, upbeat, grass-roots campaign,” Gresk said Tuesday night. “We went out of our way to find people who were not ordinarily involved and get them into the process.”
Both advanced from a four-man February primary — the first mayoral primary in Wheaton since the 1970s. Gresk appeared positioned to succeed the retiring James Carr, who has served as mayor since 1993.
In Naperville, Pradel, 69, is a revered figure known for his effusive championing of the city. There are bobblehead likenesses of him for sale in several downtown shops that declare him “Naperville’s #1 Cheerleader.”
With 100 percent of precincts in DuPage and Will Counties counted, Pradel had received 69 percent of the votes compared to 31 percent for Krause.
The margin separating Pradel and Krause was nearly as large as the Feb. 27 primary when Pradel won 70 percent of the vote. Krause earned the right to face Pradel in Tuesday’s election by earning 15.7 percent of the vote and edging out Councilwoman Mary Ellignson. After the primary, Pradel declined invitations to debate Krause or appear along side him and candidate’s nights.
Krause did not express disappointment Tuesday.
“They characterized me as an underdog to begin with. We had an uphill battle,” said Krause, 57, a real estate agent who has served on the City Council since 1989.
This election was the most competitive Pradel has faced since he was elected to the part-time post in 1995. Twelve years ago, Pradel defeated three challengers, including Krause, for the seat.
Pradel faced a nominal challenge in 1999 and ran unopposed four years ago.
Pradel grew up in Naperville and worked 29 years as a police officer, much of it as a youth officer. People often refer to him as “Officer Friendly before there was an official Officer Friendly program.”
Pradel has further cemented his good-guy image by dressing as Santa Claus each Christmas and visiting children in area hospitals. Rarely is there an event in Naperville that does not include Pradel.
Two years ago, Naperville residents flooded a local radio station Web site and elected the bald, portly Pradel the “hottest mayor in the suburbs” over much younger competition.
With a low crime rate, good schools and a quaint downtown that bustles with people and businesses, Naperville is annually ranked among the more livable cities in the United States. Krause tried to convince voters that he would make a better mayor by focusing on council votes where Pradel voted with the majority but Krause offered a minority dissent. The strategy didn’t resonate with a majority voters.
Pradel also raised nearly seven times more money for the campaign than did Krause and had more than $40,000 to spend on the election, according to state records.
In Wheaton, Gresk’s campaign stressed his long association with Wheaton — he has lived there more than 30 years and had formerly served as a city councilman and Wheaton Park Board member.
Gresk, 56, promised an approachable administration that would be “aggressively pro-business” and seek to add commercial property to Wheaton.
“I’m not running against anyone, I’m running for the job of mayor of Wheaton,” was a familiar Gresk refrain, though his Web site did prominently criticize Bolds, 47, for changing his vote on a downtown redevelopment project last month.
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