Des Plaines voters appeared poised Tuesday night to send incumbents back to office in two of the three contested races for alderman.
In the 4th Ward, with all precincts reporting, incumbent Ald. Dick Sayad held nearly 62 percent of the vote against his opponent Mark Setzer, according to unofficial results.
Sayad said in an interview Tuesday night that the race was a “huge victory” over Setzer, who had been supported by Des Plaines Mayor Matt Bogusz in the race.
“Well, of course, I feel wonderful,” Sayad said of the early election results. “I feel we worked very hard and had a clean campaign.”
Setzer did not return calls seeking comment on Tuesday night.
Sayad was arrested in February and charged with criminal trespassing after a resident said the alderman entered his residence uninvited. Sayad has not commented on the arrest but told police he believed the house was a two-flat, according to the police report.
In the 7th Ward with all precincts reporting, incumbent Ald. Don Smith appeared to lead challenger Bob Porada with 60 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. Smith was appointed to the City Council by Bogusz following the sudden death of Ald. Joanna Sojka last August. Smith and Porada were in a race to fill the remaining two years of her four-year term. Smith previously had served as alderman for the ward.
Smith said he’s looking forward to being a member of the council for the next two years.
“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “A lot of people over the years have been very supportive of me and I’m very appreciative of that.”
In an emailed statement, Porada congratulated Smith and extended “best wishes to him and the residents of the 7th Ward.”
In the 6th Ward with all precincts reporting, Malcolm Chester took the lead, receiving about 49 precent of the vote, according to unofficial results. Herman Zelk got just 50 fewer votes, a total of about 41 percent, unofficial totals showed. Palacios, the third candidate in the 6th Ward, received 68 votes – roughly 10 percent – according to the clerk’s website.
“It’s been a long, hard-fought campaign,” Chester said in an interview Tuesday night. “My opponents worked very hard, in particular Herman Zelk worked very hard. It was a good campaign, a positive campaign.”
When asked if he looked forward to serving as an alderman for the 6th Ward, Chester said it’s “a responsibility I don’t take lightly.”
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Palacios conceded to Chester in an interview Tuesday night.
“The people spoke, you know, it is really not what I want, or what Chester wants, it’s what the people want,” he said. “We have to accept it and I think that’s part of democracy. We can’t go against the people’s voice.”
Zelk did not return calls seeking comment on Tuesday night.
Current 6th Ward Ald. Mark Walsten will be forced to vacate his seat on the council due to term limits this year.
Though unofficial results showed two of the three candidates he supported falling short in their respective wards, Bogusz said he wasn’t bothered.
“You win some, you lose some,” he said Tuesday night. “It will be great to continue to work with (Smith). I have every expectation that (Chester) will be a productive member of the council and welcome him to the team, and congratulate (Sayad) on a big win. I hope that he uses his next term to be a productive member of the council.”
The 4th Ward boasted the highest voter turnout in all Des Plaines wards, with nearly 29 percent of registered voters casting ballots in Tuesday’s election, the Cook County Clerk’s website showed. Slightly more than 16 percent of the 6th Ward’s roughly 4,000 registered voters cast ballots, the clerk’s website said.
The 7th Ward featured the lowest turnout of all the contested ward races with only about 15 percent of roughly 6,200 registered voters showing up at the polls, according to the Cook County Clerk’s website.
Incumbent aldermen in the city’s 2nd and 8th Wards, John Robinson and Michael Charewicz, ran unopposed.