Four years after their historic wins in Lake County in 2018, Democrats will maintain a comfortable supermajority on the Lake County Board, winning 14 of 19 seats in the midterm election.
Republicans eked out a pair of close wins in District 2 and District 3 as Lake County’s late arriving mail and provisional ballots were tallied on Tuesday, ensuring they would prevent their County Board caucus from shrinking under five seats.
In District 2, Adam Schlick of Wauconda narrowly defeated Democrat Linda Troester of Round Lake, garnering 50.5% of the vote and prevailing by 157 votes.
Ann Maine of Lincolnshire held on to win in District 3 with 51% of the vote against Democratic challenger Wendy Meister of Riverwoods, who trailed by about 400 votes entering the day. Meister won 164 of 248 ballots added in Tuesday’s count, coming up short of taking down Maine, who has been on the Lake County Board since 2002.
Schlick, a Wauconda trustee and firefighter, was holding onto a 197 vote lead on Tuesday before 188 late arriving mail and provisional ballots were factored into the count.
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“I’m incredibly proud of the race we both ran, kept it clean, kept to our issues and who would be the best candidate,” Schlick said Tuesday night.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Troester wrote that she was “disappointed, of course,” but proud to have run a campaign “talking about who I am and how I could help the citizens of my community without any negativity!”
“Of course, I need to congratulate Adam Schlick for winning the race,” Troester continued. “He is also now MY Lake County Board representative, and I wish him well. I may even be speaking with him from time to time!”
Schlick said he was looking “forward to rolling up the sleeves” to get to work on the board, calling it an opportunity to “learn a new layer of government.”
“I look forward to the challenge,” he said. “It’s been amazing, the conversations I’ve had with some of the board members whose elections weren’t as close, so they felt a little more comfortable, and even (other) public officials who have reached out. The ball is still rolling, there are things the county needs to do with the Department of Transportation and things of that nature.”
Democrats Esiah Campos (District 16) and Sara Knizhnik (District 18) won the other open seats by comfortable margins.
Reflecting on her campaign, Maine estimated that she walked “probably 80 or 90 miles” as she worked her way around the sprawling district, which spans from Riverwoods on the county’s southern border up to Gurnee, including part of Libertyville and unincorporated Wildwood.
“So when I go (door-knocking), I don’t use an app and go, ‘Oh, is this Republican?'” Maine said. “I just knock on every door because that’s what my message is, ‘I’m here to represent you.'”
Maine previously represented District 21, which covered some of the same areas, but was moved to District 3 after redistricting in 2021 and a move to downsize the Lake County Board from 21 members to 19.
Maine said that she believes she got enough support from independent voters and some Democrats to clinch the win.
“I’ve got those bike path connections, I got neighborhoods Lake Michigan water, I got in roundabouts and have worked on purchases of thousands of acres of a forest preserve and things like that,” Maine said. “That’s who I am. I think it’s people who know me personally, people who know my work and what I’ve done for their communities and I think going door-to-door.”
Meister had not returned requests for comment as of Wednesday afternoon.
All 16 current Lake County Board members who ran won another term, though Maine and Democrat Marah Altenberg had to do it in new districts. Altenberg defeated challenger Joe Janicki in the new District 19 after her old District 20 was dissolved.
Democrat Diane Hewitt won an uncontested race in District 8, which includes part of Waukegan, Beach Park and Zion, after her old District 2 was moved west and she defeated Steve Snarski in the June primary.
Turnout was just under 50%, at 49.77% or 230,574 ballots out of 463,324 registered voters, a slight decline from 2018 when 254,217 ballots were totaled for a 56.71% turnout.
Though there was a higher percentage turnout in the 2014 midterm election (50.13%), the 2022 Lake County turnout surpassed the 2014 count of 202,532 ballots. Voters also turned out a higher overall number than in 2010 (207,499 votes), but a lower percentage (51.28%).