Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Nov. 3 general election.
The race for the Kane County Board District 3 seat in the Nov. 3 election is between incumbent Democrat Anita Lewis and challenger Guy Bodie, who is running as an independent. There is no Republican candidate on the ballot in District 3.
Lewis, 68, of Aurora, is seeking her third term on the board and said that voters are concerned about inflation, lack of affordable housing and fears regarding ICE immigration enforcement efforts.
“People are concerned about inflation, especially gas is so expensive and they are finding it very hard to stay on a budget and many times they are having to go to our food pantries because of their budgets and not having enough,” she said.
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In regards to housing, “in a lot of cases, both people are working in the family and they still can’t afford a good apartment and they certainly cannot afford to move into a house,” she said. “Getting a place for a residence – even an apartment – is difficult, absolutely.”
Lewis said that resident concerns about ICE have surfaced “because I live in Aurora and they are worried about themselves or their undocumented neighbors being taken away and leaving, especially the children, with no one to take care of them.”
If reelected, Lewis said she wants to work on economic development, issues with ICE and improving communication with her constituents.
“My big thing right now is that I believe that in order to keep our taxes down and to help our citizens with a bunch of their problems that we need to work on or focus on economic development,” she said. “Kane County has recently put in an economic development group and I am on that board as the jobs chairman and I want to continue to work with business retention and our community colleges to attract business and getting ones that fit our county.”
With regards to ICE, Lewis said “I believe that I need to help my neighbors feel as secure as they can and getting their plans together if someone didn’t come home tonight.”
Lewis adds that “I would like to put in a better form of communication with the people in my district between me and them. A lot of times people just don’t come forward with things that they really need me to help them on. I want to put out a newsletter or some sort of forum where they could easily get me their issues.”
Bodie, 59, of Aurora, is running for the first time for county board and said that those living in District 3 are concerned about taxes and data centers.
“People are concerned about taxes. They are saying they want to keep them low, of course, they want more revenue, but not through taxes,” he said. “We need to assess and audit commercial properties that are possibly being undervalued.”
In regards to data centers, Bodie said voters “want to see a moratorium” on them.
“People are not hearing enough from the people that are leaders like the county board members,” he said. “They’re not getting enough information. The people that are making decisions are being secretive and there’s no transparency. They want to know more about (data centers) and, at this point, they’re not educated enough.”
If elected, Bodie said he wants to focus on providing more energy-efficient, affordable housing for new homebuyers, hire a full-time grant writer for the Kane County Health Department, audit commercial properties to verify their value and keep supporting sustainable development.
Regarding the housing issue, Bodie said there is a “need to be more energy-conscious.”
“We don’t want to use all of our farmland for larger developments. We don’t need that right now,” Bodie said. “We need to preserve our lands, basically having productive farmland for future generations.
“Over on Jericho, we see that in Aurora,” he said. “We have Habitat for Humanity building energy-efficient homes. That’s a great example of what some homes could be for new homebuyers and seniors because their income, as you see, is being reduced because of higher taxes.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.