Naperville Democrat Laura Ellman is seeking a third term representing this district centered in Naperville and including DuPage County communities like Lisle, Glen Ellyn and Lombard. She’s challenged by fellow Naperville resident Julie Berkowicz, a Will County board member for eight years.
Berkowicz, 65, opposes Illinois’ sanctuary-state law and believes the state imposes too many mandates on localities. She is an advocate of school choice and says the state should opt into the new federal program providing scholarships, funded by donors who get a federal tax credit for their contributions. We agree with her on school choice and many of her other departures from her party’s more extreme positions.
Berkowicz strikes us as a savvy Republican who understands that she must appeal to Democrats in a once-Republican suburban area that now trends blue.
But Ellman, 60, is a very reasonable and moderate Democrat who has received our support in the past and done nothing in our eyes to merit ousting this time around. We appreciate, too, that she’s been a consistent co-sponsor of lifting Illinois’ longstanding moratorium on new nuclear plants — a policy change that finally was enacted last year.
We also applaud Ellman’s stated view that “our (legislative) maps should be compact and contiguous and recognize those natural (community) boundaries.” We hope when the time comes that she insists her party leaders follow that same principle, which they’ve refused thus far to do.
Laura Ellman is endorsed.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
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