If all politics is local, as the late philosopher-politician Thomas “Tip” O’Neill became famous for saying, then the most important election of all is Tuesday, when Illinois voters choose their municipal officials and settle local matters by referendum.
O’Neill’s reference was to the value of nurturing a political base.
And from one office to the next, the base starts with the voters who pick the mayor of Chicago or those who elect suburban school boards and village presidents.
Closer to home, politics gets less esoteric than at the level of president, governor, Congress and the General Assembly.
A voter in Arlington Heights might have strong feelings about term limits and the Republican Congress’ “Contract with America.” But his vote in the advisory referendum about whether to allow a casino in the northwest suburb is potentially more meaningful.
“The outcome of local elections has an impact on one’s everyday life, from the level of taxes and services provided to economic development and civic pride,” Sharon Alter, a professor at Harper College in Palatine, said of the importance of Tuesday’s balloting.
“We really put a great deal of power in the hands of these folks,” Cook County Clerk David Orr said of municipal officeholders.
Yet, except in a few hotly contested local elections, only one-fifth to one-third of suburban registered voters will cast ballots Tuesday. And the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners estimated that a paltry 40 percent of qualified city voters will participate in the city’s mayoral and aldermanic runoff elections.
“If people are happy, they don’t come out,” said two-term Highland Park Mayor Daniel Pierce, who hopes that a challenge from city Councilman Raymond Geraci has engendered little interest.
Of course, the most widely followed local election is in Chicago, where polls showed Mayor Richard Daley with a comfortable lead in his re-election bid and where aldermanic contests will be decided in 11 wards.
But Chicago isn’t the only place with an election Tuesday. Across the metropolitan area, local races are attracting attention.
Chicago: Democrats historically sweep the citywide offices, one reason that Daley, who won the party’s nomination in the Feb. 28 primary, is favored over Republican Raymond Wardingley, independent Roland Burris and Harold Washington Party candidate Lawrence Redmond.
Similarly, Democratic city Treasurer Miriam Santos and Ald. Jim Laski, the city clerk nominee, are expected to defeat Republicans Patricia Rogers and Edward Howlett, respectively.
Election officials cited Daley’s lead of 57 percent to 19 percent over Burris in a recent Tribune poll and the handful of aldermanic runoffs as the reasons to expect a possibly record-low turnout.
In the aldermanic races, eight incumbents are battling for survival, two of them battling it out in the Northwest Side’s 30th Ward as a consequence of redistricting. In two South Side wards, the 3rd and 16th, incumbents are being challenged by candidates aligned with a political organization reputedly tied to a street gang. The runoffs also will produce two additional Hispanic members of the City Council.
Suburban Cook County: Orr said it will be the busiest Election Day since the consolidated-elections law went into effect 12 years ago, with 1,652 candidates vying in 650 contests for municipal office, school trustee or library board outside Chicago.
Highland Park’s Pierce contended that the most important local elected officials are the school board members, who set policy affecting the largest portion of the local property-tax bill.
In any town, the mayor is better known than the state legislator or member of Congress, and major suburbs with elections for chief executive include Bridgeview, Chicago Heights, Harvey, Schaumburg and South Holland.
In Schaumburg, partisan politics will have the highest profile for a local election in the suburb’s history. Village President Al Larson has the backing of local Democrats in his campaign for re-election against GOP precinct Committeewoman Judy Pietrucha.
“What tends to increase voter turnout in any election is when there’s a real contest,” said Harper College’s Alter.
Another voter turnout hot spot is nearby Arlington Heights, where a referendum on Arlington International Racecourse owner Richard Duchossois’ desire to put a casino on his property was too close to call.
Of the 309 referendums to be held across the state, nearly half will be in suburban Cook County. They range from school funding questions in 10 districts to municipal matters, such as whether the office of city treasurer ought to be abolished in Des Plaines or whether Sauk Village should have an employee residency requirement.
DuPage County: The top issue for many collar-county suburbs over the last decade has been coping with growth, and it has cropped up again in elections across the region.
In Naperville, one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the country, the mayoral race pits retired Police Lt. George Pradel against two-term Councilman Jack Tenison. Pradel, who was “Officer Friendly” to local schools, has argued that since Tenison is the DuPage County director of human resources, he does not have the time to run a city of 100,000. In turn, Tenison contended that Pradel does not have the political experience to be mayor.
The DuPage County Election Commission projected that turnout will be 28 percent, led by voters in Naperville and Hinsdale, where a proposition to allow the sale of liquor is on the ballot. Countywide, 12 school funding-related referendums will be held.
Will County: County Clerk Jan Gould estimated that turnout will be slightly less than 30 percent, with two of the 14 referendum measures on the ballot attracting the most attention.
Voters in Homer Township are being asked to incorporate about half of the township into the village of Messenger Woods, as the area makes the transition from rural to suburban. In Plainfield, voters are being asked to approve $32.5 million in bonds to equip two new elementary schools and a middle school.
In Joliet, Arthur Schultz and Carl Winterrose are vying for mayor.
Lake County: A complicated three-part question on the creation of a new unit school district will confront voters in the Lake Villa area, and a total of 20 referendum measures will be on the ballot. County Clerk Willard Helander predicted that turnout countywide will be 20 percent to 30 percent.
Helander said the unit school proposition is unique. Unlike previous cases where districts have been merged or consolidated, this referendum measure proposes to take fragments of existing districts to form a new one. Additionally, voters will have to elect a school board for the new district and authorize the sale of bonds.
A mayoral race also is being held in Zion, where the issue of low-income housing has been at the center of a campaign between city Commissioner W. Lane Harrison and retired parks and recreation Director Chuck Paxton.
Kane County: The campaign for Elgin mayor between Kevin Kelly and Judy Browne has centered on how to reinvest the revenue from the riverboat casino, which opened last year. Kelly advocates property-tax breaks, while Browne wants to put money into revitalizing Elgin’s moribund downtown.
(The riverboat is 12 miles from Duchossois’ racetrack and has been the impetus for his demand in Arlington Heights for a casino lest he close down the track.)
Among the 24 referendum measures, St. Charles voters will be asked about reducing the number of city wards to five from seven, and Sleepy Hollow officials are asking for permission to close Sleepy Hollow Road.
McHenry County: Growth is the issue here, too, with two rural hamlets, Greenwood and Barnard Mill, seeking voter approval to incorporate as municipalities in order to control the pace of growth encroaching from nearby Wonder Lake.
