Will County voters go to the polls Tuesday for a primary dominated by Republicans, who are choosing their fall lineup for four countywide races and a County Board contest.
Democrats have only one county primary contest. They must pare down the field for a County Board race in the Joliet area.
County Clerk Jan Gould is predicting a voter turnout of between 20 percent and 25 percent for a primary that has not stirred a lot of interest.
“Plainfield, Wilmington and New Lenox have some hotly contested referenda that may bring out voters,” she said. “But there is really no way of telling.” For this election, Will County has 252,556 registered voters, down slightly from the last vote.
At the top of the political menu is the struggle between Edward Ronkowski of Mokena, an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County, and Jeff Tomczak, a former Will County assistant state’s attorney.
They are fighting for the right to challenge James Glasgow, who in November will be seeking his third four-year term as Will County state’s attorney.
Ronkowski, who once worked as a prosecutor in Will County, unsuccessfully sought the nomination four years ago.
Tomczak, who lives in Manhattan, is a Joliet lawyer.
Both candidates are trying to focus attention on their bygone days in the Will County state’s attorney’s office.
They have taken each other to task on their respective records for winning court convictions as prosecutors, and on fundraising and campaign literature.
On improving the state’s attorney’s office, Ronkowski says he would institute felony review, a program that involves prosecutors in the early stages of police cases, and increase on-the-job training for attorneys while using a team approach in the courtroom.
Tomczak said he would establish well-defined policies on plea bargaining, such as a no-probation rule applied to drug dealers during his years in the office.
Republicans also are fighting it out for the nominations for coroner, auditor and circuit judge.
For coroner, former Deputy Coroner William Ferguson is matched against James Blackburn Jr., a Will County Board member.
Ferguson is taking his second shot at the office. He lost to incumbent Democrat Patrick O’Neil four years ago.
Blackburn, a strong candidate in County Board races, is in his first countywide contest.
In the auditor’s race, Dave Donahue, a political consultant, is challenging deputy auditor Steve Weber for the Republican nomination.
A Lockport resident, Donahue four years ago produced a strong challenge to incumbent Democrat Daniel Maher, who is not seeking re-election.
Weber, of Mokena, a certified public accountant, is new to politics. He is emphasizing his accounting background, while Donahue points to a broad background in government.
In a judicial race to fill the slot of Circuit Judge William Penn, who is retiring, Republicans have fielded three candidates for the nomination.
They are Cathy Wintersteen Block, a public defender; Judith DeVriendt, a former Will County assistant state’s attorney; and Daniel Rozak, an associate judge.
In solidly Republican Homer Township, where winning the GOP primary is usually tantamount to election, nine candidates are in the running for three two-year terms on the County Board.
Two incumbents, Lawrence W. Troutman and Kathleen Konicki, are seeking re-election, and Suzi Wiberg, who was appointed to fill a vacancy, is seeking her first full term.
The challengers are Homer Township supervisor Ronald Svara, a former County Board member who gave up his seat to run unsuccessfully against County Executive Charles Adelman four years ago; Sandra Ellinger, who led a fight against unsightly billboards; Carol J. O’Gradney, a former board member; Patricia Trebe, a freelance writer; Mary Beth Meader, a farm manager; and retiree Fred V. Sansone.
In a heavily Democratic district on Joliet’s east side, where the primary usually decides the election, four candidates are seeking three slots on the County Board.
Frank D. Stewart, Henry Travis and Margie Gavin Woods are looking for re-election, and challenger Dorothy Jean Henderson is hoping to knock one of them off.
Voters across Will County also will vote on 18 referendum questions. Six of those ballot questions seek authorization for the issuance of school construction bonds to build new schools and expand current ones. Three seek increases in the educational tax rates. Two seek authorization for the issuance of revenue bonds. Another two seek voter approval to issue general obligation bonds. The remainder include advisory and annexation questions and authorization to issue fire protection bonds.
