Most candidates seeking nominations in five of the 26 newly drawn Kane County Board districts can boast a wealth of experience and many voter-conferred titles.
The incumbents are Democrat Leon Ardelean and Republicans Robert McConnaughay, Barbara Wojnicki, William Morse and Jan Carlson. And their resumes are replete with political titles including county clerk, circuit clerk, mayor, alderman and township trustee.
The five newly drawn districts they hope to represent center on Aurora, Geneva, Campton Township and Kane’s northwest and southwest quadrants, respectively.
Districts 3 and 11 are compact, densely populated and hug the Fox River. Districts 25 and 26 are large, mostly rural and the farthest west of all the county’s board districts. District 15 lies dead center in what is identified as the critical growth area, where a gradual transition from urban to rural living is the goal.
The major issues in each district are tied to their geography and character.
The state’s controversial plan to protect an outer-belt roadway corridor between Interstate Highways 88 and 80 runs through District 26, where Carlson is being challenged by County Clerk Bernadine Murphy. Both are from Elburn.
Carlson, 66, and Murphy, 60, have criticized the corridor plan as contrary to the county’s 2020 land-use plan, which aims to preserve the rural character of western Kane.
Carlson was elected to the board in 1996 after retiring as circuit clerk, a post he held for 32 years. He was re-elected in 2000. Carlson, a former county GOP chairman, was born and raised in Batavia.
In his dual-role as a forest preserve commissioner, Carlson has been charged with finding ways to give the public access to all of the district’s holdings.
Although new to campaigning, Murphy is not new to the election process or the County Board’s workings. She was appointed clerk last February after Lorraine Sava retired. Murphy has worked in the office since 1980 and has been chief deputy since August 1990.
Murphy said she opted not to pursue the clerk’s post. “I don’t view myself as a politician. I view myself as a public servant, and the board would be a chance to use my experience and give voters a choice,” Murphy said.
The contest between McConnaughay and Richard F. Lewis rekindles a long, intense political rivalry dating to when the two were Geneva aldermen. An effort by Lewis four years ago to challenge McConnaughay was cut short when his nominating petitions failed to pass muster.
McConnaughay, 46, was first elected to the board in 1990 as part of a movement that eventually led to a turnover in its leadership and direction. He led the fight to close the Settler’s Hill landfill, near his neighborhood. Since joining the board, he has represented the interests of residents near the Kane County Events Center. He is a licensed real estate broker and owns an apparel shop in Geneva.
Lewis, 54, is an insurance broker. He was a Geneva alderman in the early 1980s and mayor from 1985-89. Lewis has a reputation for an assertive management style and was considered in the late 1980s to be a leading force behind a major development push in Geneva.
Morse, 59, of Huntley is a former Rutland Township supervisor and past president of the School District 300 board. He was elected to the County Board in 1992, in part opposing a proposed landfill for western Kane County. An insurance broker, Morse is chairman of the board’s Development Committee, where he has helped guide the county toward more comprehensive storm-water management and improved groundwater protection.
“Urban sprawl is a concern, and [its impact on] water resources has been an increasing concern,” Morse said.
Although it hasn’t been a campaign issue, Morse said his zeal for better protection of the county’s natural resources may have led correctly to the perception that “I might be slightly more protective [of undeveloped land] than some people might want me to be.”
Challenging Morse is former Hampshire Mayor Robert “Bob” Kudlicki, 73, a 38-year resident of the area who operates a cleaning and laundry business. A GOP precinct committeeman, Kudlicki has run unsuccessfully in the past for County Board and the state legislature.
“I like meeting, talking and working with people, and I’ll be around to do what they need to have done,” he said.
Wojnicki was elected to the board in 1998. She is a longtime community activist from unincorporated Campton Township and a former township trustee. As a former township plan commissioner, she took an active role in township efforts to preserve public open space.
Her challenger, Richard “Dick” Noren, 66, was Campton Township highway commissioner for two terms before being defeated in a close vote last April. Born and raised in St. Charles, Noren moved to Campton Township in 1968. He worked at Moline Corp., a St. Charles foundry, from 1951 until it closed in 1991.
Noren said he takes exception to the county’s leaf-burning ban, which Wojnicki supports, and is an advocate for more Fox River bridges and a bigger jail.
Ardelean, 74, of Aurora is a retired printer. In his first bid for office in 1998, he upset County Board member John Wood.
Ardelean, a lifelong resident of Aurora, said he is surprised at the negative reaction by many County Board members to the outer-belt highway. As part of his door-to-door campaign, he said he is stressing the need for a new north-south highway in the Aurora area.
“My big concern is why anybody doesn’t want an extra road in here. I drove into Chicago for so many years, I know what the value of a road is,” he said.
Kenneth Griffin of Aurora, who is challenging Ardelean, was unavailable for comment.
