Former city worker Tom Weisner and attorney Richard Irvin will face off in the April 5 general election for Aurora mayor.
The two combined garnered nearly 80 percent of the votes cast Tuesday in the city of 160,000. Voter turnout was less than 15 percent, probably because the mayoral primary was the only issue on the ballot, said Aurora Election Commission Executive Director Carole Holtz.
Weisner had 5,947 votes, or 45 percent, and Irvin counted 4,331 votes, or nearly 33 percent.
The general election is expected to bring out more voters because a new mayor and several aldermen will be elected, and East Aurora School District 131 will ask voters to approve a busing referendum question that could add $65 per year to residents’ tax bills, Holtz said.
Trailing well behind Irvin and Weisner in unofficial returns were Kane County Board member Bill Wyatt, Kane County Clerk John “Jack” Cunningham and repeat mayoral candidate Angel Hernandez.
It was the first Aurora mayoral election in 20 years without an incumbent.
“I’m very happy, but I’m not overconfident,” said Weisner. “We have another six weeks ahead of us, and we will work twice as hard.”
Weisner, 55, worked for the City of Aurora for more than 18 years until he left last February when he was director of the Organization Development/Community Services Department. He has been criticized for leaving while the city was under a boil order.
Weisner served in the Peace Corps and was the founding chairman of the Aurora East Educational Foundation.
He said his grass-roots campaign led to his strong showing.
Irvin ran on the premise that he can “heal, strengthen and build” the city. A former felony court prosecutor with the Kane County state’s attorney’s office who grew up in an Aurora housing project, Irvin, 34, now is in private law practice. He served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Irvin has been criticized for representing several known Aurora gang members as part of his private law practice, but he counters that they deserve legal representation like anyone else accused of a crime.
“When I started off two years ago, no one believed I would make it in the final cut,” an ecstatic Irvin said. “Then it became a possibility, then a probability. I think it will be written in stone. I will be the next mayor of Aurora.”
Both Irvin and Weisner gained endorsements from a number of local and state supporters, but Wyatt downplayed endorsements and played up his family’s long history in the city.
Cunningham was the last to enter the contest, deciding to run with just days left to gather signatures on nominating petitions. Irvin and Weisner had announced their candidacies more than a year before Tuesday’s primary.
Signatures gathered for Cunningham by a campaign consultant are being analyzed in a joint investigation into possible election fraud by the Kane County and DuPage County state’s attorney’s offices.
Hernandez ran a low-key operation, choosing to promote himself by campaigning door-to-door rather than with billboards or commercials.
