Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay on Wednesday announced she is running for a second term in 2008, linking her political fortunes to the fast-growing county’s future and pressing local leaders to refine and implement the county’s first comprehensive strategic plan.
After devoting the bulk of her first term to shepherding the plan, adopted in November, McConnaughay, a Republican from St. Charles, will spend the final year of a four-year stint asking voters for another term to help guide its implementation.
The announcement comes on a day when she moderated a three-hour “leadership retreat” for Kane officials and department heads. At the retreat, she called on them to begin the implementation process by ranking the county’s most pressing planning priorities.
“By working together and planning now for tomorrow, we can build on our success and strengthen what is already a great place to live, work and raise a family,” McConnaughay told more than 100 supporters at a manufacturing plant in Geneva.
McConnaughay, 50, is the first of six Kane officials elected countywide whose terms are to expire next year to formally announce re-election plans.
First-term State’s Atty. John Barsanti, another Republican from St. Charles, has scheduled a news conference for 12:15 p.m. Thursday outside the county Judicial Center in St. Charles to announce the start of his 2008 campaign.
Kane County Coroner Charles West, Circuit Court Clerk Deborah Seyller, Auditor William Keck and Recorder Sandra Wegman all confirmed this week that they also plan to seek re-election next year. All four are Republicans. West and Wegman are seeking their third term, Seyller her fourth and Keck his fifth.
Candidates planning to run in the Feb. 5 partisan primaries can begin circulating nominating petitions in early August.
McConnaughay was elected to the County Board three times, beginning in 1992. She began her political career as a leader of a citizens group that opposed attempts by the county Forest Preserve Commission to seize private land for bicycle paths in her neighborhood.
After running without opposition in the 2004 GOP primary, McConnaughay won election to the $82,000-a-year post by defeating retired businessman Thomas Meadath, a Democrat from St. Charles, in November 2004.
At nearly 500,000 residents, fast-growing Kane County already has exceeded its population projection for 2012, McConnaughay noted Wednesday in campaign remarks. She emphasized the need for detailed near-term and long-term planning if the county expects to meet the demand for additional services.
“We think we’re probably going to be looking at at least 800,000 people within the next 20 years, but it could easily be a million,” McConnaughay said. “If you are not preparing today for that, you will not be responsibly ready to meet those challenges when they occur.”
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bpresecky@tribune.com
