All three Bolingbrook Village Board incumbent trustees cruised to an easy re-election victory in the April 7 race.
Unofficial tallies from Will and DuPage counties show Leroy Brown netting about 30 percent of votes, while Ricardo Morales won about 26 percent of the vote, and Patricia Schanks nabbed another 26 percent.
While Brown said the day after the election that he would want to wait and see how the provisional and absentee ballots will fall on April 21 before declaring definitive victory, the incumbents’ lone opponent, local businessman Bob Jaskiewicz, said he had already conceded and congratulated the winners the day after the election.
Morales and Schanks did not respond to requests for comment after the election.
A weak showing at the polls April 7 led to his defeat, Jaskiewicz said.
“The low voter turnout really screwed me over big time,” he said.
Just 14.92 percent of Will County’s 393,088 registered voters took part in this recent election.
About 15 percent of DuPage’s 562,725 registered voters went to the polls April 7.
Jaskiewicz also said a lack of younger people voting helped stymie his electoral ambitions.
“They didn’t come out to vote, so that hurt,” he said.
Jaskiewicz said before the election that he hoped to shake things up on the Village Board and provide greater transparency.
He said he is going to take a few weeks off and then will decide if he will run in any future elections.
Brown, Schanks and Morales all said during the election that their goals for another four-year term would involve trying to foster economic growth.
They also said they wanted to continue to provide services at a time when village revenue is in decline.
They all took issue with Jaskiewicz’s claim that they all voted in lock step with the wishes of longtime Mayor Roger Claar.
While there may not be much debate at Village Board meetings, Brown said that deliberation on agenda items takes place at lower-level committee meetings.
Brown, who heads up security at Valley View School District 365U by day, has been a trustee since 1993.
Morales, a banker, has served on the board since 2001, while Schanks was elected to her first term in 2003.
Twitter: @JournoGeoffZ
