Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the March 17 primary election.
Three candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination for Kane County treasurer in the March 17 primary election: Connie Cain, Scott Johansen and Penny Wegman.
Whoever wins in the primary will challenge Republican incumbent Chris Lauzen — who previously served as the Kane County Board chair from 2012 to 2020 and who was elected treasurer in 2022 — in the November election.
Connie Cain
Connie Cain, 64, of Gilberts, is a Certified Public Accountant, she told The Beacon-News recently, who previously served in the Kane County Treasurer’s Office as its Director of Financial Operations from May 2023 to December 2024.
She was born in Illinois, she said, and has lived in Kane County for 35 years.
Cain said she previously worked for JPMorgan Chase in areas like fraud investigations, dispute resolution and corporate credit, and that she’s worked in the Illinois Department of Employment Security. She currently works in the treasury area of the Schaumburg-based American Foundry Society, she told The Beacon-News.
Cain previously ran unsuccessfully as a Republican to be the state representative for the 66th District in 2022. She also ran unsuccessfully to join District 300’s school board in 2023.
In terms of her background, Cain cited her experience with things like auditing and budgeting, fraud investigations and dispute resolutions as preparing her for the role of Kane County treasurer. She also cited her time spent working in the Treasurer’s Office as preparing her with “insider expertise on collecting property taxes and responsibly investing (the county’s) annual property taxes.”
“Our county is growing and facing budget pressures,” Cain said. “Our federal relief funds have dwindled, and we need collaborative leadership to protect our taxpayer dollars and preserve services, invest wisely and make government work better.”
She noted the county’s recent use of its cash reserves to balance its budget, and said that, if elected treasurer, she would focus on “objective cash management, transparent reporting and maximizing safe returns through prudent investments.”
As far as the investment of county funds, Cain emphasized the importance of diversifying investments to avoid concentration in any area, and making sure the county retains enough liquidity to ensure sufficient funds are available for operations.
But Cain said her primary motivation to run for the seat is “a deep commitment to making life easier for the people who live and work in Kane County.”
She said she would do so by managing public funds “responsibly and transparently,” using simple online tools for residents to pay bills and ensuring that information from the office on how taxpayer dollars are being used is reported in a way that people can understand. She said residents have expressed concern that current reports from the office are “so many pages” and expressed an interest in making it easier for residents to “understand the basic facts.”
She also emphasized providing quick responses and “diplomatic assistance” as things she would prioritize within the office if elected treasurer.
Cain also addressed her having switched political parties, saying that she now feels her “objectives align better with the Democratic Party.” She said she’s met with the leaders of the local Democratic Party, saying she was “impressed with their openness” and citing their “passion for helping people in the community.”
Scott Johansen
Scott Johansen, 74, of Campton Hills, grew up in Geneva and has spent the majority of his life living in Kane County, he told The Beacon-News recently.
He has a background in finance, previously working as an engineering manager for GTE, the telecommunications company that has since become part of Verizon, he said. He later started his own company, an electronics manufacturing business that was eventually closed down after the 2008 financial crisis, and continued with another company that had been operating within his original one until he decided to sell it off and retire, he said.
He currently serves as a Democratic precinct committeeman, but is serving in no other elected offices, he said.
Johansen pointed to his experience securing funding for his business, handling large budgets and working with banks as preparing him for the job of treasurer, which he referred to as “primarily (a job) of being Kane County’s banker.”
He also said his background in business required him to work collaboratively with other organizations, something he considers a priority should he be elected Kane County treasurer. He called communication “the biggest issue” the board has with the Treasurer’s Office currently, saying that informed his decision to run for the seat.
If elected treasurer, Johansen said he would try to “integrate (the office) more into other organizations inside of Kane County government,” describing his intended approach as “cross-functional” teamwork, essentially having employees with different responsibilities and from different areas meet together and work alongside each other.
His other priorities, he said, include increasing outreach so that residents are aware of county government programs that can help them manage and pay their property taxes without going into default.
Johansen also pointed to the county’s need to focus primarily on its citizens and their needs, citing, for example, the rising cost of health care and saying issues like these affect local residents, but “are not being discussed (in the county), and they should be.”
He noted that residents he’s spoken to are unhappy with their property tax bills, and that people “don’t think that they’re getting the value that they’re paying for property taxes by living here.” He also said many residents don’t understand the county’s budget, or how it’s changed over the years.
“And because they don’t understand what it is, they don’t know if this is what they really want to do,” he said. “And (the) government has a job, from my perspective, to make sure these people know what’s being chosen for them.”
And elected officials, he believes, are responsible for representing residents’ interests and discussing major issues publicly so people are aware of how they’re affected.
“The treasurer can bring up ideas,” Johansen said. “The treasurer can make sure that the financial implications of these decisions that are being made are understood better by the public, so they can have a better chance of voting better.”
Penny Wegman
Penny Wegman, 49, currently serves as Kane County’s auditor. She grew up in Elgin, and continues to live there now, she told The Beacon-News recently.
Wegman, a Democrat, has been the county’s auditor since 2020, when she ousted incumbent Terry Hunt, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Before that, she was a Kane County Board member and previously served as president of the Kane County Regional School Board.
In a recent interview with The Beacon-News, Wegman cited her background in county government as preparing her for the role of treasurer.
“Knowing the systems, knowing the people, knowing the statutes and the codes and having created these amazing relationships over the past 10 years with not only Kane County Board members and other countywide elected officials, but people within the state and within the country,” she said, would prepare her “to be able to grow and modernize and … have an opportunity to have an efficient Treasurer’s Office.”
Wegman cited her interest in working with the Kane County Board, but pointed out that the treasurer still functions as an independent elected official — something she has experience doing as the county’s auditor.
As for the county’s budget concerns, Wegman said that the budget is the county board’s responsibility, and said it would be “inappropriate” for the treasurer to interfere with it, but rather is responsible for controlling its own internal budget, as well as making investments and providing income for the county.
Of her priorities, Wegman cited an interest in modernizing the Treasurer’s Office when it comes to, for example, how residents pay their property tax bills.
She described the long lines that occur before the taxes are due, and said there are “opportunities available to (the office) that need to be researched further.” She also said that there may be opportunities when it comes to the technology the county uses to accept tax payments, and that the office could do more promotion of the options residents have to pay their taxes.
She also pointed to her experience creating an internship program in the Auditor’s Office, saying she’d like to bring a similar initiative to the Treasurer’s Office if elected.
And efforts to increase transparency would be a major focus for Wegman, she said.
She spoke about her own efforts to increase transparency in the Auditor’s Office, like updating the office’s online checkbook, which shows the money that’s being spent by the county to vendors.
“I don’t like when people can’t see what’s going on,” she said. “It’s a lot of money we’re working with, and the public wants to know that their taxes are going up and they want to understand why. And so, if we can’t spend it right in the Treasurer’s Office or invest it properly or get the biggest bang for our buck, we need to be able to show one way or the other what’s going on.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
