Meet the class of new mayors in DuPage, Kane suburbs

More than a dozen new mayors and village presidents were elected across DuPage and Kane counties last week — some by defeating established incumbents.

Here’s a look at how some won over voters and what they hope to accomplish.

Aurora

In his successful bid for Aurora mayor, John Laesch drew a stark contrast with two-term incumbent Richard Irvin on a host of issues in the state’s second-largest city.

As a city alderman, Laesch criticized Irvin for a deal to provide millions of dollars in donated property and loans to the owners of Hollywood Casino. Laesch painted a picture of two Auroras: one of big businesses and developers and the other of residents and small businesses.

Reflecting on his campaign, Laesch cited a national mood where people are feeling economically worse, living paycheck to paycheck and suffering the pinch of inflation. They are seeing a wealth gap. That led to voters holding incumbents accountable, he said.

“They were looking for new people, and that is where my message of ethical government resonated,” Laesch said.

He noted that the Irvin administration did a lot of work in the downtown area but said that “a lot of other local infrastructure problems have not been on the radar.”

Laesch plans listening tours to get feedback from residents to develop a list of what they want fixed in their areas.

And he will be meeting with aldermen “to repair some relationships,” he said. Several aldermen were strong supporters of Irvin and frequent critics of Laesch. The state Democratic Party also funneled campaign funds to Laesch in his second run at unseating Irvin, who previously ran for governor as a Republican.

Laesch said people should not expect big changes right away. “It will be a stable, slow transition,” he said.

West Chicago

Daniel Bovey celebrates with supporters after being elected West Chicago mayor on Tuesday.
Courtesy of Daniel Bovey

Daniel Bovey, who earned 52% of the mayoral vote in West Chicago to unseat longtime incumbent Ruben Pineda, saw his victory and the election of new city council members as a “mandate.”

“There was a pretty clearly communicated choice between continuing to do the same things that we have been doing and a hard restart,” said Bovey, 50, a church pastor and small business owner.

In Bovey’s first 100 days, he’d like to form a coalition to begin the “revitalization” of the city, particularly its downtown.

Bovey believes his administration will distinctly differ from the past in dealing with constituents.

“We are going to be open and transparent,” he said. “We’re going to be accessible. We are going to work proactively to listen to all of the people of West Chicago.”

Lisle

Mary Jo Mullen

Newly elected Lisle Mayor Mary Jo Mullen heard a common refrain from voters while knocking on doors: “Fix downtown.”

“I think a lot of it is people were frustrated with the lack of movement and development that they’ve seen in the last eight years,” said Mullen, who soundly defeated two-term incumbent Chris Pecak.

One of her first goals is to appoint a new police chief — the department has been without a full-time leader for months. Her first 100 days will be “all about getting everything righted with the police department, getting a chief in who will really take command and make sure that they are properly resourced and staffed and structured,” Mullen said.

She also sees a need to “change how we approach and work with developers.”

“We need better ways to recruit and market to them and to just businesses in general,” she said.

Mullen, a village trustee since 2021, and other members of her slate retained or won seats on the board.

Glen Ellyn

In Glen Ellyn, voters chose Jim Burket as their next village president over a sitting village trustee.

“I represented change from what’s been going on. I’ve often said, even when I ran the Civic Betterment Party, I wasn’t one of those people who was upset if somebody ran against us. And we need to get to a point in this town where more people have a say, as opposed to just a few,” Burket said.

His victory marked the first time, at least in recent history, that an independent candidate won the village president job without the Civic Betterment’s backing. Burket has said the nominating system is one way to get on the ballot, but it can’t be the only way.

If “you’ve moved here in the last five years, you probably don’t know what Civic Betterment is, and the numbers kind of justify my thinking,” he said.

Burket wants to get younger voices and people in the disability community more involved in village government through its commissions.

With a number of projects on the village’s to-do list, Burket puts lead water pipe replacement at the top.

“We have some aging fire stations that either need replacement or significant updating. And when I say significant, I don’t mean like for five to 10 years,” he said. “If we’re going to put money into those things, I’d like to see them pick up another 30 to 40 years of usability.”

Warrenville

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson, Warrenville’s first new mayor since 2005, says he believes his campaign resonated with voters because of momentum.

“I believe they see, and saw, that Warrenville is a well-managed community moving forward and wanted to see that trajectory continue,” Johnson said. “And they embraced our positive message and desire to see good development happen in town.”

Johnson earned more than 70% of the vote in his race against Michael Hoffmann to replace five-term Mayor David Brummel, who won his bid to become a Winfield Township trustee.

Johnson would like to quickly “get into the rhythm” of the job, he said, and lay the groundwork for “some exciting commercial development in town,” maintained by conservative fiscal policy.

He brings the same “half-full” mentality as Brummel, he said.

“There might be a different focus, more on commercial development than perhaps recently, but that’s just because of the timing of when I came into office,” Johnson said.

Sleepy Hollow

Courtney Boe will become Sleepy Hollow’s first new village president in 24 years.

Boe defeated fellow village trustee Jennifer McGuire in the race to succeed Stephan Pickett, who did not seek reelection.

“We definitely came up with a movement in the village, and I think we’re all ready to do something different,” she said.

Boe said she hoped to bring new energy and to reinvigorate a spirit of open and transparent communication in the village, saying that while Pickett always had an open door, she wants to do more to reach out to the community.

St. Charles

Clint Hull, center, at an election party with supporters at McNally’s Irish Pub on Tuesday, won the St. Charles mayoral race.
Sandy Bressner/Shaw Local News Network

In his first 100 days as the new mayor of St. Charles, Clint Hull intends to focus on building a team, both with the city council and city workers.

The retired Kane County chief judge, who unseated Lora Vitek, said one priority is to meet with city employees — and not just the department heads — to ask them what they love about St. Charles and what they think needs improving. He will also meet with aldermen to share his vision and to hear what they want. Hull aims to create a senior citizen commission.

“The priority is going to be on making sure everybody feels that they have a voice and that those voices are heard and respected,” Hull said.

East Dundee

In East Dundee, Daniel Pearson will take the reins as village president after besting trustee Sarah Brittin in the race to succeed Jeff Lynam.

Pearson, a retiree who serves as a fire commissioner for the East Dundee Fire Protection District, said he’s looking forward to building relationships with the board of trustees.

“I think people in town were looking for a leader and somebody that can hopefully make a little bit of change,” he said.

Pearson said he plans to leverage existing relationships with downtown businesses and communicate their needs to the village board.

“Being retired, I can actually do the legwork and be the frontman for the village,” he said.

Addison

Addison Mayor-elect Tom Hundley believes his experience helped him earn nearly 73% of the vote in his campaign against Eddie Castillo.

Hundley has served as a trustee for 25 years, the last 12 years as deputy mayor.

“People have gotten to know me and respect me,” he said.

“One of the things I ran on was establishing a consultant for community development,” Hundley said. “We have some properties in the village that are undeveloped, and I’d like to bring in a professional to tell us what we could develop those into.”

Villa Park

Kevin Patrick, the incoming village president of Villa Park, says voters appreciated his positive campaign.

“We wanted to stick to the facts and wanted to stick to the subjects that mattered to Villa Park,” Patrick said.

A six-year village trustee, Patrick believes those subjects include transparency and residents having a voice in issues before the village board. He cited a new village recreation center, Villa Park’s 17 miles of bike paths and park land as positives.

“These are the things we need to enhance, to make more of,” Patrick said.

Elsewhere

In Glendale Heights, Rebecca Giannelli beat three other candidates to become the next village president.

In Sugar Grove, Sue Stillwell unseated first-term Village President Jen Konen, who faced criticism for supporting the controversial Crown Community Development project.

Lombard Trustee Anthony Puccio ran unopposed for village president.

• Daily Herald staff writers Susan Sarkauskas and Rick West contributed to this report.