Will DuPage voters buck trends?

Democrats made headway in DuPage County in 2008, getting three county board challengers elected with the help of a strong national ticket.

That short streak could be in jeopardy today as the Democrats have to deal with the aftermath of a Democratic governor being impeached, ousted and put on trial as well as an unpopular health care reform bill passed by a Democratic Congress and drafted by a Democratic president. But much of the voter anger expressed this season has been against incumbents, and the GOP still populates most local offices in DuPage.

DuPage voters also will have a chance to vote their pocketbooks with several property tax increase questions appearing on today's ballot.

Here are the highlights:

DuPage County Board

A new DuPage County Board chairman will be elected for the first time in 12 years. Either Republican state Sen. Dan Cronin or Democratic political newcomer Carole Cheney will replace outgoing Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, who gave up a chance at a fourth term to run unsuccessfully for governor.

Cronin has campaigned as the outsider, while Cheney has often sided with decisions made by the current board, specifically on a plan to borrow $70 million for capital improvements. Cheney believes the spending is necessary, while Cronin openly opposed it and lobbied against it.

Cheney has made job creation the centerpiece of her campaign. Jobs created by the capital improvement borrowing plan was a key reason behind her support of the plan. The 49-year-old lawyer from Aurora believes one of her assets is the fact that she's never held office before.

Cronin has said that he'd like to have talks about moving the fairgrounds, consolidating the forest preserve back under the county board's jurisdiction and turning the DuPage Water Commission into a county-controlled agency. The 50-year-old Elmhurst resident said he would undertake a line-item review of every county expenditure if elected.

Voters across the county will also decide six county board races. Only four current members are seeking to retain their seats, including one board member who was appointed last year. Republicans Don Puchalski, Jeff Redick and JR McBride are asking voters to re-elect them over their respective Democratic challengers Kathryn Salzano, Catherine Sewell and Tom Wendorf. Republican John Zediker was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2009 after former board member Michael Connelly was elected to the Illinois General Assembly. He is challenged by Democrat Brian Duewel.

There are no incumbents in the race for the District 6 seat representing the northwest corner of the county between Democrat Dave Barry and Republican Bob Larsen or in the District 3 race representing the southeast portion of the county that features Democrat Karol Sole squaring off against Republican Brian Krajewski.

DuPage Forest Preserve District

All four Republicans in the forest preserve races are incumbents. Current President Dewey Pierotti and commissioners Joe Cantore, Mike Formento and Roger Kotecki are seeking re-election. They are challenged by Dennis Clark, Hilary Denk, Eric Bergman and Shannon Burns respectively.

State legislature

Republican State Sen. John Millner is seeking re-election in the 28th Senate District against Democratic challenger Corinne Pierog. The district covers much of northwestern DuPage and stretches into eastern Kane and parts of northwestern Cook counties.

DuPage voters will also have a say in 13 state representative races.

Referendums

Several municipalities are asking advisory questions about public safety pension reform. But amid all the advisory questions are a number of decisions that would impact voters' property tax bills.

College of DuPage officials are asking voters to allow the school to extend its current taxing levels in effort to generate $168 million for several building renovation and construction projects on the Glen Ellyn campus. With the college's current property tax rate, the owner of a $300,000 house pays about $210 a year to the college. COD officials said if the measure fails, the same homeowner would see a reduction of about $35 from the college's portion of their tax bill.

In Naperville, voters are being asked to vote on term limits for city council members and whether to elect half of the eight-member council from wards and the other half at large.

Villa Park leaders are asking for voter consent to increase the city's sales tax to 1 percent to fix roads. Winfield is asking voters to support a $3.3 million borrowing plan and a property tax rate increase for road repairs.

West Chicago Elementary District 33 leaders are asking voters to support a taxing extension to raise $39 million that would allow the district to build an addition to the middle school so they could eventually move all the district's sixth-graders to that building. Medinah Elementary School District 11 voters are being asked to support a property tax increase of $8 million for an addition to the Medinah Intermediate School to house elementary schoolchildren and eliminate the need for the primary school.

One of the more unique ballot questions is asking voters who live in unincorporated parts of DuPage in Naperville Township if they want the township to coordinate a waste-hauling contract for all unincorporated residential properties.