Endorsement: Kordik over Conroy in House District 46

With redistricting, Illinois Democrats saw the potential of electing one of their own to the House of Representatives in the northern DuPage County-based District 46. A new legislator will emerge from the Nov. 6 election — either Democrat Deb Conroy of Elmhurst, a former school board member, or Republican Dan Kordik of Villa Park, currently the York Township clerk. Both view tackling the budget mess in Illinois as a top fiscal concern. In terms of pension reform, neither would shift existing pension liabilities to local school districts, but Kordik would favor local control for new hires. The two candidates differ sharply on social issues, with Kordik taking a much more conservative stance.

Traditionally, we would back candidates that were fiscally conservative and socially moderate. Conroy would be close to fitting that bill. But we must take her to task for how she has run her campaign and what that says about her independence and her integrity.

Conroy has allowed the state Democratic Party to mail out fliers clearly distorting one vote by Kordik 20 years ago when he served on the Villa Park school board. At that time, the board passed a resolution opposed to unfunded state mandates — an issue that many local governments have complained about and been faced with over the years. Conroy has extrapolated that vote to suggest that Kordik is opposed to criminal background checks on potential school employees, using imagery of scared children to make the point. We think this kind of campaigning is wrong. Kordik wins our endorsement.