Kane County trustee races heating up, as candidate filing ends
A slew of candidates seeking seats on municipal boards in Kane County dashed to clerks' offices Monday, the last day for filing petitions for the April 7 election.
Several hotly contested mayoral and trustee races are in the offing.
In Elgin, newcomer Joseph Galvan hopes to become the city's first Hispanic mayor. Galvan is running against incumbent David Kaptain, who is seeking a second term in office. Eleven candidates are running for city council seats. Filing concluded in Elgin a few weeks ago.
Galvan is a principal with Galvan and Associates and is a past regional director for the Midwest region of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Kaptain is a retired chief chemist and director of process control for the Fox River Water Reclamation District.
Three people are vying for the village president's seat in Pingree Grove, including incumbent Greg Marston, Trustee Steve Wiedmeyer and resident Patrick Whalen.
Marston is seeking a second term in office, while Whalen ran unsuccessfully for trustee in April 2013. Wiedmeyer's seat is not up, so he would remain a trustee for two more years should he fail in his bid for mayor.
There are no mayoral contests in Algonquin, Carpentersville, Cary, Hampshire, Huntley, Lake in the Hills, East Dundee and West Dundee. But a few of those towns have trustee races heating up.
Huntley has two incumbents and three challengers vying for three, 4-year term seats on the board. Incumbents Niko Kanakaris and Harry Leopold face challengers Darci Chandler, former village board member Pam Fender, who ran unsuccessfully for Grafton Township supervisor, and Timothy Hoeft. Incumbent trustee Charles Huffman is not running for re-election.
Incumbent Lake in the Hills Trustees Frank Covone, Russ Ruzanski and Ray Bogdanowski will duke it out with challengers Bill Dustin, Tyna Zarecky, and Paula Yensen for three, 4-year seats up for election.
Six candidates are vying for spots on the Carpentersville village board. Incumbents Don Burroway and Paul Humpfer will face challengers Jeffrey Sabbe, Humberto Garcia, Christopher Scholl and Sara Miller.
In Hampshire, incumbents Jan Kraus, Rob Whaley and Orris Ruth, and challenger Toby Koth are vying for three 4-year seats.
In Burlington, incumbents James Daffron, John Totemeier and Duane Wilkison, and challenger Alec Vonderlack are vying for three 4-year seats.
There was little interest in the Sleepy Hollow village board race despite three open seats and only one candidate, incumbent Joseph Nemec, filing. Incumbent trustees Scott Finney and Dennis Fudala have not filed for re-election.
The villages of Algonquin, Cary, East and West Dundees each have three open 4-year term seats available. Those races are not contested.
Daily Herald staff writers Elena Ferrarin and James Fuller contributed to this report.