Three hot mayoral races in DuPage after 1st day of filing

Editor's note: This story has been updated to add the name of Albert K. Lazaro, who filed Monday morning to run for trustee in Lisle.

The local election season began Monday with candidates throughout DuPage County submitting nominating petitions for elected offices in the April 4 election.

Hopefuls have until the end of the day Dec. 19 to enter contests for municipal, park, library and fire district boards.

Just one day into the weeklong filing period, three towns - Bensenville, Lisle and Roselle - already have contested races for village president and mayor.

Here's a quick look at how some of the races are shaping up:

Bensenville

Two sitting trustees are running for village president in Bensenville, where former President Frank Soto stepped down earlier this month with nearly four months left in his second term to become an arbitrator with the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission.

Both presidential hopefuls, Frank DeSimone and Henry Wesseler, filed at 8 a.m. Monday. The village will conduct a lottery at 9 a.m. Dec. 20 to determine who will be first on the April ballot.

DeSimone filed as part of the Bensenville United party slate that also features Nancy Quinn running for clerk and trustee candidates Ann Franz, McLane "Mac" Lomax and Armando Perez.

Wesseler filed as part of the Working 4 Bensenville party slate that includes Amanda Mendoza for clerk and trustee candidates David Majeski, Sergiusz "Sergio" Zgrzebski and Joseph Pisano. Majeski is an incumbent.

DeSimone is a 13-year Bensenville resident who works as a detective in a neighboring town and is president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 170. He was elected to his trustee seat in 2015.

Wesseler is a former park district commissioner who has served on the village board since 2009. A public service representative for the Illinois secretary of state's office, he grew up in Bensenville. He's a Master Mason/Shriner and a member of American Legion Post 1205.

Lisle

Mayor Joe Broda filed first thing Monday to seek re-election and will be challenged by Christopher Pecak, leader of a slate of candidates called Prosperity for Lisle, who also filed as the period opened.

The Prosperity slate also includes clerk candidate David Nelson Jr., who will run against independent Kim Brondyke, and trustee candidates Marie J. Hasse, Kelly Dixit and Albert K. Lazaro.

Trustees whose terms are expiring all filed Monday morning as well, so Anthony Carballo, Brad Hettich and Christy McGovern will be defending their seats against the three hopefuls from the Prosperity party.

Roselle

With Roselle Mayor Gayle Smolinski preparing to step down after more than two decades, there's already a great deal of interest in the job. Two sitting trustees, Wayne Domke and Andy Maglio, officially entered the race on Monday.

Domke has been on the village board since 2011 and previously served 12 years on the Roselle Park District commission. Maglio has been a village trustee since 2009.

Meanwhile, David Pileski, Brian Boos and incumbent Patrick Devitt have filed to run for trustee seats in Roselle. Village Clerk Patty Burns is seeking a third term.

Elsewhere

Elsewhere in DuPage, village president and mayoral seats are up in Addison, Aurora, Bloomingdale, Glen Ellyn, Glendale Heights, Itasca, Lombard, Oakbrook Terrace, Warrenville, West Chicago, Winfield and Villa Park.

Incumbents Rich Veenstra in Addison, Franco Coladipietro in Bloomingdale, Linda Jackson in Glendale Heights, Jeff Pruyn in Itasca, Keith Giagnorio in Lombard, Tony Ragucci in Oakbrook Terrace, Ruben Pineda in West Chicago and Erik Spande in Winfield all filed for re-election and as of Monday were unopposed.

Warrenville Mayor David Brummel also filed Monday and said he expects city council member Michael Hoffmann to run against him.

In Aurora, four mayoral candidates already have places on the April ballot: Linda Chapa LaVia, Rick Guzman, Richard Irvin and Mike Saville. A fifth candidate, Jose Luis Del Bossque, dropped out of the running Monday.

• Daily Herald staff writers Marie Wilson and Bob Smith contributed to this report.