Craig easily outpaces Kaiser in Hanover Park
Hanover Park Village President Rod Craig's slate swept up Tuesday -- and that could lead to big changes in the village as he consolidates control of the board.
Craig trounced Trustee Lori Kaiser to keep the seat he won just two years ago in an extraordinarily closer race. With his Progress Party's three trustees victories and the support of sitting Trustee Toni Carter, give the Craig, 60, a majority on the board.
"I'm sure everything will be sunshine and roses," Kaiser said after leaving a concession voice mail with Craig. "It doesn't take too much brains to count to four."
The board has been heavily divided and has often bickered since 2007, when Craig defeated Trustee Bob Packham in a special election after the death of longtime Village President Irv Bock.
After Tuesday night's surprisingly lopsided victory against the 46-year-old Kaiser, Craig said that he would look into making changes to the village staff.
"I think we have to re-evaluate everything," he said. "That's one of the responsibilities of a leader."
Unofficial results, with 100 percent of the votes in Cook County and DuPage County, showed Craig with 1,853 votes, and Kaiser with 612 votes. Kaiser, whose trustee term run until 2011, wasn't surprised by the result, and said Craig's slate deserved the win based on their hard campaigning and resources.
"We didn't have a lot of money to throw out there," she said.
Craig's winning slate includes veterans advisory committee chairman Rick Roberts, property manager Bill Cannon and mortgage broker Edward Zimel for trustee. Eira Corral, a 23-year-old who works with the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, also won her bid for clerk.
Unofficial results showed Roberts with 1,777 votes, Cannon with 1,649 votes and Zimel with 1,617 votes. They defeated Kaiser's CommUnity Party trustee slate consisting of incumbent Bill Manton, village development commission Chairman Jeffrey Bakes and Carol Bock, Irv Bock's widow.
For clerk, Corral bested Kaiser's slate-mate Margaret Blanford-Granbom, a telecommunications contractor.
Once the new board is seated in May, Craig said he'll appoint Carter as deputy village president. Carter, whose efforts in establishing a diversity committee were received with mixed feelings on the board, notes that she would be the village first African-American in that post, and that Corral is Hanover Park's first Latina village clerk.
Craig said his opponents never moved past the 2007 election when he beat Packham by just a few dozen votes. Craig became so frustrated that he chose to start his own initiatives without board approval or participation, such as the veterans and crime prevention committees. Craig said Tuesday he'll look into adding more police officers, while Kaiser said she'll be paying attention closely on how the Craig administration spends money.
Perhaps the most blatant display of the dysfunction and bad feelings on the board came when trustees voted to eliminate the collector position, which was held by his wife, Sherry, who was also the elected village clerk, a position she had long before her husband was elected mayor.
Trustees cited a need to save her $55,000 salary, but Rod Craig saw the move as the board's way of getting revenge. Craig on Tuesday said he has not plans on reviving that post, and that his wife would stay retired. She decided not to seek re-election as clerk.