Seven DuPage candidates challenged

Seven DuPage County candidates face challenges to their nominating petitions and will have to appear before the county's election commission to keep their names on the February primary ballot.

A flurry of objections were filed Monday, the last day to do so. In all, six Republicans and one Democrat were challenged, including two of the four GOP county board chairman hopefuls, both the incumbent and challenging Republican sheriff candidates, two Republican county board candidates from different districts and a Democratic forest preserve board candidate.

The commission meets today and will set a date to hear the objections. The primary is Feb. 2.

State Sen. Dan Cronin and current District 4 county board member Debra Olson face challenges in their bids for board chairman. Roselle resident John Barsanti cited problems with more than 200 signatures on Cronin's petitions. Robert L. Stare, another Roselle resident, claimed Olson can't run for the office without relinquishing her seat on the board.

Sheriff John Zaruba's papers were challenged because he does not declare he is a "qualified primary voter" and the number of signatures are not sequential., according to the objection. Zaruba's primary competition, Mike Quiroz, used Democrats instead of registered Republicans to circulate his petitions and several signatures should be declared invalid, according to an objection filed by three residents.

Republican District 2 county board candidate Mary Wuttke Kranz has several objectionable signatures on her petitions, as does Republican District 4 county board candidate Sam Jacob, according to challenges received Monday afternoon.

"There are a couple different issues I had with the signatures (Jacob) submitted," said Wheaton resident Ryan Carroll, who filed just before the 4:30 p.m. deadline. "I'm not doing this for anyone, I'm doing this as a concerned citizen."

Democrat Hilary Denk failed to identify what county she was seeking a forest preserve post in and what district she wants to represent, according the objection filed by Elmhurst resident Charles Mueller.

Two other objections were filed to Joseph C. Wozniak's bid to be the Democratic Party nominee in the District 6 county board race. One objection was filed by Lisle Township Republican Organization Chairman Michael Prueter and the other was filed by DuPage Democratic Party Executive Director Amy Tauchman. Both cited signature irregularities, but Wozniak negated the challenges by withdrawing his nominating paperwork late Monday. It also negated the possibility of the current College of DuPage trustee eventually squaring off against his father who is running for the GOP nod in the same race.

Wozniak said the dueling challenges was no surprise.

"Our name is well known," he said after withdrawing from the race, "and I think people are afraid of that."