Cronin breezes to win as DuPage chairman

Dan Cronin added DuPage County Board Chairman Tuesday to his growing list of political monikers.

With all 749 precincts reporting, the Republican state senator defeated his Democratic challenger Carole Cheney, collecting 63 percent of the unofficial vote totals. The two were separated by more than 70,000 votes.

Cronin is ready to go to work.

“I've got a series of meetings scheduled for next week to interview a number of candidates for different roles like the water commission,” he said. “Also, I really want to make sure I've got good command of what we want to do and who's on the team.”

Cronin battled through a contentious February primary with three opponents a county board member, a fellow state senator and a sitting mayor, but still secured an overwhelming majority among the four candidates. Cheney ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

The differed greatly on spending during the campaign. Cronin opposed a $70 million, 30-year capital improvement borrowing plan that was approved by the county board two months ago. Cheney supported the proposal, citing the jobs it would create.

Cronin complained the loan's backloaded debt structure made the proposal more expensive than it needed to be. County finance officials admitted the final $125 million loan payout, which includes interest costs, is higher because the majority of the loan is set to be paid off in the latter half of the debt cycle.

The borrowed funds are intended to go toward several road projects and improvements to the county government complex in Wheaton.

Cronin didn't shy away from controversial topics during the race. He suggested the county fairgrounds should look for a new home on less valuable land. He mused about the possibility of folding the forest preserve back under the wing of the county board just eight years after he voted as a senator to separate the two entities. He also bandied about the idea of shrinking the size of the county board and going to single-member districts because it would make board members “more accountable.”

He also pushed a reform bill in Springfield that would have moved control of the DuPage Water Commission to the county. The bill was in response to the agency accidentally spending its $69 million reserves through poor accounting practices and lackadaisical financial oversight. Eventually, Cronin compromised with DuPage municipal leaders on the reform package and settled for all water commissioners resigning by the end of the year, the county board having more oversight of important hirings and eliminating by 2016 a quarter-cent sales tax that goes to the commission.

“I'm a firm believer in letting people know who you are, especially in this business,” Cronin said. “It would have been easy to play the go-along-to-get-along role, but that's not me.”