McConnaughay to run for new 33rd District seat
Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay will announce her plans to run for the state's new 33rd District State Senate seat on this morning in West Dundee.
The announcement is the realization of a long-running rumor about McConnaughay's ambition for a state-level post. She becomes the first Republican to announce a bid for perhaps the only seat created in the statewide redistricting that Republicans are expected to pick up. Indeed, local Republicans have said the seat is tailor-made for McConnaughay.
The boundaries of the new 33rd stretch from Wayne Township, picks up McConnaughay's home in St. Charles and then heads out toward Gilberts into McHenry County. McConnaughay's announcement will now allow local Democrats to begin recruiting candidates to both replace and challenge McConnaughay.
Sitting Kane County Board members said their immediate thoughts are on how McConnaughay's departure will affect a county board that's already seen large turnover in the past two elections.
“It's going to be a tough decision folks will have to make about whether they want to take on that amount of work,” county board member Tom Van Cleave said. “Folks will be coming in with interest from the outside. But I think that someone who already has relationships with our elected county officials and department heads would be an ideal candidate.”
That opinion seems to point in favor of Mark Davoust, a current county board member from St. Charles. Several current board members and local Republican Party officials have said Davoust has sent out feelers about taking a run at the chairman seat. So far, Davoust has not publicly stated any intentions to run for any job other than his current board seat.
An important question for any politician interested in the Kane County Board chairman role is exactly what the responsibilities of that position will entail. McConnaughay herself has said in recent weeks that the county might do well to cut the responsibilities of the chairman in half by hiring a county administrator. Such an administrator would handle the daily task of running the county while the chairman would handle more of the political side of county board. Such a setup is common in all the other local counties.
Board member John Hoscheit has now served through two county board chairmen during his tenure. Hoscheit said the current setup of the chairman position demands an extreme personal sacrifice of time. Hoscheit said he believes McConnaughay has left the county in better shape than it was when she first took control. However, with the end of her tenure, the time might be right to bring on a full-time administrator.
“I personally think that we should have someone serve in that administrator role,” Hoscheit said. “And I think the time is appropriate. The question of course is where does the money come from to hire such a person. I think it's true that a good manager can save you two to three times the amount of their salary in your overall costs.”