Former St. Charles mayor enters county chairman race

It’s not what the party wanted, but faced with perhaps their best opportunity to win the Kane County Board chairman seat, Democrats now will have two choices for the position.

Former St. Charles Mayor Sue Klinkhamer began circulating petitions to enter the race about two weeks ago. Klinkhamer said she won’t raise money to campaign in what’s been an expensive race in recent years. However, she sees herself as a serious contender who is ready to debate the issues.

Klinkhamer most recently served on former Congressman Bill Foster’s staff. For the last year she’s been baby-sitting and watching the local political scene with growing frustration.

“I always tell people who express frustration with government that they should put their name on the ballot, so I thought I better put my name on the ballot,” Klinkhamer said.

Kane County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Guethle said in August Democrats ideally would field only one candidate for county board chairman and avoid a potentially messy primary. That one candidate appeared to be former Carpentersville Village President Bill Sarto, who announced his bid for the chairmanship last week.

Klinkhamer said she’s entering the race without vetting it through the party. She said she only knows Sarto as an acquaintance and in working with him on a couple of projects as a member of Foster’s staff. She has nothing against Sarto. And she doesn’t plan to say she does.

“With everything I’ve experienced in the last two years working for (Foster), I really saw the nasty side of political campaigns,” Klinkhamer said. “Sometimes it’s just one negative mailer after another. I think you can run without that. This is about me knowing I can do the job. The race is just the process I have to do to get there.”

Klinkhamer said she’s a candidate who will appeal to both Democrats and Republicans. She said the proof of that is her election as mayor of St. Charles, a community represented by only Republican county board members. Klinkhamer said she also has a good relationship with current Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay, a St. Charles resident.

“I think the current chairman has done a lot of good things,” Klinkhamer said. “But I’ve always fostered friendships on both sides of the aisle. I feel like I have friends in both parties. It bothers me when I see politicians not be able to get together because of that party label. The world isn’t like that. People just want good government.”

To that end, Klinkhamer said she’ll campaign on a platform that calls for the county to hire an administrator to run the day-to-day operations of the county. That would create a structure where the chairman has more time to handle the political side of the office and set policy. Klinkhamer said she found that structure to be the most efficient when she hired St. Charles’ first administrator.

Klinkhamer’s entry into the race means both Democrats and Republicans will have a primary race for the chairman seat. Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns and State Sen. Chris Lauzen are the GOP candidates. The last day for candidates to enter the race for chairman is Dec. 5.