All Lombard village board races now uncontested

Two candidates have dropped out of the running for Lombard village board, resulting in an uncontested race for all three district seats that are up for grabs.

Alan Bennett said he will officially terminate his candidacy for the District 4 race on Thursday afternoon due to health reasons and lack of name recognition.

"My opponent has a name recognition factor in the village that I don't think I could have overcome in the campaign," the retired state employee said.

Bennett said he uses a walker to get around and believes his lack of mobility would limit him to a mail-only campaign, which he figured wouldn't be very effective.

"In this type of local election, (going) door to door ... is critical," he said. "I simply wouldn't be able to conduct that type of campaign."

Lori Solyom announced Wednesday that she is withdrawing from the District 5 race to serve on a districtwide legislative advisory committee.

"I was really pleasantly surprised," she said of receiving an invitation from State Sen. Chris Nybo to join the committee. "I had not known that this was coming."

The marketing and communications consultant said she quickly realized that serving on the committee and running for village board would create a "very significant conflict" and began weighing which position she would wanted to pursue.

"Serving as a village trustee, it would be a privilege to work for the benefit of my neighbors, but it also limits my ability to influence the external factors that impact Lombard," she said.

Solyom said she decided that opting for the nonpaid committee position is "a calling" that has potential for her to have a bigger impact on her community.

Retired sales manager Bill Johnston, 61, is now the only candidate for the District 4 seat, which was held by Peter Breen before he resigned at the end of 2014 to serve as state representative for the 48th District.

Robyn Pike, a 30-year-old mother who does interactive marketing for Easter Seals, is the only name that will appear on the ballot for the District 5 seat.

Trustee Laura Fitzpatrick has held the seat for eight years. She decided not to run for re-election after taking a new job with Nybo's office.

District 2 incumbent Mike Fugiel is also running uncontested.

Thursday is the last day candidates in DuPage County can file a withdrawal of candidacy.