Endorsement: Rezwanul Haque for Streamwood

Rezwanul Haque and Lawrence Schmidt are write-in candidates for the two-year Streamwood village board seat that once belonged to Trustee Guy Patterson, who died in June 2016. The winner will hold the seat until the 2019 local election.

Haque, 56, owns a grocery store and banquet facility in Streamwood and has been active in voter registration drives in the Northwest suburbs. He collected signatures to appear on the ballot for Streamwood village trustee, an effort that failed because he did not specify which board seat he was running for. He sees a need to help foster Streamwood's "increasingly strong" private sector and "reinvigorate its real estate market."

Lawrence F. Schmidt, 58, is a retired postal service employee who also has worked part-time for the Streamwood Park District for 20 years. His platform has three major planks: Enforcing village codes over private property to keep neighborhoods looking nice; growing the village's commercial and industrial tax base; and improving relations between citizens and police in town.

Both men seem to be good candidates. Each would give the village board a fresh voice.

Our endorsement goes to Rezwanul Haque. He has taken the trouble to collect signatures for a village board run; as a businessman he has invested in Streamwood; and he represents a diverse point of view in a village where more than 45 percent of the population is minority. For those reasons, we believe he would be an excellent, if short-term, addition to the board.