Why Campton Hills opposition is optimistic

With the election now behind them, opponents of the Campton Hills incorporation said Wednesday they will turn their attention to getting better representation from the village board and advancing a referendum on whether to disband the town.

"We're going to push on the two fronts," said Chris Baldwin, chairman of the Stop Campton Hills Public Action Committee. "There will be a definitive accountability (trustees) have not had to address to date."

Only one of the committee's eight candidates was successful in being elected to a village office. But Baldwin pointed to strong voter turnout and slim vote margins between winners and losers as evidence the group has a solid support base.

He said its next order of business is persuading newly elected officials to halt the village's fight against neighborhoods trying to detach from the municipality.

The committee also intends to present a referendum on whether to disband the town altogether in November, although village officials say it does not yet have the legal authority to do so.

A petition for the referendum has been deemed valid by the Kane County Electoral Board, but Village President Patsy Smith said the petition indicates the question was to appear on Tuesday's ballot, not in November

"That's still an outstanding issue in my mind. It's not a done deal," she said.

Smith, who was appointed village president last May and sought election for the first time Tuesday, received the most votes of any village candidate, with 2,724, or 54 percent of the total vote, unofficial results show. A tally for her lone opponent, write-in candidate Robert Young, was not yet available Wednesday.

But the election was by no means a landslide for the rest of Smith's camp.

Carolyn Higgins toppled Karen Dowd to become village clerk -- and the lone dissolution proponent elected to a village office. She received 51 percent of the vote to Dowd's 49 percent, according to unofficial results.

Incorporation supporter Laura Andersen received the most votes, 2,409, of any trustee candidate. But she came in only 316 votes -- a little more than 1 percent -- ahead of Susan Secondi, the top vote-getter among the opposition. The divide was even more slim for incumbent trustee Mike Millette, who garnered 2,212 votes to Secondi's 2,093.

All of the incorporation opponents nipped at the heels of the other trustee candidates, coming up only 1 or 2 percent short of winning. Trustee candidate Gary Moore, who was largely unseen on the campaign trail and was affiliated with neither side, received a meager 405 votes total, results show.

"I think it just shows there is a solid group of people who are opposed to incorporation and would like to dissolve the village," Smith said.

"It was nearly right down the middle," Baldwin said.

A complete accounting of vote totals by precinct won't be available until next week, Kane County election officials said. But early results indicate roughly 4,800 Campton Hills residents, or 55 percent of the registered voters there, went to the polls. That would equate to a spike of about 650 voters more than the election last spring, when the village won incorporation rights.