Will County has new GOP leader

After more than 30 years as a Will County Republican precinct committeeman, Richard Kavanaugh is taking a bigger role with the local party.

Kavanaugh replaces Jack Partelow as the county GOP chairman. The 63-year-old attorney from New Lenox was the only nominee at the party's convention Wednesday to replace the outgoing chairman, who held the post for a decade.

"I'm the guy who got Partelow involved 14 years ago, and I guess he's just paying me back," Kavanaugh joked.

Kavanaugh, formerly of Bolingbrook, said the top order of business is to find a replacement on the ballot for Tim Baldermann as the Republican nominee for the 11th congressional district seat being vacated by Morris Republican Rep. Jerry Weller.

Baldermann is the mayor of New Lenox and police chief of Chicago Ridge and stepped aside late last month, citing time constraints.

Kavanaugh will hold the post for two years and hasn't decided yet whether he'll seek re-election in 2010.

"Let's see how long I last with this term," he said.

Besides activities with the county party, Kavanaugh worked for former President Reagan's 1980 campaign in the area and was a national delegate for both former President George H.W. Bush and the current President Bush.

The 73-year-old Partelow, of Naperville, had announced his plans to step down from the chairman's post prior to his drunken driving arrest in Bolingbrook the morning after the Feb. 5 primary. He is due in court Friday for his first appearance on charges stemming from that arrest.