Some Lake County Board members fear specter of partisanship

The Republicans and Democrats on the Lake County Board have always proudly proclaimed the 23-member panel doesn't play partisan politics.

Unlike Congress or the General Assembly, the group rarely follows party dogma when debating issues, and its votes rarely fall along party lines.

Avoiding partisan politics has been relatively easy, though, because the GOP historically has maintained an overwhelming majority on the board, which doubles as the county's forest preserve district commission. Although Democrats have had enough weight as a group to represent a swing-vote bloc on some issues and when deciding leadership posts, the caucus has never been large enough to push an agenda without GOP help.

On Tuesday, however, Democratic challengers wrested four county board seats from sitting Republicans. And, four incumbent Democrats held onto posts and one Democratic newcomer won after running unopposed.

The victories will cut the GOP majority from 17-6 to 13-10 once the new members take office Dec. 1.

If Democrats had picked up just two more seats, the party would have seized control.

With Democratic wolves at the gates, some Republican board members are concerned meetings will devolve into partisan feuds.

"Partisan politics has been out of it because of the lopsided majorities," Gurnee Republican Steve Carlson said. "But with a closer ratio, you get an energized minority that hasn't (existed) until now."

Commissioner-elect Pat Carey, a Democrat who beat a Republican incumbent, doesn't think those victories automatically will lead to party-based showdowns.

"A lot of issues aren't necessarily partisan issues. I don't think economic development, fixing the property assessment process or getting roads built necessarily are partisan issues," said Carey, a former Grayslake mayor. "I don't see us doing that just to do it."

Of 15 county board seats on Tuesday's ballots, nine went to Democrats and six to Republicans.

Veteran Democrat Bob Sabonjian, who won re-election, dismissed the idea of a looming partisan war. The board has to work together on important issues such as transportation, health care and law enforcement, he said, and it can't hold up governing with partisan bickering.

"I'm not going to support that," said Sabonjian, of Waukegan. "If you start out (fighting), you're going to get nowhere the rest of the time."

Carlson believes the recent Democratic challengers injected partisanship into campaigns by attacking Republicans "for many things for which we had no control."

Democrats in six races sent near-identical mailers blaming the board for high property assessments and financial mismanagement.

Carlson predicted Republicans might strike back on the boardroom floor.

"I think we're going to take things a lot more in a partisan way than we have in the past," he said. "And I'm not looking forward to it."

Veteran Republican board member David Stolman was a target of negative and misleading Democratic campaign mailers. He won Tuesday, but felt stung by the effort.

It's not so easy to say "let's be friends" after facing personal attacks, Stolman said.

"Now it's going to be more than getting the job done," said Stolman, of Buffalo Grove. "Now it's going to be party politics. And I'm sorry to see that happen."

Who throws the first stone depends on the issue, and the timing, Carlson said. Potential targets could be some Republican board members up for re-election in 2010, he said. Carlson is among that group.

Sabonjian doesn't share Carlson's dark view.

"They're all pragmatic people," Sabonjian said of the incoming Democrats. "We don't have any ideologues."

Carey is more interested in building consensus than toeing the party line.

"All 23 members who sit on that board come to address the issues of the county. And to do that, we need to work together," she said.

Incumbent Democrat Anne Flanigan Bassi had similar sentiments.

"The county board will continue to work together to govern as we do every two years after an election, addressing a variety of issues to serve the best interest of the residents of Lake County," said Bassi, a Highland Park resident who wasn't up for election Tuesday. "I don't expect that to change."