Glen Ellyn Civic Betterment Party recruiting village candidates
Glen Ellyn Civic Betterment Party leaders have launched their candidate search for village positions up for election next spring.
The 87-year-old party is accepting applications from village and library board hopefuls. A nominating committee will present its slate of finalists to residents who will cast secret ballots at a December town hall meeting to decide who gets the Civic Betterment backing.
With few exceptions, candidates who capture the party's endorsement almost always go on to win municipal election, effectively making the biennial town hall a caucus-style primary. It's also unusual for Glen Ellyn officials to serve more than one term, though at least one village board incumbent hasn't yet decided if he will again buck tradition and seek re-election.
The nominating process is designed to level the playing field, keep partisan politics and money out of village elections and help candidates prepare their nominating petitions, party officials say.
"We have no agenda, no platform," said Erik Ford, the party's president. "We're made of probably people all across the political spectrum, which we frankly don't discuss at our meetings because it's not relevant."
Three village trustee seats - held by John Kenwood, Pete Ladesic and Mark Senak - are up in the April 2019 election. Ladesic won a third term in 2015 without the party's backing after running an independent campaign, duplicating a feat he accomplished in 2007.
Ladesic said Tuesday he has not decided if he will try for a fourth term, then run for village president when that post is up for election in 2021. He's also considering stepping down after his current board term expires and launching a bid for the village's top elected position in two years.
Kenwood did not immediately return a phone message about his future. Senak couldn't be reached Tuesday.
The party already has "two or three interested parties" for trustee seats, Ford said. Applications have been submitted, but Ford declined to identify potential candidates, saying it would be "premature to give names."
There also are four open library board seats in next spring's election.
The nominating committee - a group of nearly 20 officers and members who represent five districts in Glen Ellyn - will accept applications from the party's website through early November.
On Dec. 1, the party will present its slate of finalists to voters at the town hall that's moving to a new venue - First United Methodist Church - because of anticipated construction at the Glen Ellyn Civic Center. An early voting site hasn't been determined, Ford said.
Typically, there are no more than a few thousand ballots cast at the town hall.
"What we'd really like to do is increase our voter participation because the town meeting generally doesn't bring out as many people as we would like to see," he said.