2 DuPage board candidates challenged

Two candidates for DuPage County Board face formal objections to their candidacies, election officials said Monday.

Milton Township Trustee Christopher Edwards jumped into the county board District 4 Republican primary race after narrowly collecting enough signatures in less than four hours on Dec. 5, the last day to file.

Edwards managed to get 192 signatures on his nominating petitions — Republican candidates need 189 — to seek a county board seat during the March 20 primary.

But a retired business owner from Glen Ellyn on Monday filed a challenge to Edwards’ petitions claiming that as many as 30 of the signatures are invalid.

“Frankly, I found numerous errors on Chris Edwards’ petitions,” said Tom Wendorf, a Democrat who last year ran unsuccessfully for a District 4 seat on the county board. “The first bar in qualifying as a candidate is to follow the rules of the petition process. It’s not that complicated.”

Wendorf claims he found apparent examples of spouses signing for each other, addresses without a registered voter and mistakes by individuals who circulated the petitions.

Contacted by phone on Monday, Edwards said he needed time to think about how he would respond to the objection. He didn’t call back by late Monday afternoon.

District 4 includes all or portions of Addison, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Glendale Heights, Lisle, Lombard, Wheaton and Winfield.

Also, a Burr Ridge man is challenging the nominating petitions for District 3 hopeful Joe Wozniak of Naperville, who is in the GOP primary race against incumbents Brian Krajewski and John Curran and challengers Greg Abbott of Woodridge, Gary Grasso of Burr Ridge and retired DuPage Judge Ken Moy of Hinsdale.

District 3 includes all or portions of Bolingbrook, Burr Ridge, Clarendon Hills, Darien, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Lemont, Naperville, Westmont, Willowbrook and Woodridge.

All 18 county board seats are up for re-election because of redistricting. There are three board members for each district.

Unlike District 3, there won’t be a contested GOP primary in District 4 if Edwards is removed from the ballot. Newcomer Amy Grant of Wheaton and incumbent board members Grant Eckhoff and JR McBride are the only other Republicans in the race.

Longtime board member Debra Olson is stepping down from the county board this week to become executive director of the DuPage Homeownership Center.

Edwards said last week that he made his final-day push to get on the ballot after hearing that Olson wasn’t seeking re-election. Olson submitted her nominating petitions on Nov. 28. only to withdraw minutes before the filing period closed a week later.

Wendorf said he has nothing against Edwards, adding, “I don’t even know the man. I’m concerned about getting the best candidates in the district,” he said.