Smith wins second term in Campton Hills

Carol Frank doesn’t know all the particulars about the Campton Hills Village President’s post, but she believes Patsy Smith is the right person for the job.

“From the very beginning, she played a huge role,” Frank said Tuesday after voting. “She’s been doing a great job and she’ll continue to do so.”

Going into Tuesday’s election, Smith was the only Village President in the village’s short history.

And it will stay that way for the next four years as voters re-elected Smith to a second term.

Smith garnered 1,068 votes on her way to defeating write-in candidate Kristin LeBlanc, according to unofficial results.

Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham said write-in ballots will be counted Wednesday morning, but Smith’s total makes a LeBlanc victory an impossibility.

With 1,740 total votes cast, LeBlanc can only finish with 672, not including absentee and provisional ballots.

“It appears that I’ve won the election,” Smith said. “I’m very grateful for the people who supported the campaign and who got out and voted.”

However, Village Clerk Carolyn Higgins will have to wait to find out if she won out against a write-in candidate as well. Tuesday’s results showed Higgins with only 49 percent of the vote.

Trustees James Kopec, Laura Anderson and Susan George all were elected to another four-year term. They ran unopposed.

“The people know we’ve worked really hard to build up the village and we’ve done the best we can with the resources available,” Smith said.

Smith, who pushed for the village’s incorporation years ago, emphasized her experience and noted she’s had to take on other duties that mayors and presidents of established towns had not.

In coming months, Smith hopes to help complete an update of the village’s comprehensive plan.

LeBlanc argued that she could help bring anti- and pro-village forces together and that Smith’s style was polarizing.

But even folks who opposed incorporation years ago were won over by Smith’s performance.

“Patsy seems to be the way to go. She’s been here since the beginning,” said Rita Petersdorf, who voted for Smith Tuesday.