Bartels in lead for Lake County seat

Consultant Chuck Bartels was leading the three-way Republican race for the Lake County Board's 10th District seat Tuesday night.

With votes in all 24 precincts counted, Bartels had 1,047 votes, unofficial results showed. Terri Voss, a Mundelein trustee and a retail consultant, was second with 908 votes.

Connie Shanahan, a Fremont Township trustee and a former member of the Fremont Public Library District board, was at the back of the pack with 320 votes.

The totals didn't include ballots cast early or by mail.

Bartels is making his first bid for public office. He wasn't yet ready to declare victory.

"I'm feeling good," he said. "I want to see the rest of it."

The 10th District includes parts of Mundelein, Round Lake Park, Wauconda, Hawthorn Woods and Long Grove.

All three GOP candidates live in Mundelein.

Veteran incumbent Diana O'Kelly, a Mundelein Republican, isn't seeking re-election.

No Democrats ran in that party's primary for the 10th District seat. Party leaders can appoint someone to run in November.

But that would be an uphill battle in a historically Republican district. O'Kelly generally ran unopposed in November.

Whoever wins the seat will replace a respected leader on the board.

O'Kelly was the longtime head of the county's public works and transportation committee. She also was part of the environmentally friendly, controlled-growth GOP bloc that seized control of the board from pro-development Republicans in the 1990s.

O'Kelly opted not to run for the post again after being elected Fremont Township's supervisor in 2013. She's served both agencies - and the Lake County Forest Preserve District, which consists of the 21 county commissioners - for about a year.

The winner in November will receive a 4-year term.