Battle lines drawn in Campton Hills election challenge
The battle lines are being drawn for the April election of trustees and village president in Campton Hills.
The Campton Hills Electoral Board Tuesday night hashed out rules to hear a challenge by Village President Patsy Smith against the nomination petitions of four people running for village office in the spring, including Trustee Harry Blecker, who is running for village president.
Smith filed an objection to the nominating petitions for Blecker, Trustees Laura Andersen and Susan George, and Michael O'Dwyer, who currently serves on the village's finance committee. The latter three are seeking four-year village board seats up for election in April. Smith's objection was on the grounds that all four sets of petitions specified the wrong date of Feb. 24 instead of the April 7 election and were submitted before the Dec. 15-22 filing period.
Smith is not challenging the validity of any of the signatures on the petitions, Village Attorney Bill Brathwaite said.
The four candidates maintain that they filed their paperwork in the event of a February primary election, and if no primary is required, their petitions automatically default so they apply to the April election.
Smith, who was the village's first and only president in its nearly eight-year history, successfully challenged the petitions filed by her opponent in the 2011 election. Smith did not attend Tuesday's meeting.
Matthew Welch, an attorney representing Blecker and the other three candidates, objected to Interim Village Clerk John Strauss being one of three members on the electoral board. Trustees Jim Kopec and Mike Millett are the other two members.
Welch said Strauss needed to recuse himself from the board, because his testimony likely would be required in the hearing on the petitions.
Ken Shepro, the attorney representing Smith in the petition challenge, said he had no doubts Strauss could be impartial but agreed Strauss should be replaced by someone appointed by a judge - most likely an attorney with experience in election law.
The board will meet again Friday to accept the appointment and set another date to hear testimony and consider evidence.
That cannot happen until after Dec. 19, when legal briefs are due from attorneys on both sides.
Welch predicted the matter would end up in a courtroom.
"These are clients who are trying to run a campaign," Welch said. "And we're trying to remove this cloud from their candidacies."