Colatorti concedes McHenry County sheriff's race to Tadelman: 'I encourage all my supporters to get behind him'

Tony Colatorti conceded the race for McHenry County sheriff to Robb Tadelman on Wednesday, which puts Tadelman on track to win the position later this year so far unopposed.

With some ballots left to be counted but 100% of Election Day and early votes counted, Tadelman has taken home about 59% of the vote, gaining 16,786 votes. Colatorti has a little less than 41% of the vote, earning 11,433.

The votes left to be counted include provisionally cast and late-arriving, mail-in ballots, according to the county's unofficial election results. County Clerk Joe Tirio said Wednesday morning his office was in the process of tallying up how many outstanding ballots remain.

The race featured both sides campaigning for more than a year and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Tadelman, the current undersheriff for the McHenry County Sheriff's Office, faced Colatorti, an entrepreneur and former police chief, in the Republican primary.

No one filed petition papers to run as a Democrat or Libertarian in the race. The filing period for independents and candidates of new parties starts Tuesday.

Despite what was at times a contentious campaign, Colatorti said there are no hard feelings between him and Tadelman.

In a conversation between the two Tuesday night, Colatorti said he congratulated Tadelman on the race and offered his support. Going forward, if another candidate were to come forward, he doesn't expect it to hinder Tadelman's odds, he said.

"I'm not happy we didn't win, but we both fought a good fight," he said. "I encourage all my supporters to get behind him. ... I'll be there to help him now."

Both candidates stressed that the race came down to the direction voters wanted the office to go in. Tadelman, a current member of the agency, wanted to focus on training and continuing to strengthen the office's programs.

Colatorti, who conveyed himself as an outsider, wanted to save the agency money and change how some things were done, such as leasing out unoccupied parts of the jail to county partners involved in drug rehabilitation.

Colatorti said Wednesday he isn't sure what led voters to choose Tadelman but noted voter turnout was also low, which he didn't think helped.

"The people spoke," he said.