Hanson stays on Democratic county ballot after Lauzen appointee loses lawsuit
Matt Hanson will continue to appear on ballots for the District 6 Kane County Board seat after an attempt by fellow Democrat Ron Ford failed to remove him. Ford believes a group of Aurora Democrats conspired to keep him off the ballot.
The controversy dates back to April, when county board Chairman Chris Lauzen appointed Ford to the District 6 seat in April after Democrat Brian Dahl moved out of the district.
Ford represented the district prior to Dahl, but Lauzen's appeal to him to be the candidate to fill the seat permanently raised some eyebrows among fellow local Democrats. Lauzen is a Republican. He has backed several Democrats in the current election in a bid to create a majority sympathetic to his policies.
On July 16, Kane County and Aurora Democrats drafted a letter to the 14 Democratic precinct committeemen for District 6. The letter provided notice of a meeting on July 25 where they would nominate a Democratic candidate to fill the District 6 seat. It was sent by certified mail with a request for return receipt. But testimony in Ford's lawsuit showed only 11 of the 14 committeemen became informed about the meeting via the letter.
According to Ford, committeemen supportive of Hanson's candidacy received phone calls to ensure they'd show up at the meeting. Those sympathetic to Ford did not. As a result of that "nefarious" effort, Ford said, Hanson received the spot on the ballot.
But Judge Kevin Busch said the fact that all the committeeman had the opportunity to become informed about the meeting met all the legal obligations for the slating process. And the committeemen who did not show up for the vote didn't represent enough votes to sway the outcome in Ford's favor. Busch noted that Ford isn't even a committeeman, but he was still present at the vote.
No Republican is slated to oppose Hanson on the Kane County ballot. In an interview, Ford said he will continue his quest to retain the District 6 seat as a write-in candidate. He said Democrats slated someone else for the race because of disagreements within the Aurora Democratic Party about which candidates should run for which offices.
"They knew if this guy would have faced me one-on-one, he wouldn't have had a chance," Ford said. "This was deliberate."
Ford said he's uncomfortable with role Brian Pollock played in the slating. Pollock is a fellow Aurora Democrat and formerly served on the county board. He is now an employee in the Kane County Clerk's Office, which oversees local elections.
"Brian orchestrated this whole meeting," Ford said. "And it makes me uncomfortable to know someone who oversees elections had such a big role on who got on the ballot. His taking that position so soon after leaving the board is a clear ethics ordinance violation."
The county's ethics law says board members must wait one year before taking another job in the county. Pollock took the job one month after leaving office.
Pollock referred all questions to Aurora Township Democrats Chairman Greg Elsbree. He said Pollock had no role in the process other than to ensure everything was legal and proper.
"Ron was given the opportunity, like the other candidates, to reach out to committeemen and make his case," Elsbree said. "He didn't even get nominated."
Elsbree said Ford has not attended an Aurora Township Democrats meeting in at least two years. Committeemen voted for Hanson because they believed Ford was not supportive of labor issues as a county board member.
"They didn't feel he was a true Democrat," Elsbree said. "And the fact that he showed up with two Republicans as his attorneys supported that feeling."
Kane County Republican Party Chairman Ken Shepro and Executive Vice-Chairman Jeff Meyer represented Ford during the lawsuit.