Kane Democrats poised to take larger county leadership role

Kane County Democrats may pull off a historic feat - winning four countywide offices, including chairman and state's attorney.

And if the candidates maintain current leads as outstanding vote-by-mail ballots are counted, women would lead six of the 10 countywide elected offices.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Corinne Pierog had 112,493 votes, to David Rickert's 110,828, in the chairman's race to replace Chris Lauzen, who did not run again. Penny Wegman had 117,225 votes in her bid to unseat incumbent auditor Terry Hunt, who had 104,236. Jamie Mosser had 114,126 votes to Robert Spence's 107,468 in the race to replace state's attorney Joe McMahon, who did not seek reelection. Theresa Barreiro had 113,992 votes, compared to 107,831 votes for incumbent Circuit Court Clerk Thomas Hartwell.

How did that happen?

"It didn't happen overnight," said Kane County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Guethle, who added the county has seen a steady increase in Democratic voting in the last 15 to 20 years, including choosing a Democrat for governor in 2018 for the first time in 106 years.

Guethle said local leaders worked hard to fill almost all the ballot slots, "And we had excellent candidates," he said. He also cited the local party's support of female candidates since 2002, when he became its leader.

"I firmly believe that voters trust women slightly more than men," Guethle said.

Kane County Republican Party chairman Ken Shepro said "This was not a good year for old, white males."

Shepro, 69, who was elected to the District 12 count board seat, said he suspects Republican losses could be attributed to several factors.

The national Republican Party "has problems with suburban women voters. A lot of that carried over to the local races," he said.

Pierog seemed to have focused more on differentiating herself from Lauzen than her opponent, Rickert, Shepro said. Lauzen has had some controversy during his eight-year tenure, such as public fights with fellow Republicans McMahon and Coroner Rob Russell. Rickert, the current county treasurer, Hunt and Hartwell may have suffered by association with Lauzen, Shepro said.

He said he suspects people who voted for Joe Biden for president continued to vote Democratic down the ballot, and more of them voted in the local office races than in previous presidential-election years.

"The falloff from the top to the bottom (of the ballot) is about the smallest I've ever seen," Shepro said.

He called some of the county races "achingly close," including the board chairmanship.

There were 10,056 vote-by-mail ballots that had not been received as of noon Wednesday. Of those, 1,465 belonged to Republicans, and 1,666 belonged to Democrats, judging by how they voted in the spring primary, officials said.

One Republican, Recorder of Deeds Sandy Wegman, appeared to be holding on to her post with 113,768 votes to Brenda Rodgers' 106,648. Wegman is Penny Wegman's mother.

16th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Flood, a Republican, was leading in her race against Brittany Pedersen. Flood had 113,848 votes to Pedersen's 106,767.

Mosser would be the second elected female state's attorney.