We may find out who are our next president is on Tuesday night. Then again, if this odd presidential contest is as close as pollsters indicate, it may be days before battleground states have their votes tallied.
Either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will be sworn into office in January. Plenty of Americans are backing Democrat Harris, who would be the first African-American woman elected president. Others are set to roll the dice on another four-year term for the aging former GOP president who carries a lot of baggage, to say the least, into the election.
Whatever Tuesday’s outcome, a few Lake Countians will be involved in another election just a month after our next president takes office. Overlooked with all the current presidential hoopla are the Feb. 25, 2025 primary elections in Waukegan, Waukegan Township and North Chicago.
Following the primaries, the consolidated general election for municipal and township offices is set for April 1. Besides municipal and township elections, included on the candidate lists will be those seeking park, library, school and fire district seats.
After this presidential election, voters may feel sapped of electoral strength — just plain voted out. Set those feelings aside, because the balloting cycle continues unabated.
The filing deadline for the primaries was Oct. 28. Independent candidates will begin filing their petitions of candidacy on Nov. 12, with a deadline of Nov. 18, if they want to be on the April 1 ballot.
In the Waukegan mayoral primary, there’s a rematch on the Democrat side between former Mayor Sam Cunningham and Miguel Rivera Sr., while one Republican, former 4th Ward Ald. Harold Beadling, has filed for the post and is unopposed. Incumbent Mayor Ann Taylor and 6th Ward Ald. Keith Turner is expected to file as independents.
City Treasurer John Schwab, seeking his fifth term, filed for the Democrat nomination, as did Gene Decker. No Republican filed for the treasurer’s spot, although an independent candidate could file for the post.
Interestingly, City Clerk Janet Kilkelly is unopposed in the Democratic Party primary. She may pick up an independent opponent for the April 1 election, but running unopposed in the primary says something about her political resiliency and likeability, at least among fellow Waukegan Democrats.
Perhaps she also is liked and respected among city voters who have elected her clerk in two previous elections, along with several terms as a Waukegan Park District commissioner. She also has served on the Waukegan Township board.
Kilkelly was the target of what fellow Democrat, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart, who is up for re-election on Tuesday’s ballot, called an “extensive investigation” into alleged official misconduct. The felony probe was handed off to Illinois State Police investigators.
The city clerk was accused in March through a Lake County grand jury’s 15-count indictment. She has strongly pleaded not guilty to what some see as overreach for an alleged white-collar crime.
Kilkelly has remained in office, even getting backing from the City Council after calls for her resignation until the criminal case is resolved. It remains pending in Lake County Circuit Court.
Kilkelly’s attorneys have asked the charges be dismissed, maintaining she was improperly charged as the city’s deputy liquor control commissioner for issuing five city businesses reduced credits for liquor and video-gaming license fees during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities say the struggling businesses given financial breaks were ineligible for coronavirus relief packages, which were approved by the City Council in late 2020.
The money involved is around $6,000, a proverbial drop in the bucket of what Waukegan collects annually from its long list of business license fees. Kilkelly’s attorneys point out in their motion to dismiss the charges that she, “neither sought or attempted to gain any personal advantage, financial benefit or political compensation from her actions.”
Seems that is the crux of the case. The city clerk appeared to help Waukegan small businesses keep their heads above water at a time when the concerns were ordered shut by Illinois officials as the coronavirus raged across Lake County. Whether they deserved the relief from fees was not a question she needed to address because, if her attorneys are correct, she was not deputy liquor commissioner.
The outcome of Kilkelly’s case should be resolved before April 1. It’s only fair to the clerk and to city voters, who face another too-soon round of balloting early next year.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
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