Breaking: Kendall Democrats slate candidates for county board, clerk

No Democrats filed as candidates for Kendall County races in the March 20 primary, but the county party slated candidates for County Board and county clerk at a meeting Tuesday, May 8.

Robyn Vickers of Oswego will be running for County Board in District 2. There are two seats up for election, and the November ballot includes Republicans Scott Gryder of Oswego, who is currently the County Board chairman, and Dan Koukol of Oswego, who lost his seat on the board two years ago but defeated incumbent Lynn Cullick in the March Republican primary.

Andrew Torres of Oswego will be running for county clerk against incumbent Debbie Gillette, who will be running for her third full term in office. Gillette was elected to a two-year term in 2008 following the retirement of Paul Anderson as county clerk.

Vickers, who has more than 10 years of business development and management experience in the travel management industry, has lived in Oswego for the past 14 years with her husband, Neil, and three kids. Vickers said she has served on three School District 308 committees, including as chair of the Parent Communication Council, and was appointed to the village of Oswego’s Planning and Zoning Commission this year.

Torres lives in Oswego with his fiancé Kristi and two children. An Oswego High School alum, he graduated from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics. He is graduating this spring with an MBA from the University of Illinois. He is employed as a catastrophe claim adjuster.

Amy Cesich of Yorkville, a former County Board member who served a two-year term and lost a bid for re-election in 2014, is running for County Board District 1 after a successful write-in campaign in the March primary. She will be running against Republican incumbents Judy Gilmour of Yorkville and Matthew Prochaska of Bristol, as well as Republican Todd Milliron of Yorkville, for one of the three seats up for election.

Other Democrats are facing Republican incumbents in the November general election, with local party officials hoping that they can ride what national political pundits are predicting to be a “blue wave” of Democratic election victories.

Lauren Underwood of Naperville is opposing incumbent U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Plano; James Leslie of Aurora is opposing incumbent state Rep. Keith Wheeler, R-Oswego; Heidi Henry of Marseilles is opposing incumbent state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris; and Mica Freeman of Plainfield is opposing incumbent state Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield.

Also, Republican Patty Smith of Aurora is taking on incumbent state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego. Incumbent state Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, is so far unopposed in the November general election.

Kendall County Democratic Party Chair Julie Gondar, a Yorkville resident who grew up in Boulder Hill and attended Oswego High School, said the slating is part of the local party’s effort to be more dynamic in local elections than in the past. Gondar has never held elected office and has been involved with the local party for 15 months.

The county party is currently going through a rebranding, and most recently all-new officials were elected – all women: Gondar, Vice Chair Mary Cresto, Secretary Mary Murray and Treasurer Ilaine Jessup.

After moving out of the area, Gondar and her family moved back to Kendall County in 2004. She said she was aware of the traditionally Republican political makeup of the county.

“As a lifelong Dem, I was always looking at the national political scene; I was never involved locally,” she said. “I kind of just assumed everybody was a Republican, and didn’t get off my behind to get involved.”

Gondar said she was disappointed in the November 2016 election results, but wasn’t moved to get involved politically until she saw news coverage of the Women’s March in January 2017. She said she was “moved to tears and I realized that there’s no excuse to not be involved.”

Gondar said she attended her first Kendall County Democrats meeting in February of 2017, where they were discussing forming a women’s group. She volunteered to be its president. After her involvement with that group, she said she talked with Kristina Zahorik, the recently-elected chair of the McHenry County Democrats and a state precinct committeeman, who suggested to Gondar that she run for county party chair.

“I had no plans to do so,” she said. “I didn’t have any political experience, but I did have leadership experience and management experience, and that’s a key piece that I can bring to the table.”

Gondar said people are “coming out of the woodwork” to get involved with the party. She said she wants to keep them involved, and communicate with voters in all of the county’s 84 precincts.

“The key is harnessing their energy and their abilities and directing them to the right role, so they’re hitting on all levels,” she said. “As far as the people who walk through the door, they need to be given a task. I’ve heard over and over again, we can whiteboard ideas all day long, if they aren’t put into action, people are going to quit showing up.”