Kane County incumbent Roth seeks 2nd term, faces primary contest with Geen

ST. CHARLES – Kane County Board member Bill Roth, R-St. Charles, who is seeking a second term, is being challenged by Michelle Geen in the March 19 primary for the Republican nomination for District 12.

Roth, a retired IT director, was elected in 2022.

All even-numbered district seats are up for election. After the 2020 census redistricting in which all 24 seats were up for election, even and odd numbers are up in staggered years.

Geen is a hairdresser who previously worked doing hair for Hollywood movies. She owns a salon in Geneva, a hotel reservation company and a septic company.

“I’m running on my record,” Roth said. “I retired the day after the election so I could devote as much time as I need to the county. Two years ago, I ran, trying to bring ‘normal’ back into politics. I’m doing that.”

Roth volunteers on the board for the Air Classics Aviation Museum at the Aurora Airport near Sugar Grove and is the past Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus at St. John Neumann and St. Patrick’s Catholic churches in St. Charles.

Geen said Campton Hills residents Michelle and Larry Bettag, women in her Bible study and her neighbors asked her to run.

“It was never an aspiration of mine,” Geen said of her first foray into seeking office.

“Through the years, I got a lot of experience with both sides of the parties,” Geen said. “The unions in the movie business were Democrats. And the more conservative Republicans were in the suburbs and among entrepreneurial people. I listen to my customers. I hope to be listening to my constituents.”

Reducing taxes, spending

Geen’s platform is smaller government and taxes.

“If people don’t have money, they don’t have the freedom to do things they want to do,” Geen said. “I have no motive to run. I just want to help my community and answer the call. I’ve been asked to do this. ... I am not a politician. My yes is yes and my no is no.”

At barely 18 months on the job, Roth said he has spoken to each individual member of the county board and started meeting with each department head so he could hear about their issues firsthand.

Roth said he was a finance major in college and wrote the first financial budget system for Sears when he worked for the company.

“It’s critical that we understand our budget,” Roth said. “The county is addicted like cocaine – spend, spend, spend.”

Health department

Geen does not support moving the Aurora facility and building a new $39 million health department facility, of which $18 million would be from remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“There is a man in the health industry. I do his hair and he lives in Geneva. He said there’s really no need,” Geen said of the effort to build a new facility.

Geen also is against using federal funds for a local project.

“That’s borrowed printed money that we the taxpayers pay the interest on,” Geen said in a text message regarding the ARPA funds. “The surplus is not for investing. The majority of people don’t want it.”

Roth said the county could create a new health department in a portion of the building where the circuit clerk’s office and branch court are located on Randall Road in St. Charles. The county already owns the land.

“A third of that building is for storage of voting equipment. We could move that to a secure warehouse and redevelop that space for the health department,” Roth said. “Maybe we could spend less and do a phased approach.”

The board majority voted to delay a decision on a new health department.

New government center

One issue for Roth is the cost of building a new government center at $100 million.

Roth does not dispute that something is needed other than the former seminary site, located at 719 Batavia Ave., Geneva, a T-intersection where the Third Street shopping district ends at Route 31 with the government center across the street.

“We should sell that location, take the money and run. It’s prime real estate,” Roth said.

“There are better gas station bathrooms than in Building A. One bathroom on the third floor has the original bathtub. There’s lead in the building, asbestos, no sprinklers and the bathrooms are not nice. Let someone else deal with it.”

The county should look at the Fabyan Parkway property that it still owns, about 70 acres that already has fiber and an entrance, Roth said.

“We should put all public-facing departments together. People can never find the assessor. He’s in Building C,” Roth said.

In a text message, Geen said she has said all she has to say and that Roth is on the board and has access to inside information.

Anti-Roth literature

Geen’s campaign literature has a photo of Roth with a red circle and slash through it stating, “Conservative citizens against Bill Roth” and asserts, “He is not a conservative.”

Her campaign literature makes assertions about Roth’s voting record.

But when she was asked for more details, Geen said she didn’t know anything about his voting record or what was printed on her material, that it was provided by volunteers and she was just “door knocking and putting it out.”

“Friends of my campaign, they researched his voting record. I had nothing to do with that,” Geen said.

“People who voted for him in the past were upset with his voting record. I was just given those [the literature],” Geen said. “I have no idea who made them. I have nothing to do with that. It’s not anything I paid for or funded. I never even heard of Bill Roth until November last year. I only moved here [District 12] three years ago. I’m very, very, very new, completely on a learning curve.”

Although Geen said she did not have a campaign committee filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections, according to her literature, it’s “Paid for by Friends for Michelle Geen for Kane County Committee.”

No committee supporting Geen is listed on the ISBE website, but her literature also states that a copy of her report will be available.

According to the ISBE website, election law requires candidates, groups or individuals who raise or spend more than $5,000 in any 12-month period to support or oppose a candidate or public policy question that they generally must file paperwork to create a political committee. Once filed, committees must file periodic financial disclosure reports on money raised and spent.

More information about Roth is available at rothforkane.com.

More information about Geen is available on Facebook.