Woodstock among McHenry County cities, villages with no contests in April election

Michael Turner, a longtime Woodstock City Council member, is already preparing to become mayor after the April 6 election without having to put together an expensive or time-consuming campaign.

With no challenger filed to appear on the ballot, Turner appears set to succeed Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager, who decided not to run for municipal office again after putting his effort into an unsuccessful bid for the state House District 63 seat in the November election. That assumes no write-in candidates decide to throw their hat into the ring.

Not only will there be no mayoral contest on Woodstock’s spring ballot, but with only three candidates filed for the three council seats open in the city, too, the council races also are on track to be uncontested.

“It gives me some additional time to do some planning and some thinking about the work we need to do starting in May,” Turner said of running unopposed.

The McHenry County seat is not alone in featuring uncontested elections for local office this April after the filing deadlines for candidates passed Monday for many area municipalities. Others, like Woodstock, had their candidates file late last month.

“Perhaps the economic difficulties overall, and it being sometimes a difficult climate for people in politics and public service, could contribute to people not necessarily wanting to throw their hat in the ring. I hope that is more unique to 2020, and I don’t think it’s something permanent,” Turner said.

Candidates in other races that so far look uncompetitive also cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential reason some residents who may be qualified for elected office decided to hold back on running this year.

In Island Lake, only two candidates for village trustee filed to appear on the ballot for three vacancies. Plus, Richard McLaughlin, an incumbent trustee, will need to have his seat filled, should he win election as village president, a seat for which he also is running unopposed right now.

Charles Cermak, one of two incumbent Island Lake trustees who filed to run for reelection, has been trying to recruit qualified residents who come in to his barber shop to run as write-in candidates, in order to avoid an appointment of a trustee following the election. To do so, residents of the village would need to file to run as a write-in at least 61 days before the April 6 vote, according to Illinois statute.

“I’ve asked a few of them, said, ‘We need some good people,’” Cermak said. He also said he thinks COVID-19 kept would-be candidates from filing to run.

“I don’t think people have enough time anymore, with kids out of school, teaching from home. I think that has something to do with it, to tell you the truth,” he said.

McLaughlin hopes residents notice positive steps taken by the village in the coming years and are inspired to get involved in the next local election.

“I wish more people would come out to the Village Board meetings so they would really know what’s going on. My main thing is we want to be transparent. We want them to look and see, and hopefully in two years, when new trustees are up, we have a gaggle of candidates come forward,” he said.

Dennis Palys, one of the three candidates running for the three vacant trustee seats in Wonder Lake, said this will be his third unopposed race for village office. He also welcomed more participation and challenging candidates in future elections.

“It wouldn’t hurt. The more people get involved, the better the village is going to be,” Palys said.

Municipal candidates for McHenry County towns with at least 3,000 residents

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this list misspelled Huntley trustee candidate Mary Holzkopf’s name because the Northwest Herald was given incorrect information.

Crystal Lake (mayoral, clerk and three city council seats up for election)

Mayor: acting incumbent Haig Haleblian, Donald E. Kountz, James A. Sisto

Council: incumbent Cameron Hubbard, incumbent Mandy Montford, incumbent Ian Philpot, Robert Brechibel

Lake in the Hills (three village trustee, village president and village clerk seats up for election)

President: Ray Bogdanowski, an incumbent trustee

Trustee: incumbent Stephen Harlfinger, incumbent Bill Dustin, incumbent Robert Huckins, Paul Mulcahy

McHenry (Mayoral, clerk, and 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th aldermanic seats up for election)

Mayor: incumbent Wayne Jett

1st Ward: incumbent Vic Santi, Bobbi Baehne

3rd Ward: incumbent Jeffrey Schaefer, Frank McClatchey

4th Ward: incumbent Ryan Harding, Christine Bassi

5th Ward: Shawn Strach

Clerk: Trisha Ramel

Woodstock (three council seats elected by voters at-large, mayor up for election)

Mayor: Mike Turner

Council: incumbent Gordon Tebo, Thomas Nierman, Robert Seegers Jr.

Algonquin (three village trustee, village president and village clerk seats up for election)

President: incumbent Debby Sosine

Trustee: incumbent Laura Brehmer, incumbent Jerry Glogowski, incumbent Janis Jasper, Bob Smith

Huntley (three village trustee and village president seats up for election)

President: incumbent Charles H. Sass, Timothy J. Hoeft, an incumbent trustee

Trustee: incumbent Ronda S. Goldman, incumbent John M. Piwko, Burt Natkins, Mary Holzkopf, incumbent JR Westberg (Lisa Arvanites withdrew her petition filed last week)

Cary (three village trustee, mayoral seats up for election)

Mayor: incumbent Mark R. Kownick

Trustee: incumbent Jeffery C. Kraus, incumbent Jennifer Weinhammer, Rick Walrath, Duane R. Dudek

Harvard (Mayoral, city clerk and multiple aldermanic seats up for election)

Mayor: incumbent Michael P. Kelly

1st Ward: incumbent Jay Schulz

2nd Ward: incumbent Daniel Carncross

3rd Ward: incumbent Charles Gorman

4th Ward: incumbent Matthew A. Perkins

Clerk: incumbent Lori A. Moller

Marengo (Mayoral, city clerk and 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ward aldermanic seats up for election)

Mayor: incumbent John Koziol, James Edward Regelin

1st Ward: incumbent Nicole K. DeBoer

2nd Ward: incumbent Steven G. Mortensen

3rd Ward: incumbent Matt Keenum, incumbent Darin Mobley

4th Ward: incumbent Michael A. Proffitt

Johnsburg (three village trustee and village president seats up for election)

President: incumbent Ed Hettermann

Trustee: incumbent Gregory A. Klemstein, incumbent Joshua C. Hagen and James Barrett

Spring Grove (three village trustee and village president seats up for election)

President: incumbent Mark R. Eisenberg, Brandel Wicinski

Trustee: incumbent Patrick J. Mazzanti, incumbent Bob McMahon and Thomas Sanders

Island Lake (mayoral, three village trustee and village clerk seats up for election)

Mayor: Richard McLaughlin, an incumbent trustee

Trustee: incumbent Charles Cermak, incumbent Daniel Powell

Clerk: incumbent Georgine S. Cooper

Fox River Grove (four village trustee and village president seats up for election)

President: Marc McLaughlin, an incumbent trustee

Trustee: incumbent Melissa Schladt, incumbent Andrew Migdal, incumbent Jacob Fleischmann, Steven Knar, Sheryl Sepeczi, Stephen Miller

Lakewood (three village trustee and village president seats up for election)

President: incumbent Phil Stephan, David Stavropoulos

Trustee: incumbent Pamela Eddy, incumbent Dan Alexander, April Runge, Michael Fischer William Wayne, Tricia Babischkin

Wonder Lake (three village trustee seats up for election)

Trustee: incumbent Dennis J. Palys, incumbent Fred Learman, Richard A. Hilton

School board candidacy filings received by McHenry County Clerk’s Office

Johnsburg School District 12: Steve Link, Cathy B. Neiss, James Barrett, Thomas J. Oeffling, Kirk Donald, Fred Haller

Huntley School District 158: Dana Dalton-Wiley, Susan Hochmuth, Laura Murray, Lesli Melendy, Paul A. Troy, Sean Cratty, Katherine (Kate) Policheri, Lisa Arvanites, Anthony R. Quagliano, Tara Masino

Alden Hebron School District 19: Andy Madsen, Penny Smith, Matt Misiek, Brandon Berg, Ricky A. Madsen Jr., Johnny Eskridge

Woodstock School District 200: Jacob Homuth, Carl W. Gilmore, Bruce Farris, John D. Parisi

Harvard School District 50: Melinda L. Shafer, Kristina Dawn Duber, Todd Ernest Ramberg

McHenry Elementary School District 15: Lindsay Morley, Chad Mihevc, Patrick J. DeGeorge, Rachel McDonnell, Jennifer L. Synek

McHenry High School District 156: Amanda A. Lobbins, Pat Arnold, Ronald Fischer, Gary Kinshofer, Timothy Hying (Hying is running for a two-year term)

Nippersink Elementary School District 2: Joel Johnson, Carl Uphoff, Elke Kleisch, Robin S. Taylor

Richmond-Burton High School District 157: Theresa Highley, Joseph Keim

Fox River Grove Elementary School District 3: David Gutierrez, Tracy Klein

Cary School District 26: Anne Santucci, Melinda Hartman, Anthony W. Stefani, Stacey Sault, Julie Jette

Harrison School District 36: Linda Amettis, Frank J. Cermak III, Angela A. Hartfield

Prairie Grove School District 46: Steven W. Sebastian

Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47: Betsy Les, Jonathan Powell, Emily R. Smith, Tim Mahaffy, Debra Barton, Daniel Palombit, Cascia L. Talbert

Crystal Lake High School District 155: David Secrest Nicole M. Pavoris, Jason Blake, Ronald P. Ludwig

Riley School District 18: Evan P. Maniates, Joshua R. Koelper, Rick Nordmeyer

Marengo Union Elementary School District 165: Gregory Wright, Nicole L. Misiura, Richard Czepczynski

Marengo High School District 154: Linda J. Dujmovich, Jodie Kanaly, Todd Volkening, David Schultz

McHenry County Regional Board of Schools: Karen Tirio