May 21, 2024
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GOP to challenge Will County Democrats stronghold across countywide offices

2024 ballot also will include 3 Will County Board districts

By Bob Okon
Will County candidates for countywide, county board and precinct committee offices lined up at the Will County Clerk's Office in Joliet to file petitions on Nov. 27, the first day to file for the 2024 elections, Monday was the last day to file. Nov 27, 2023.

Will County candidates for countywide, county board and precinct committee offices lined up to file petitions on Nov. 27, the first day to file for the 2024 elections. Monday was the last day to file. (Bob Okon)

Republicans will challenge incumbent Democrats in Will County for four of the six countywide races that will be on the 2024 ballot, including a race for county executive.

The ballot also will include three Will County Board districts, all of which will be competitive.

The deadline to file petitions to run for county offices was 5 p.m. Monday.

Democrats hold all six of the countywide offices that will be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Positions up for election include county executive, where incumbent Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant will face a challenge from Charles “Chuck” Maher of Naperville. Maher was a county board member from 2002 to 2018.

States Attorney James Glasgow will not be challenged by a candidate from within his party or by a Republican as he seeks reelection.

There will be no party primary contests in any of the countywide offices.

A mail ballot drop box sits outside the Will County Office Building in Downtown Joliet.

A mail ballot drop box sits outside the Will County Office Building in downtown Joliet. (Gary Middendorf/Gary Middendorf)

Democrats will have primary contests in the two county board districts that include Joliet.

Other countywide offices on the ballot will be coroner, recorder of deeds, auditor and circuit clerk.

Coroner Laurie Summers will run against Robert Enright, a Republican now serving as tax collector in Plainfield Township.

Recorder of Deeds Karen Stukel will face Raquel Mitchell, a county board member from Bolingbrook now representing District 9.

Auditor Kevin “Duffy” Blackburn will run for reelection against James Buiter of Crete.

Circuit Clerk Andrea Lynn Chasteen does not face opposition.

All county board seats on the ballot will be challenged as voters elect representatives Districts 6, 7 and 10. Two representatives are elected from each district, and each party can put two candidates on the ballot.

Will County Board Meeting on Thursday, May 19th. Thursday, May 19 2022, in Joliet.

Will County Board members are seen at a meeting last year. (Gary Middendorf/Gary Middendorf)

Democrats will have primary contests in District 6 and 7, where three Democrats have filed petitions to run in each district.

The primary election is March 19.

In District 6, which is mainly in Joliet, Herbert Brooks Jr. will try to regain the seat he lost in 2022 when a petition challenge knocked him off the ballot. Incumbent Democrats Denise Winfrey and Janet Diaz are seeking reelection.

One Republican, Enrique Ruiz, is running in District 6.

In Distrtict 7, which includes large sections of Joliet’s West Side and Plainfield, three Democrats also will be seeking the two positions that will be on the ballot in November. They are Dawn Bullock, David Lozano and Demmond Dorris.

Incumbent District 7 Board Member Natalie Coleman, a Plainfield Democrat, did not file to run for reelection.

Incumbent District 7 Board Member Vince Logan, a Republican from Joliet, is seeking reelection. Republican Elizabeth Naglich also filed to run as a Republican in the district.

In District 10 on the northeast end of the county, incumbents Julie Berkowicz, R-Naperville and Meta Mueller, D-Aurora, are seeking reelection. Also running in District 10 are Kelly Hickey, a Democrat, and David J. Scriven-Young, a Republican.