* Background is here, here and here if you need it. Statement issued late yesterday afternoon by Democratic Party of DuPage County Chair Reid McCollum…

“Democratic values prevailed across Illinois [Tuesday] night, especially in DuPage County. When all the votes are counted, we will likely win 49 of 49 (100%) of the contested partisan township races – 38 of these are outright flips, and 20 against GOP incumbents. […]

The Democratic Party of Illinois invested in important “air support” with mail, digital and text messages.

As the DuPage Dems, we recruited volunteers to mail 80,000 get out the vote postcards, sent over 400,000 text messages and generated 75,000 digital impressions – our first ever significant investments in consolidated elections.

* The Tribune caught up last night with its own story about the suburban carnage…

The GOP also faltered in local Naperville races, where five candidates for the City Council and park board backed by DuPage GOP Chairman Kevin Coyne’s political action committee, Safe Suburbs USA, were headed toward defeat in unofficial returns. Instead, the council and park board candidates heading to victory were backed by Democratic U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Lauren Underwood, both of Naperville.

Two mayors also backed by Coyne’s PAC, Aurora’s Irvin and Lisle Mayor Christopher Pecak, also were defeated.

Coyne said “it was obviously a very disappointing night” and that Republicans faced “a perfect storm” — trying to navigate campaigns in the era of Trump, Pritzker’s spending on Democratic infrastructure and the Democrats’ longtime advantage in delivering mail-in voting, which Trump has criticized and Republicans have been slow to adopt.

“We’re not going to give up. We’re going to continue to look at how we are doing things and work toward rebuilding,” Coyne said. “I think nights like Tuesday night are going to be every election cycle until we narrow that gap” on mail-in voting and get more Republicans registered to permanently receive mail-in ballots.

As subscribers were told earlier this week, that permanent vote by mail program is a built-in Democratic advantage because rank and file Republicans have been shooed away from mailing their ballots.

Also, Chair Coyne’s Safe Suburbs USA’s website was taken offline this week, as were its Facebook and XTwitter accounts.

A very strong point in the article was that these lower-level offices are hugely important if the Republican Party wants to try and rebuild. Unsaid in the piece is that also means Democrats are strengthening their positions down to the ground-level, which is hugely important for longterm stability.

Their biggest problem this year was finding enough candidates to run.

* Speaking of which…

In a truly historic election, a full slate of four Democratic trustee candidates won seats on the Elk Grove Township board Tuesday night (April 1) for the first time, going back to when townships were established in Cook County in the mid-1800s.

Republicans held those trustee seats going back to the time of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.

This year, Democrats won handily. […]

The only candidate running for supervisor was Republican John Scaletta, a former Arlington Heights village trustee.

Also running for reelection and not facing any challenges were Republican Township Assessor Connie Carosielli and Clerk Suellen Satern.

* We have not paid enough attention to Rock Island…

In Tuesday’s election, Ashley Harris became just the second Black person elected mayor of Rock Island since 1849.

The victory was driven by a coalition of Black voters who rallied around Harris, saying their voices weren’t being heard at City Hall.

“To go up against something like that, you can’t buy love,” Harris said. “It takes grassroots and a strong ground game. And, humbly, that’s the campaign I ran.”

Black voters exiting the polls told TV6 Investigates that Jakarta Jackson was on their minds as they cast ballots.

Jackson, a Black man, was shot and killed by a white Rock Island police officer during a traffic stop on Jan. 5. The officer was cleared of wrongdoing.

That triggered a series of protests driven by a grassroots movement in Rock Island’s Black community.

* In the BND last month…

The non-partisan Belleville mayoral race has shaped up to be a contentious battle between two well-known and accomplished women backed by two powerful Democrats in the metro-east.

St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern (D-Belleville) is supporting incumbent Mayor Patty Gregory. He served as the city’s mayor from 1997 to 2004, when he became board chairman.

Illinois State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea) is supporting Gregory’s challenger, City Clerk Jenny Gain Meyer. He has served as a state legislator off and on for nearly 35 years. His district, the 113th, includes Belleville.

And then…

Recently mailed postcards supporting Mayor Patty Gregory and attacking her challenger, City Clerk Jenny Gain Meyer, have Meyer’s supporters arguing that Gregory’s campaign has gone from civil debate and criticism to lies and personal mudslinging.

The postcards referred to Meyer as a “part-time city clerk,” implying that she misses work regularly. They also alleged that she’s affiliated with a political-machine-style Chicago “network.” […]

The committee is financially backed by County Board Chairman Mark Kern (D-Belleville) and his mother, Barbara Kern, Illinois State Board of Elections records show. Each contributed $2,500 to it on Feb. 12.

Kern’s candidate got stomped at the polls…

Belleville City Clerk Jenny Gain Meyer has defeated Mayor Patty Gregory, who became the city’s first female mayor four years ago by successfully challenging a longtime incumbent.

Belleville voters in Tuesday’s consolidated election cast 3,399 ballots (63%) for Meyer, 1,972 (36%) for Gregory and 17 (less than 1%) for write-in candidate Ryan Musick, according to unofficial results released by the office of St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook.

* Back to the suburbs. NBC 5 on the Aurora race…

In an effort to unseat Irvin, the Illinois Democratic Party– led by Gov. JB Pritzker — financially supported Laesch.

“Today, Aurora was beaten by divisive partisan politics,” Irvin said in his concession speech.

Laesch acknowleged an anti-Trump sentiment likely carried him over the finish line, but he also sees his vision as anti-Irvin and pro-ethics reform.

“I think (Irvin and I) both draw from from both political parties because there’s Republicans who are frustrated with some of the big spending, and they like the fact that I oppose some of his some of these sweetheart deals on the council, especially the casino. And there’s, of course, liberals, especially a lot of Black Democrats, who want Richard to stay in power and seek him as a leader in the community,” Laesch said.

Kind of an odd thing to say.

* More…

* Muddy River News | Landslide Linda: Moore downs Troup to become city’s first female mayor: Quincy has elected its first female mayor in the city’s history as former City Treasurer Linda Moore defeated incumbent Mike Troup in Tuesday’s election. … Moore ran on a pledge to have all of the potholes in the city fixed in the first 100 days and Troup said he planned to hold her to that. … Moore is the first mayoral candidate to win while not running on a Republican or Democratic ticket.

* Tribune | Incumbent Vicki Scaman claims victory in contentious Oak Park village president race: After what was an unusually contentious and at times personal battle, incumbent Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman appeared to win a convincing victory over challenger Ravi Parakkat, a member of the Village Board, according to preliminary results from Tuesday’s municipal elections. With results from all 32 precincts reporting, Scaman has received 6,083 votes to Parakkat’s 3,705 votes. This was a significantly bigger margin than Scaman achieved in her first race for village president four years earlier, when Scaman won 56.14% of the vote against progressive activist Cate Readling.

* WCIA TV | Tolono could have first African American Village President: Village Trustee Terrence Stuber could become the first African American Village President in Tolono. He said it’d be an honor to go down in history but that isn’t his goal. Stuber wants to be remembered for creating a welcoming community, building economic success and more.

* Shaw Local | Guerrero will be next Joliet Township supervisor: The results are not official, but [Cesar] Guerrero had almost 64% of the vote with all precincts counted at the end of election night. … Guerrero was the Democratic candidate in a township that overwhelmingly votes for Democrats. But he almost didn’t make it on the ballot because of legitimacy questions related to late payments on fines for past violations of state campaign laws. Had Guerrero not made it, Boisdorf would have had the supervisor spot on the ballot all to himself, providing a surprising opportunity for a Republican in Joliet Township.

* WGLT | Donor says campaign contribution flap in Normal is just ‘gossip’ and that he didn’t know Chris Koos was his cousin: Shepard played an unusual role in the race. Records show the businessman and his wife, Heather, made a $29,200 campaign contribution to the McLean County Republicans. A few weeks later, the Republicans gave $28,000 to Lorenz’s mayoral campaign – money that Lorenz said was from an unnamed donor who wanted to funnel it through a group like the GOP. A pass-through move like that circumvents campaign-finance laws which limit how much a single person can give and require everybody to disclose what they did.

* WQAD TV | Illinois April 1 election: East Moline votes down home rule referendum; Whiteside County passes public safety tax: East Moline residents voted against having ‘home rule’ status. Around two-thirds of votes cast were against the proposition.

* Evanston Now | Biss wins reelection with 62% of vote: The campaign, which began as a cordial disagreement of ideas and vision became marred by accusations of lies and personal attacks as it went on. … Biss faced harsh criticism from some about his possible future political ambitions, his negotiations and ultimate tiebreaking vote on Ryan Field’s rebuild and most recently his advocacy for Envision Evanston 2045 and a new zoning code, which could revamp housing opportunities across the city.

* Daily Herald | District 211 write-in votes appear to fall short, but won’t be counted for two weeks: A pair of late-announced write-in candidates in the previously uncontested Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board of education election appeared to fall short Tuesday. However, the Cook County Clerk’s office won’t even begin to count votes for write-in candidates until after the April 15 deadline for mail ballots to return, Director of Communications Frank Herrera said.

* News-Gazette | Election ‘25 | Patterson says township will look at other options for supporting Strides: Rantoul could soon have a new mayor, Champaign will have five new school board members and the City of Champaign Township needs to come up with a new funding model for its Strides Shelter that doesn’t involve raising property taxes. Those were among the headlines from Champaign County’s consolidated election, after the 18,531st and final vote was tallied around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

* News-Gazette | Hoopeston’s incumbent mayor out, Georgetown’s returning: The city of Hoopeston has elected a new mayor. Newcomer Tracy Carter defeated incumbent Jeff Wise on Tuesday night by a margin of 445-282, or 61.2 to 38.8 percent. … In other Vermilion County communities, the incumbent mayor of Georgetown prevailed in a much closer contest, while current Westville Village Board member Troy Strebin beat out challengers Darin Troglia and Nick Pierce for that village’s top job.

* Shaw Local | Three-way race for Sandwich mayor remains too close to call: Sandwich Mayor Todd Latham, who is seeking a second term, faced two opponents in Tuesday’s election – 4th Ward Alderman Rick Whitecotton, whose term expires in April, and aircraft mechanic Colton Otto. According to unofficial results from DeKalb and Kendall counties, Latham has 455 votes, Whitecotton has 453 votes and Otto has 391 votes.

* Shaw Local | Four newcomers elected to DeKalb school board: State Appellate Prosecutor Nicholas Atwood was the top vote-getter in a crowded race, nabbing 2,134 votes over almost a dozen challengers. Jose Jaques, a retired DeKalb police officer who also served as a District 428’s school resource officer and has worked as a substitute teacher, also earned a seat with 1,846 votes if unofficial results hold. And Kristin Bailey, a communications professional for an agriculture machinery manufacturer who holds bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in English, won the third seat with 1,740 votes.