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* Capitol News Illinois earlier this month…

Though municipal and school board races in Illinois are nonpartisan, voters may see many of the same political themes that were hallmarks of races during the 2024 presidential election cycle. The Democratic Party of Illinois is applying many of the same tactics it uses in partisan elections to this year’s local races.

“We as the Democratic Party of Illinois should be defending Democratic values in every single election in nonpartisan and partisan elections alike, because all of these local offices have jurisdiction over super critical controls and we think our party has the best platform for governance,” Democratic Party of Illinois Executive Director Ben Hardin said.

The 2025 local elections are the second time that Illinois Democrats are getting involved in nonpartisan races. After recruiting more than 1,000 prospective candidates last year, the state party is supporting 270 candidates for a variety of local offices in all areas of the state.

The party trained the candidates and attached them to “coaches” experienced in running Democratic campaigns. Candidates will also be supported by a six-figure advertising campaign by DPI in the coming weeks.

* WGLT today…

Normal mayoral candidate Kathleen Lorenz faced criticism Sunday from one of her two opponents after accepting a $28,000 campaign contribution from the McLean County Republicans that she said was really a pass-through contribution from a specific donor.

Lorenz told WGLT late Saturday that she coordinated with the donor to route the money through the McLean County Republicans, which was at the donor’s request. Lorenz said the “ridiculous amount of money” was critical to paying for three weeks of advertising during the homestretch of the campaign. She said that advertising gave her a better chance to win against a favored incumbent.

Lorenz would not identify the donor, but she confirmed that the $28,000 she received from the McLean County Republicans last week came from him. The election is Tuesday.

Typically, an individual is capped at $7,300 in contributions to a candidate campaign committee like Lorenz’s, based on state contribution limits. However, individuals can give larger sums to political party committees like the McLean County Republicans, and there is no limit to how much political party committees can give to candidate campaign committees.

* More from WGLT…

[I]n a Facebook post Saturday, [incumbent Chris Koos’] campaign said, “the McLean County GOP is trying to buy this race.”

“So it’s worth saying again: Mayor is a nonpartisan position. And our community deserves a leader like Mayor Koos who puts people over politics,” Koos’ campaign wrote. […]

Koos, meanwhile, picked up endorsements from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and former Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger in the last few days.

Bloomington and Normal mayoral and council elections are technically nonpartisan, although both McLean County Republicans and Democrats have endorsed candidates anyway. Again, Lorenz disputed that what the local GOP has done constitutes an endorsement.

* Daily Herald…

The McHenry County Democratic Party is promoting candidates in more than 90 local races this cycle. Democratic township organizations in the Wheeling, Elk Grove and Mundelein areas are among those pushing their preferred candidates, too.

In Naperville, Democratic U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood and Bill Foster are actively campaigning for city council candidates Benny White, Mary Gibson, Ian Holzhauer and Ashfaq Syed and park district hopefuls Rhonda Ansier, Leslie Ruffing, Alison Thompson and Aishwarya Balakrihna. […]

DuPage County Republican Party Chair Kevin Coyne responded on social media by endorsing Naperville City Council candidates Derek McDaniel, Jennifer Taylor and Meghna Bansal.

Coyne’s activity this cycle doesn’t end there. Although not strictly a partisan organization, the Safe Suburbs USA political action committee he founded and leads has endorsed dozens of suburban candidates.

* The Question: Should local elections remain “non-partisan”? Make sure to explain you answer.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:06 pm

Comments

=Should local elections remain “non-partisan”=

Absolutely yes—we need candidates who care about the office, such as the village, school, or library board. Keep the partisans out—they bring the baggage of adhering to a national or state platform, and many are simply resume padding to run for higher office.

Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:12 pm
The concept of non-partisan elections is a joke. This is true whether you’re talking Mayor of Chicago, Supreme Court justices, or local dog catcher. Everyone will still line up behind their preferred candidate, and it will still be along party lines, but everyone is going to play make believe and pretend it isn’t.

What I’d rather see is ranked choice elections, rather than primary or run off set ups. Partisans can still be openly partisan (instead of pretending not to be), but won’t cause cannibalization between people who are slightly different flavors of the same ideology. The results should better reflect the aggregate desires of the electorate.

Comment by Homebody Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:31 pm
Schools and villages, yes. It’s hard enough to get people, good people, to run for office. And these offices are generally extremely low paid or unpaid (as they should be). If you aren’t running and getting a paycheck, that means you need a paycheck from somewhere else. It’s much easier to have a job where people you are selling to don’t learn who you are via a D or R label and apply their personal opinions of those labels to you. Keeping a national label off individuals who are seeking essentially volunteer positions is a good way to get good people to run.

Comment by Save Ferris Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:35 pm
===after accepting a $28,000 campaign contribution from the McLean County Republicans that she said was really a pass-through contribution from a specific donor===

The only person who appears to have donated that much is Heather Hall Shepard, who lives in Lakewood Ranch, FL. She’s the daughter of former state Sen. Harber Hall. https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/03/15/jones-petrilli-interested-in-challenging/1522098007/

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:36 pm
We should get rid of “nonpartisan” elections in Illinois, move to a rank-choice voting system, and move the date to coincide with primaries or the general election so more people go out and vote.

Comment by Stopped by a train in Franklin Park Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:42 pm
Springfield is great example of partisan “non-partisan” elections.

The worst kept secret in Springfield are which city council candidates are backed by the local parties.

Good ole boy Chuck Redpath has used the system to win with the backing of the Dems when he called himself a Dem and part of the Tim Davlin crew, then he won as Republican with the backing of the GOP when he moved to a Republican leaning ward.

The Sangamon County GOP has always used those “non-partisan” elected positions as their farm team.

Comment by Give Me A Break Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:44 pm
“Non-partisan” elections have always been nonsensical to me. If someone wants to run as an independent, by all means do so, but I don’t think there should be a prohibition against actual political party identifications being listed as that’s meaningful information to have for candidates that otherwise might be hard to research. Plus, maybe it makes sense for assorted towns and counties to have their own localized third parties akin to Cincinnati having a Charter Party that’s locally extremely relevant.

Having non-partisan be the default just lets obvious pushers of particular party agendas to try to sneak in.

Comment by TJ Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:44 pm
=after accepting a $28,000 campaign contribution from the McLean County Republicans=

Koos has been cashing big union/Dem checks the past few weeks..

$1,000 Plumbers, $2,500 Laborers, $5,000 Laborers North Central PAC, $5000 Luna/AFLCIO, $1000 Prairie PAC (Durbin), $3000 Jeffrey Tinervin ( dem super donner)

Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:52 pm
“Should local elections remain ‘non-partisan’?”

Political parties are a tool that allows voters to easily determine which candidate most closely aligns with their attitudes, values and beliefs.

I want more citizens to vote, and for them to know what kind of person they are voting for, so I would welcome the end of “non-partisan” elections.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 12:55 pm
I hope we keep them non-partisan. That last thing any of us need are more partisan politics.

Comment by James Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:00 pm
I favor keeping them non-partisan. I am more concerned with big Citizens United money interference in the other parties primary. Senator Adam Schiff in California spent more money selecting his Republican opponent than on his own election. Governor Pritzker has done the same using the Democrats National Governor’s Association as a conduit. When you are selecting your opposition it is not democracy but an oligarchy.

Comment by Jack in Chatham Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:01 pm
While local issues usually have next to nothing to do with national politics, we’re at a place now where I think I can fairly ascertain enough about someone based on which party they identify with.

This past weekend, as I left the gym in Highland Park, a candidate for local office was campaigning outside. He handed me some literature which I browsed before asking him a question that would wholly determine whether or not I would ever consider supporting him:

“Who did you vote for in the most recent presidential election.”

He declined to answer. Cowards need not apply.

I sadly answer no.

Comment by AlfondoGonz Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:07 pm
== Senator Adam Schiff in California spent more money selecting his Republican opponent than on his own election==

That was a nonpartisan blanket primary.

Regrettably, “partisanship” has become integrated into too many facets of our everyday lives. Taking it out of our elections is one of the last places I would be looking to remove it from.

Comment by Henry Francis Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:08 pm
= Jeffrey Tinervin ( dem super donner)=

My bad Tinervin is mostly a GOP donor

Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:19 pm
Non-partisan elections:
No such thing. We can tell ourselves the big lie, but it changes nothing. All Illinois elections are partisan, or they are now. We should take off the blindfolds now and have a look.

How would change to partisan local elections work? Could it be done without having to have primary elections?

Comment by We've never had one before Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:21 pm
Agree with Homebody and the others that the so called non partisan races are/ have been a fig leaf forever. I also think ranked choice is something to try out for these lower tier races.

I used to think in a non- partisan way about these offices, preferring to pick based on how well I thought the candidate would do the job, but the desperate times we live in now have caused me to become unapologetic about rejecting GOP candidates at every level, because of their support of Trump and authoritarianism. There are no “Eisenhower Republicans” left, only cult members, and we can’t afford to elect a single new one of those, not even for dog catcher. Every new abuse at the federal level just radicalizes me more and more. I will never vote for another republican in my lifetime.

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:23 pm
===$3000 Jeffrey Tinervin===

He is one of the biggest apartment building owners in Normal. He’s made bank on the backs of students for generations.

Sadly, too few ISU students bother vote in local elections. Or maybe that’s changed. If it has, highlighting Tinervin’s donations to the incumbent Mayor could be a good issue for the opposition. Unless students enjoy being exploited, in that case, Koos is your guy.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:25 pm
@Jack in Chatham: The voters selected the candidates. Schiff and Pritzker have spent money promoting other candidates, but if elements of the Republican party weren’t so gung ho on purity tests that they favor candidates who stand little chance of winning a general election, it wouldn’t work.

Comment by Socially DIstant Watcher Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:27 pm
I believe they should remain non-partisan for a host of reasons including “just look at what partisanship has done since over the past 15 years?”

Indeed, I believe most local elections need to be better regulated so as to prevent the obfuscation of local interests by political action committees and party politics.

Partisan solutions for local issues rarely address the issues, much less their causal factors. By way of example, “Tough on Crime” does not address the nature of criminal activity in a specific community. Instead, it assumes all criminals are the same, and incarceration is the effective solution. It is not. Incarceration has never worked in the context of reducing crime or in re-socializaing criminals. More important, “Tough on Crime” does not explain why crime rates vary across communities, nor explain why teens and young adults commit crimes.

Partisan politics simply does not apply to the realities of localities with the possible exceptions of the extremely rural areas and the extremely urban communities. Partisan politics rarely apply to the middle, where the vast majority of us live in communities that exist in a real world of diverse and localistic interests and unique needs. At the local level, we need local expertise, not national pontifications.

Comment by H-W Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:34 pm
There is no such thing as a non-partisan election anymore and has existed in name only for quite some time. The Republican party no longer exists as far as I’m concerned. It’s been replaced by MAGA. Frankly, I want to know if someone identifies with the Republican/MAGA party so that I can vote for anybody else.

Comment by Manchester Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:37 pm
I don’t think so, because partisan affiliation is valuable information for voters. If you know what party a politician belongs to, you largely know what they’re going to do in office.

That being said, if we’re talking about a dramatic change to how these races are run anyway, then it needs to be easier for third parties or independents to get on these ballots to sort of counterbalance the advantage that the big two parties have.

Comment by Arsenal Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:39 pm
On all except judicial, sure.

Comment by Alton Sinkhole Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:40 pm
Time to end another Illinois fantasy by doing away with the non-partisan label entirely. Only those wishing to be fooled are by the non-partisan status.

Comment by thisjustinagain Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 1:53 pm
I would prefer to see municipal and other local races stay nonpartisan because it keeps the focus on problem solving. The more partisan nature of these races is a break from the past, when most voters were turned off by party politics.

Orland Park is instructive. For more than 20 years Dan McLaughlin, a Democrat, was mayor and he went out of his way to maintain a nonpartisan feel, largely because it was not advantageous in a Republican-leaning town to remind people he was a Dem. He was defeated by the current mayor, Keith Pekau, a Republican, who has gone out of his way to inject partisan politics into village politics — from very publicly criticizing Pritzker over pandemic closure and the Safe-T Act, to reveling in verbal clashes with the town’s growing Arab population. His opponent tomorrow is also a Republican, but he is taking a much less partisan approach to campaigning, which has won him the support of McLaughlin, the unions, and some in the Arab community. It will be interesting to see which tactic works.

Comment by CNA Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 2:17 pm
Many municipalities have partisan elections unless the voters of that city/village through referendum decided their city councils/village boards are elected in “nonpartisan” elections.

Cities like Aurora, Naperville, Elgin, Crystal Lake and Woodstock opted to do this over the years.

Many villages issue “Independent” petitions and why these villages have candidates with word “Independent” next to their names. Candidates file on the petition forms for “independent” candidates, and no partisan candidates listed on ballot.

10 years ago, the village of Oswego in Kendall County started changing from all-candidates-run-as-independents to running as Republicans & Democrats.

This year and 2 years ago, Republicans had to have a municipal primary because more Republicans filed for the same offices.

Oswego has Republicans and Democrats listed on the ballot. Two years ago, Democrats swept the Consolidated election.

Is this the best way to go? Sure, given voter turnout could increase out of party loyalty.

But for a municipal that switched in recent past, Oswego is it.

It should be noted the village of Skokie switched to nonpartisan village board elections this year through referendum in 2022 and the city of Evanston switched to nonpartisan city council elections by referendum in 2020.

Comment by John Lopez Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 2:41 pm
=He’s made bank on the backs of students for generations=

Is that Young America Reality? I was writing checks to them back in the mid-1980s

Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 2:46 pm
100% in favor of non-partisan elections with top-4 ranked choice voting. But I still want to keep the D and R labels out of the municipals.

Comment by Save Ferris Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 2:49 pm
@Donnie Elgin - And Kathleen Lorenz also got 4 figures from the realtors pac, plumbers & pipefitters union, and operating engineers union. What is your point bringing up Koos’s donors if Koos is not denying their support or using pass-through entities to get around campaign donation limits?

The issue is Lorenz being shady in who her financial supporters are and what viewpoint she aligns with when taking money from McLean County GOP yet claiming they don’t support her.

To Rich’s question, I am fine with us continuing with nominally non-partisan elections for mayoral races but find there is a bit of a disconnect when we have these supposedly non-partisan mayoral contests going in the same municipal elections as the explicitly partisan township supervisor races. What is the point of having those partisan but not mayoral/council contests?

Comment by hisgirlfriday Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 3:17 pm
The era of Pres. Felon from the moment he came down the golden escalator has ended any hope of anything being non-artisan.

Comment by old guy Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 3:32 pm
Agree 100% with MrJM at 12:55.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 5:19 pm
That was me at 5:19

Comment by Lincoln Lad Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 5:20 pm
Non partisan is better. Don’t apply your perception to everyone else.
I have served 20 years or 5 terms as a school board member. I have no idea how my fellow board members lean wether R or D and it works just fine that way. I might have suspicions but it doesn’t matter if we remain focused on our role.
Nothing to gain and I wouldn’t even run if I had to declare a party.

Because partisan politics works so well everywhere else?

Comment by Tequila Mockingbird Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 6:51 pm
Schaumburg voted to go nonpartisan in the 80s.It has worked well.

Comment by anon2 Monday, Mar 31, 25 @ 9:15 pm