Tuesday’s primary election in DuPage is home to relatively few contested races, with most of them being on the Democratic side. There is not a single contested office on the Republican ballot for countywide positions, county board, forest preserve board, and judicial races, while Donald Trump is already the presumptive Presidential nominee. I expect more voters to select a D ballot than an R ballot for this reason. Many Democratic voters in DuPage used to vote in the Republican primary since it was much more relevant, and due to an open primary system in Illinois with a lack of party registration. I might expect some normally Republican voters to vote strategically in the Democratic primary.
DuPage’s fast shift to the Democratic party on the local level has become increasingly obvious in the past few years as down ballot candidates have won races in all areas of the county. Gone are the days when Republican candidates for county office were regularly getting 70-80%+ of the vote in many pockets of the county (now it’s just a few select areas, like parts of Hinsdale).
Some areas of the county are becoming very difficult for Republicans to win, even at the local level. County board District 5 in the southwestern part of the county, comprised mostly of Aurora/Naperville (and where Biden won every precinct and got over 60% of the vote), has typically been one of the bluer areas of the county, and in recent years has had relatively large Democratic wins down ballot. Democratic Forest Preserve Commissioner Barb O’Meara was re-elected with over 60% in 2022, which is a relative landslide for a county Democratic candidate. Chuck Roberts, who is running in the Democratic primary for circuit judge in the Naperville area, has been accused by local Democrats of being a longtime Republican who switched parties for non-ideological reasons (to be clear, I believe there are many people who have switched parties for completely genuine reasons). In an email attributed to Roberts that was posted on several local Democratic public social media pages in June 2023, he stated his reason for running as a Democrat as simply being that the “demographics of sub(circuit) 2 are such that it would be virtually impossible for a Republican to prevail.” Roberts is right.
Recorder Democratic Primary
While Roberts’ case is a pretty clear logistical reality, the situation seems more complicated with the most prominent party-switcher in this election: former Elmhurst Mayor and Republican County Board Member Pete DiCianni, who filed as a Democrat for Recorder. The Recorder Democratic primary is probably the most interesting race on the ballot, with three high-profile candidates running: DiCianni, County Board member Liz Chaplin, and incumbent Recorder Kathleen Carrier.
Liz Chaplin, who was first elected to the county board in 2012, has a strong base of endorsements from many of her county board colleagues and other elected officials. She also notably received a $200 “inkind” contribution from DuPage Democrats Chairman Ken Mejia-Beal’s campaign committee in October 2023. She is running as a reform candidate and criticized Carrier for not sufficiently engaging with the public, which Carrier has pushed back on (If you are interested in the policy discussion, I suggest watching the full endorsement interview posted by the Daily Herald, which is the only forum to my knowledge that has featured all three Democratic candidates). There are definitely some elements of factional rivalries at play within the Democratic party between these two candidates, relating to past disagreements over primary candidates. Some Dem politicos may be frustrated with Carrier for supporting then-Congresswoman Marie Newman in her 2022 primary battle against Congressman Sean Casten after redistricting. Casten has a very strong base of support in DuPage County (winning about 85% of the vote against Newman). Casten endorsed Chaplin early on in the campaign, and Newman donated to Carrier in September 2023 (also posting an official endorsement on Twitter today).
DiCianni has faced heavy criticism in the past from both parties. Democrats were particularly frustrated by and took note of his confrontations with protesters in 2020, which led to him being criticized by Board Chairman Dan Cronin and resigning his committee chairmanship. He also made a lot of enemies in the highly contentious GOP County Board Chairman in 2022, which ended up with him endorsing Democratic nominee Deb Conroy after Greg Hart won the nomination (Conroy has endorsed Carrier in the Recorder’s primary this year). David Giuliani stated in a July 2020 Elmhurst Patch article that “perhaps DiCianni’s biggest quarrels these days are with his fellow Republicans”.
DiCianni says “the Republican Party has totally abandoned a lot of moderates like myself” when citing his reasons for leaving the GOP (at 1:07:38), and said he knew his time as a Republican politician was over when he endorsed his friend Deb Conroy. Despite this explanation, DiCianni has not received a welcoming response from Democratic campaign volunteers. The DuPage Democrats issued a statement of “no confidence” in his candidacy, and he was not invited to a candidate forum hosted by the Bloomingdale Township Democrats. Former DuPage Democrats Chairman Bob Peickert wrote a letter to the Daily Herald endorsing Carrier in which he asserted that DiCianni “has never attended a Democratic Township meeting, never served as a precinct committeeman and never donated to the Democratic Party.”
Throughout this election, I have increasingly wondered whether or not DiCianni has a chance of winning the primary with zero institutional support from local Democrats. I think the answer is a clear “maybe”; without any polling it’s hard to exactly tell what the situation is, but DiCianni has several things going for him. Most importantly is that local Democrats are split between Carrier and Chaplin; DiCianni would have virtually no chance if the DuPage Dems were proactively supporting one candidate. One major development in the race was when former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White rescinded his endorsement of DiCianni in late February; however, tons of DiCianni mailers featuring the endorsement from ultra-popular White had already been sent out.
DiCianni’s campaign has been quiet on social media, but has certainly spent a lot of money on mailers and yard signs. He has raised over $45,000 so far according to Illinois Sunshine, although his expenditure information is not yet available. His messaging is certainly very interesting: in a mailer I received, he criticized Carrier for having received a large amount of money connected to Mike Madigan. That’s a bit of a moot point, considering that he’s referring to the huge funding Carrier received from the State Democratic Party in 2018, when she was the Democratic nominee for a highly competitive State House seat. Carrier still has over $94,000 cash on hand, with most of it having been contributed for her 2018 campaign. She hasn’t reported many expenditures in this campaign yet. Chaplin lags far behind the other two candidates in funds, with about $5700 cash on hand (as of the last campaign finance report). Chaplin said in the Daily Herald endorsement interview that she is running a strong door-knocking campaign, and accused Carrier of failing to do so. Chaplin said (at 1:03:47 in the video) that “there are two candidates in this race who are running campaigns, and it’s Pete and myself. For Kathy, for being the incumbent, she is not fighting for this seat” (Chaplin also stated that DiCianni is doing a “lot of mailings”).
It’s extremely hard to predict this race. Carrier has the advantage of incumbency and the (somewhat influential) Daily Herald endorsement. Chaplin has more public endorsements from elected officials than Carrier, has a disadvantage in fundraising. DiCianni may truly be able to cobble together a interesting coalition: Republicans who know of him and choose to pull a D ballot, Democrats who know of him and like him despite his party status (likely a small group even in his former county board district), and voters who don’t know about his past history. I can see any of the three candidates winning.
Other Races
There are almost no contested races on the Republican ballot (a full list of the candidates in both parties can be found at the election results page). Most Democratic judicial positions on the ballot are contested. Chantelle Porter (Subcircuit 1), Jennifer Barron (Subcircuit 2), and Leah Setzen (Subcircuit 3) seem to be supporting each other and have locked up the majority of support from Democratic volunteers. The three incumbent Appellate Judges on the ballot (Joe Hettel, Linda Davenport, and Lance Peterson) are running a joint campaign. Only Hettel faces an opponent, Will County Judge John Anderson. I suspect that Anderson will receive his strongest support in Will County. Hettel’s campaign has a stronger presence in DuPage County (though I’m not making any predictions about the numbers), and he also likely has high name recognition/support in his home county of LaSalle, where he was previously elected State’s Attorney. The race between Anderson and Hettel has gotten somewhat negative between Democratic volunteers, even though both are highly rated by the bar association and have a long list of Democratic Party ties.
Two Democrats are running for Coroner: Jeff Jacobson, an attorney who has previously ran for Judge, and Judith Lukas, a nurse and Winfield Township Trustee. Jacobson has a Daily Herald endorsement and some name recognition from previous countywide campaigns. This has been a somewhat low-information and low-key race; I wouldn’t be surprised by any result.
District 4 County Board Member Lynn LaPlante faces a challenge from Christine Maes, a Glenside Library District trustee. Maes has not made much of a splash; she has no fundraising committee and gave vague answers during a Daily Herald endorsement interview. Bloomingdale Township Democrats chairman Terrell Barnes, who has had political differences with LaPlante, is supporting Maes’ candidacy. The Bloomingdale Township Dems made an interesting “statement of support” for Maes, not explicitly endorsing her but supporting her “right to be a candidate”. Deb Conroy came out in support of LaPlante. Overall, it’s hard to see LaPlante losing.
Conclusion
I will be especially watching the results of the Recorder primary. It’s hard to tell if DiCianni will be a competing candidate, or a total flop. His campaign has been intentionally quiet, reaching out to voters directly through mailings and robocalls. If DiCianni somehow manages to win, it will be a blow to the DuPage Democratic organization, which has struggled to navigate the situation. Despite making clear their displeasure with DiCianni through the “no confidence” statement, it doesn’t appear that there was ever an effort to convince either of the two other candidates to drop out and consolidate support. DiCianni may be able to capitalize on this logistical situation.
Join the conversation: If you have any thoughts on the DuPage election, feel free to tag us on Twitter @DuPagePolitics. I’ve tried to accurately represent my observations about the DuPage elections this year, and I very much welcome you to let me know where you have anything to add and/or disagree.
Thanks for reading.
Nick M
DuPage Politics 