UPDATED: Dundee Township Filings in Kane County with Independent Candidates

Partisan filings and contested races trigger two February 23 primaries, one for each party

In neighboring Kane County’s Dundee Township, which includes nearly 30% of the Village of Algonquin plus the unincorporated Algonquin Shores, both Democrats and Republicans filed for township offices.

Two contested races triggered a February 23 primary, one for each party.

Republicans

  • Highway Commissioner (open):
    • Gerald Harvel
    • Chris Kempf
  • Assessor: Michael Bielak (i)
  • Trustees:
    • Ken Schaffer (i)
    • Richard Ahrens (i)
    • Pamela Carr Hagerman

Democrats

  • Supervisor: Patricia “Trish” Glees (i-party switch)
  • Clerk (open): Paula Lauer
  • Trustees:
    • Trisha Calabrese
    • June Kiebler
    • Sue Harney (i-party switch)
    • Devin McCrate
    • Jenny Lee Schiavone

The incumbent township clerk, highway commissioner and one trustee have chosen not to seek reelection.

The contested township highway commissioner Republican primary will be the only Republican contested race on the February 23 ballot. All other Republican races are uncontested.

With the Republicans filing only three trustee candidates, at least one Democrat will be elected trustee on April 6.

Four Democrat candidates have elective office experience in Dundee Township. Democrat clerk candidate Paula Lauer served as a township trustee from 2001 to 2009, elected as an independent in 2001, reelected as a Republican in 2005 and lost reelection as a Democrat in 2009.

Sue Harney was elected township supervisor as an independent in 2001, reelected as a Republican in 2005, 2009 and 2013, and elected as a Republican trustee in 2017.

Harney is seeking reelection as a township trustee as a Democrat for the first time in 2021.

Incumbent Supervisor Trish Glees is also seeking reelection to a 2nd term, this time as a Democrat.

Trustee candidate June Kiebler served multiple terms on the Dundee Township Park District as an elected commissioner.

With the trustee candidates seeking election as Democrats, at least 2 Democrats winning election on April 6 will give the Democrats a majority of votes on the township board. Given two of the Democrat trustee candidates have been elected township wide multiple times, it’s a real possibility.

At least two Republican trustee candidates have won township wide, with Schaffer being elected to 5 terms since 2001.

UPDATE: Independent Filings

Two independent candidates filed for the April 6th ballot when the filing period closed yesterday:

Supervisor:

  • Arin Thrower

Highway Commissioner:

  • David E. Schulz

With the independent filings through yesterday and based on the primary filings last month, only the assessor and clerk positions will be uncontested on the township ballot, barring a write-in candidacy.

The Republican township highway commissioner primary winner will face a contested race on April 6th, as will both parties’ respective slates of trustee candidates.

John Lopez Note: When the article was originally published on December 3, McHenry County Blog received information the supervisor candidate at the time had filed for reelection as a Republican. The party reference has been corrected in this updated article.


Comments

UPDATED: Dundee Township Filings in Kane County with Independent Candidates — 12 Comments

  1. Don’t think the ‘Republicans’ are so good.

    They aren’t.

    Time for a new party.

  2. Biden Hunter, Illinois is one of the most corrupt States in the Country because of the the DEMOCRATS!

    MADIGAN will be charged prosecuted and convicted!

    Additionally, MADIGAN MINIONS, will also be charged prosecuted and convicted!

    Corruption in Illinois, because of Democrats, didn’t start with Greylord.

    NOPE!

    The Democrats are responsible for a long and winding history, of paybacks, bribes and many forms of corruption in our State.

    SO PUT A SOCK IN IT!

  3. Looking at the names of the candidates in both parties, and checking the history, it looks like you have a “bipartisan establishment” running for the Dundee Township elected offices, particularly the township board and clerk.

    Assessor Mike Bielak of Algonquin, who’s seeking his 4th term and is a CAE, will likely not draw any independent challenger.

    Bielak is also the chairman of the Dundee Township Republican Organization.

    Since no Democrat filed for supervisor, looks like the local establishment is satisfied with first term Supervisor Republican Trish Glees.

    Since no Republican filed for clerk, Paula Lauer in the uncontested Democrat primary will be on the April 6 ballot, and barring an independent, or a successful Republican write-in for clerk, Lauer will win election.

    Lauer was part of an independent slate, along with Sue Harney and Republican Ken Schaffer who took control of the Dundee Township Board back in 2001, when Republicans decided to have a caucus.

    As said in the article, she lost her reelection bid in 2009 following her party switch to Democrat.

    Harney, Lauer and Schaffer were the township board majority for half of Harney’s 4 terms as supervisor.

    Looks like the “bipartisan establishment” of Dundee Township consists of Supervisor Glees, Republicans Schaffer and Ahrens, and Democrats Harney and Keibler.

    The three non-establishment Democrat trustee candidates appear, at least two of whom will make it to the April ballot, are seeking election for the first time, and my guess, they’ll be on their own if both Harney and Keibler win the nominations as Democrat trustees as expected.

    Don’t know what to make of the Republican highway commissioners race.

    Chris Kempf is a long-time Republican activist going back over 20 years, and is a fixture in Algonquin Shores, and has been a Republican precinct committeeperson for multiple terms.

    Don’t know anything about Kempf’s opponent.

  4. Aaron Schock, Denny Hastert, Dan Rutherford and George Ryan are some examples of Republican corruption. 🤔☹ī¸

  5. A fish rots from the head down. How apropos for current TOP Democrat leadership(?) such as from Joe Robinette Biden and Barak Hussein Obama, Bill Clinton OR way back to Lyndon Baines Johnson back in the 1960’s.

    You have to wonder with the horrible history and actions and decisions of TOP Democrats, past and present, right up to current doofus Joe Robinette Biden how any intelligent and responsible person would be part of the Democrat Party. The Party that opposed Republican President Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to free the slaves. The Party of Jim Crow.

  6. At some point in the 1950s or 1960s, people switch parties. Chicago Blacks and Hispanics went Democratic with FDR, over the Great Depression. 😐

  7. Eddie, we’ve seen evidence this election year of Hispanics becoming more wary of Democrats, maybe not in Illinois, but in other parts of the country.

    Florida and Texas saw significant shifts of Hispanics voting for President Trump, as well as local Hispanic Republicans.

    Good example, FL-27, where former HHS Secretary and freshman Congresswoman Donna Shalala lost her reelection bid to Maria Elvira Salazar in one of the biggest surprise House flips of the cycle.

    In California, Mike Garcia and David Valadao won reelection and election respectively. In Texas, Tony Gonzales defended a seat nearly all had written off as a Democrat pickup.

    Indeed, the 13 House seats Republicans flipped from Democrats, all were won by women, and/or people of color.

    Hispanics are starting to become more swing voters, or simply Joe Biden couldn’t win them over nationwide (remember, in the primaries, Hispanics were pro Bernie Sanders, or simply anti-Biden.

  8. Demographics is everything.

    More third worlders, more corruption.

    Reagan had the first amnesty.

    The Bushies were new world order sh!birds, too.

    And look at the lousy rats appointed to the Supreme Court by the Bushiest.

    Republicans have been complicit with all the decline.

    That’s why so many are never Trumpers.

    F*** the Republican Party.

    I agree we need a real party.

  9. Eddie, don’t forget the biggest Illinois GOP crook of all time.

    Big Jim Thompson.

    Would be Bush VP.

    A big FBI file on Jim’s alternative life style sunk his chance; that’s how Dan Quayle got in.

    But Thompson did his service when he co-chaired the phony 9/11 Commission.

  10. Another reason why townships must be eliminated.

    They’ll be used to further rip us off and bring in aliens.

  11. Lopez nails it, they are just another bunch of township crooks.

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