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Cue The Music

Soon after the Republican primaries Eric Krol at the Daily Herald had a paragraph about DuPage County Board Chair Robert Schillerstrom’s political losses in the election. Those losses included Schillerstrom-backed candidate Robert Heap in an open seat for DuPage County Treasurer that pitted Heap, a retiring county board member from Naperville, against former Wheaton Mayor and Forest Preserve Commissioner Gwen Henry. Despite winning the endorsements of most current GOP officials (and here), announcing much earlier than Henry and having a lot of cash on hand early (over $100,000 when he announced his candidacy), Heap lost to Henry in a close contest (less than 1%).

Schillerstrom also endorsed DuPage County Board candidates that lost in the primary, including incumbents Irene Stone of Lombard (District 2) and Grant Eckhoff of Wheaton (District 4). Eckoff lost to GOP candidate Jerry “J.R.” McBride, who had the unusual backing of Republican DuPage States Attorney Joe Birkett (the current Lieutenant Governor candidate) - and a rival for Schillerstrom’s DuPage power base.

The Dance

With the unfortunate death April 28 of county board member John Noel, who Bob Schillerstrom had recently appointed to be the Board’s Vice Chair, there is a District 4 vacancy to fill with a candidate for the November election. According to the Daily Herald Schillerstrom has picked Jerry “J.R.” McBride to fill that slot pending the county board’s rubber stamp approval. That leaves current county board member and former Schillerstrom primary pick Grant Eckhoff in a viable situation again. Schillerstrom, who still has kind words for Eckhoff, has not said who he will support to run in McBride’s place against Democrat and Air Force veteran Richard L. Dunn, an active realtor and a municipal planning consultant, who served 14 years as Director of the Glen Ellyn Planning and Development Department before retiring in 2004. The decision on who will replace McBride is up to a Republican committee of Milton Township Republican Chairman Leonard Sanchez, DuPage GOP Chairwoman Barbara Murphy and former Wheaton City Council member Mike Gresk.

Bob Schillerstrom is keeping mum publicly about whom he will support - but says he will let the committee know. Will he continue to fight for Grant Eckhoff? Will he try to steer the committee elsewhere? Either way how will it look? During the primary Jerry McBride attacked Eckhoff for the recent DuPage maximum property tax increase, calling it “unbelievable” and saying it was the result of bad planning - especially because of the $15 million the county took this year from the DuPage Water Commission (see Schillerstrom’s other “dance”). McBride leveled his criticism of bad planning at Eckhoff - but clearly Eckhoff is only supporting Schillerstrom-backed tax increases and bad planning. The question for Bob Schillerstrom is does it look better to back Grant Eckhoff, who you just supported, even though GOP voters rejected him because of your policies - or is it better to find someone new? My guess is Schillerstrom will try to take Eckhoff to the dance - but the results, either way, aren’t pretty for Bob.