DuPage candidates make final pitch at forum

The gloves stayed on for the final public sparring match Wednesday between the two DuPage County Board Chairman candidates ahead of the Nov. 2 election.

Republican Dan Cronin and Democrat Carole Cheney did not take many swipes at each other during the half-hour forum presented by the League of Women Voters chapters of Wheaton and Glen Ellyn. The closest either got to an attack was when Cheney said she wasn't alienating municipal leaders and her brand of leadership wasn't about “intimidation.”

Cronin barely acknowledged that he had an opponent except to thank her at the end of their time on stage together.

The two candidates politely traded responses to an array of topics during their part of the forum and never challenged each others' comments.

When the topic of the financial mismanagement at the DuPage Water Commission arose, Cheney did question Cronin's bid as a state senator to fold the organization into the county. But later, during questions about eliminating township government, Cronin used the previous exchange to highlight how difficult he perceives it to be to change governmental thinking.

“I made a valiant effort to consolidate just one unit of government and the opposition was fierce,” he said.

Cheney focused much of her time trying to explain why as a political newcomer she would bring more to the table than the longtime Republican legislator. She wants to focus on the current needs of the county, not rehash old issues that previous boards have made decisions on. She said job creation and reducing costs would be the two most important aspects of her administration.

“The county board chairman makes between $120,000 and $130,000 a year,” she said. “For a salary in that range, you need to serve full-time and the taxpayers deserve nothing less.”

Cronin said he would like to hold discussions about privatizing the convalescent center and moving the forest preserve operations back under the wing of the county. Cheney opposed both ideas.

“There's no reason,” Cheney said. “It's amassing too much power in one place.”

But Cronin argued there would be no harm in discussing the benefits or detriments of any changes.

“People need not be fearful of discussion,” he said.

The two were part of forum that also featured candidates for the District 4 and District 6 county board races as well as candidates for the District 95 state representative race Republican incumbent Mike Fortner and Democrat Maria Owens. Owens said she would be a full-time legislator and Fortner said he is running on his voting record he has amassed in the past four years in Springfield.

Barbara Green, the Democratic challenger in the 48th state representative race, was also there. Incumbent Michael Connelly could not attend the event, organizers said.

District 4 county board candidates talked about slashing costs from the county budget. Republican incumbent JR McBride said the board should look to consolidate services and positions in the county and eliminate jobs that are no longer needed. His Democratic challenger, Tom Wendorf, said pension and benefit reform was the best way to start saving the county money immediately.

District 6 county board candidates had varying opinions about the current board's decision to borrow $70 million for capital improvements. Democrat Dave Barry said he supported the decision, but worries the board won't provide proper oversight of the spending. Republican Bob Larsen suggested the 30 vacant positions that were cut to help cover the cost of the program should have been cut even without the borrowing plan.