Challengers know they face tough road to unseat Pradel

George Pradel has been named the suburb’s sexiest mayor, has his own bobblehead doll and maintains a social calendar that would be the envy of Paris Hilton.

How important any of that has been to the success of his 16-year tenure as mayor of Naperville depends on your political point of view.

What isn’t debatable, though — at least according to the two city council members who hope to unseat him in the April 5 election — is that the 73-year-old Pradel would be a tough act to follow.

Pradel’s opponents, Kenn Miller and Doug Krause, refuse to say an unkind word about the mayor or each other.

It’s a “mutual respect thing” they say, but both believe the days of Pradel’s unbridled enthusiasm and sideline cheering are over and the time for new leadership is now.

“I like George Pradel and I think he’s done a great job for us but times have changed. His popularity grew as Naperville grew,” Miller said. “We had this rapid growth and he did a lot of great things because we had revenue to do it with. It was a great time but now it’s different and I think it’s time for some new leadership as we continue to weather the economic storm.”

Krause, the longest-serving councilman, has worked with three mayors. Each of them, he said, put their own stamp on the office, but none did it like Pradel.

“Either Kenn (Miller) or myself will handle it different from George (Pradel) and I know you’re going to get some push back because he is a hard act to follow,” Krause said. “The kids he taught in Safety Town, when he was Officer Friendly, have kids and some of them have kids in town. So you have to overcome that familiarity that he has and it’s a challenge.”

Krause said his campaign is focusing on his leadership rather than toppling Pradel.

“I’m working on bringing the leadership to get us through this challenging economic time,” Krause said. “We need to turn the ship around. We need to cut spending, particularly in the areas that we can save.”

If he wins a fifth term in April, Pradel said it will be his last. He, too, would like to see the economy rebound and businesses flourish again before he hangs up his gavel.

“I would like to go out when the economy is going up and I think I have a lot of experience being mayor,” Pradel said. “I want to continue to be the leader and draw people together as we go into some tough times.”

If re-elected, Pradel said he will continue to focus on reaching out to the business community and work to retain the businesses already here by communicating about their needs to succeed. He also supports some new incentive proposals to lure new businesses to town.

But he also believes the social piece is important both for citywide morale and his own spirit.

“I’m a public relations man and I get involved in everything. I don’t have enough time in the day to do everything I want for the city of Naperville,” Pradel said. “I’m a full-time mayor as my choice and I put the mayorship first. My wife gives me the opportunity to go to everything and I get invited to everything going on.”

One of his challengers, however, said Pradel has a shadow.

“I would agree that George Pradel is everywhere and right behind him, may be myself in a lot of situations,” Miller said. “But I would ask, of any of us, ‘What have you done for me?’ It’s one thing to be out there but what have you accomplished? What are you proposing?”