Running start: Local candidates file on first day
BY GINGER BRASHINGER Correspondent December 17, 2012 5:28PM
Dan McLaughlin, mayor of Orland Park
Article Extras
Updated: January 19, 2013 6:13AM
Some familiar faces will be on the ballot in mayoral races around the Southland for the April 9 municipal election.
They include Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki, Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin, Oak Forest Mayor Henry Kuspa, Crete Mayor Michael Einhorn, Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld and Mokena Mayor Joe Werner.
Monday marked the first day candidates could file their nominating petitions, and those six incumbents all had done so by early afternoon. The filing period runs until 5 p.m. Dec. 26, so potential challengers might not be identified until then.
Among the challengers who did file Monday in mayoral races were Steven Eberhardt in Tinley Park, and Brent Humecki and Don Seehausen in Crete.
Eberhardt, an attorney, is a regular at the Tinley Park village hall, frequently filing Freedom of Information Act requests about village business and expenditures. He recently led a successful drive to have an advisory referendum question placed on the November ballot asking whether the village’s elected leaders should be subject to term limits. After 72 percent of Tinley Park voters approved the referendum, Zabrocki said he and the village board would address the issue.
In Crete, Humecki and Seehausen, both businessmen, are taking aim at Einhorn, who supported building a controversial immigrant detention facility in town, which now is off the table.
Crestwood will have a new mayor next year because incumbent Robert Stranczek is not running for re-election. Trustees John Toscas and Louis Presta filed petitions Monday in their bids to succeed him.
In Country Club Hills, current aldermen will be pitted against each other in at least two of the five wards. All 10 aldermen’s terms will end in April, after residents voted to trim the city council to five members.
Those filing to run Monday include Edward Glispi Sr., Lillian Lee and incumbent John Edwards (1st); James Craig Jr. (2nd); Lisa Evans, Thomas Melton and incumbent Tyrone Hutson (3rd); Terri Densmore and incumbents James Ford and Steven Burris (4th); and Robert Battie and incumbents Frank Martin Jr. and Anthony Davis (5th).
