DuPage Democrats May Get 11-7 County Board Majority

HINSDALE, IL — Democrats appear to have taken a majority of the historically Republican County Board in Tuesday's election.

It was already looking good for Democrats on Wednesday when it appeared they took three seats. As of Thursday morning, yet another Democratic candidate edged ahead, giving the party a possible 11-7 majority on the board. At the same time, more than 20,000 ballots have yet to be tabulated in the election, according to the county clerk's office.

Going into the election, Republicans held an 11-7 edge on the board, along with Republican Chairman Dan Cronin, who is elected at large. Republican incumbents Sean Noonan of Elmhurst and Bob Larsen of Wheaton fell short in the election, while a Democrat won the seat held by James Healy of Naperville, who did not run again.

Another GOP board member, Tim Elliott of Glen Ellyn, is now in jeopardy of losing. On Wednesday afternoon, he was only 18 votes ahead of his District 4 Democratic opponent, Lynn LaPlante, out of more than 70,000 ballots cast. By Thursday morning, LaPlante was leading by 165 votes. In all the board races, Democrats have increased their margins as more ballots are counted.

When she was still behind Wednesday, LaPlante told Patch she definitely saw victory as a possibility.

"We are feeling very optimistic. And As Joe Biden says, 'Count every vote,'" LaPlante said. "I’m hopeful we will have some information soon on all the outstanding (vote-by-mail) ballots."

As the board currently consists, it is really easy to tell a Republican from a Democrat: All the Republicans are men and the Democrats are women.

But Democrat Greg Schwarze, who is leading Larsen with 50.6 percent of the vote in District 6, appears to have broken the gender trend. District 2's Paula Deacon Garcia is ahead of Noonan, with 51.3 percent. And Democrat Amy Chavez is ahead of Republican Kevin Coyne with 56.4 percent in District 5

Elected in 2012 as a District 2 board member, Noonan encountered some difficulty earlier this year with his full-time job as a Bloomingdale police officer.

He was suspended as an officer for 20 hours shortly after George Floyd's death in the custody of Minneapolis police. The suspension was after Noonan "liked" a Facebook comment that read, "Sean, as awful as it sounds, until a few rioters are shot dead, and their bodies left in the street for the wolves, there's no message law-abiding people and the officers that protect them can send to these terrorists to instill fear and good behavior in them."

Noonan later explained his post, saying he did not condone the message.

DuPage County election results:

County Board District 1
Donald Puchalski* (R) 53.8%
Zahra Suratwala (D) 46.2%

County Board District 2
Paula Deacon Garcia (D) 51.3%
Sean Noonan* (R) 48.9%

County Board District 3
Brian Krajewski* (R) 51.6%
Gail Cabala-Lowry (D) 48.4%

County Board District 4
Lynn LaPlante (R) 50.11%
Tim Elliott* (D) 49.89%

County Board District 5
Amy Chavez (D) 56.4%
Kevin Coyne (R) 43.6%

County Board District 6
Greg Schwarze (D) 50.6%
Bob Larsen* (R) 49.4%

* — incumbent