Barnett cruises to victory in Downers Grove mayoral race

Downers Grove Mayor Bob Barnett’s bid for another term was successful Tuesday night as he easily defeated challenger Marshall Schmitt by more than 2,600 votes, according to unofficial results from the DuPage County Clerk’s office.

With 100% of the votes tallied, Barnett had garnered 5,765 votes, according to unofficial results. Schmitt had collected 3,113 votes.

Barnett, 54, was first elected mayor in 2019 after serving on the Village Council for a decade.

Barnett is excited to once again take the helm.

“We’ve had difficult decisions to make … between COVID and the George Floyd murder and the aftermath … but it’s also pretty satisfying that they have mostly been decided by a council that was unanimous,” he said. “I like to think I was part of keeping us all working together as a team.”

He lauds the council’s no-nonsense, transparent approach to its decision-making process.

“I think it suggests we’ve made good decisions for the village as a whole,” he said. “Even those difficult ones when someone is less than happy with the result, I think people realize we have done good work.”

In the race for three seats on the Village Council, former Mayor Martin Tully was the lead vote-getter in the six-way race having collected 4,947 votes. Incumbent Leslie Sadowski-Fugitt garnered 4,442 votes, while Michael Davenport, a member of the Community High School District 99 School Board, moved into third place late Tuesday with 3,779 votes, according to unofficial results.

Tammy Sarver, who was in third place for much of the night, has collected 3,579 votes while Denise McCann has 2,799 votes and James Devitt has 2,272 votes, according to unofficial results.

Davenport is optimistic about Tuesday’s unofficial results, which shows him winning one of the four-year seats.

“The math looks good,” he said. “Still, we’ll wait and see.”

The 30-year resident and architect praised Sarver.

“She’s a great person and the village really would be in good hands either way,” he said.

As far as his campaign, Davenport called himself “a one-man show.”

“I didn’t do any fundraising. I didn’t have any big groups endorsing me and sending out mailers,” Davenport said. “This was just based on word of mouth and the people and friends I know here in town passing the word along. I really feel quite proud of where we’re at. I bought all of my own signs. I put out almost all of my own signs. And I’ll be collecting them all. This was really just a pure grassroots sort of thing and I’m really thankful for the support from the Downers Grove community.”

Sadowski-Fugitt said she plans to continue that work “to earn my reelection every day.”

“I’m incredibly proud of how my campaign went,” she said. “We knocked on thousands of doors and I was able to connect meaningfully with many residents. I am proud that in that time I was able to provide some assistance to residents as well.”

She said there will be plenty to accomplish in her second term.

“I know that in the coming year we will be reviewing the comprehensive plan, and I want to ensure we do so with an eye toward sustainability and quality of life,” she said. “I will continue to push for a private tree ordinance and incentives for businesses and residents to incorporate environmental sustainability into their properties and encourage the village to use the Environmental Concerns Commission to help in those efforts. I am also proud that we have reversed the trend of cutting staff, including the return of a social worker to our staff thanks to the efforts of the revived Human Services Commission. I will continue to support those efforts and address the gaps in social services that we still have.”

Commissioners Nicole Walus and Rich Kulovany decided not to seek reelection. Walus has served on the council since 2016. Kulovany has been a commissioner since 2019.