Burket edges past Fasules in Glen Ellyn village president’s race; mayors losing in other DuPage towns

While Glen Ellyn picked a new village president Tuesday, voters in several other DuPage County towns were in an anti-incumbent mood.

Mayoral challengers were sailing to victory in West Chicago and Lisle, unofficial tallies showed. Here’s a look at where races stood as of about 9:30 p.m. on election night.

Glen Ellyn

James Burket edged past Gary Fasules in the race to decide Glen Ellyn’s next village president.

Burket, a former village trustee, garnered 2,462 votes, compared to 2,096 for Fasules, a sitting board member, according to unofficial tallies so far.

During the campaign, the candidates addressed downtown housing and plans for an overhaul of the Metra station site.

Once Glenwood Station — the latest apartment development downtown — comes online, “I don’t think we’re going to need any more density downtown. I think that’s going to max us out,” Burket said.

Burket said he understands why people want a pedestrian tunnel under the train tracks, but he thinks it’s “a luxury more than a necessity.”

As proposed, the train station project also calls for warming shelters, a plaza, parking reconfiguration, utility and streetscape work as well as ADA-accessibility improvements.

“We’re in an uncertain world, but if we can do it with all grant money, then let’s do it,” Fasules said.

He stressed if grant money doesn’t come in, “we don’t put a shovel in the ground.”

On leadership style, Fasules in a candidate questionnaire said the village is governed under a “strong manager model with board oversight” and views the president’s role as a facilitator.

Burket said it’s like any other tradition — “If there’s a better way of doing things, it needs to be explored. Tradition only goes so far.”

Fasules led the Civic Betterment Committee slate, a roster of candidates that emerged after voting at a town-hall meeting. Burket ran an independent campaign outside of that nominating system.

West Chicago

Challenger Daniel Bovey was poised to unseat West Chicago Mayor Ruben Pineda, denying him a fourth term.

Bovey had 1,539 votes, while Pineda had 939, the county clerk’s office reported. A third candidate, Joseph Sheehan, trailed with 479 votes.

Bovey and Sheehan have criticized Pineda over the state of the downtown.

Bovey, a church pastor, has been locked in a lengthy dispute with the city over his family’s backyard geodesic dome greenhouse and calls plans for a new city hall campus “a bad use of our resources at this point.”

“I think that we should focus on our strength, which is small businesses,” Bovey said. “We don’t want to be Naperville. We don’t want to be St. Charles, but we want to have a West Chicago that is thriving and that people want to bring their family members to and visit.”

Pineda, West Chicago’s first elected Hispanic mayor, has touted a “full” business park near the DuPage Airport and city-funded grant programs.

“We have all the amenities we need to bring people here, and we need rooftops, and we need density,” he said at a League of Women Voters forum.

Lisle

Challenger Mary Jo Mullen was on her way to defeating incumbent Chris Pecak in Lisle’s mayoral contest.

Mullen, a village trustee, had 2,515 votes, while Pecak, who ran for a third term, had 1,363 votes, according to unofficial results so far.

Adversaries on the ballot and on the village board, Pecak and Mullen tangled over many issues, namely the search for a new police chief and downtown development.

Pecak has suggested the empty Family Square shopping center at Ogden Avenue and Main Street — a gateway into the downtown — could be revived.

“The purpose of that site should be for commerce. I have retailers interested in moving into that location,” he said.

A developer hoped to demolish the shuttered Family Square Plaza to make way for a large-scale apartment building with ground-floor commercial space, but that project did not move forward.

Mullen believes such a multiuse development is still feasible and pushed back against the idea of having retailers move into the long-vacant strip mall building.

“The downtown master plan calls for mixed use in these areas,” she said.

Mullen campaigned with the “Lisle Forward” slate of village board candidates, including incumbent Trustee Thomas Duffy.

“I want a thriving downtown, I want our community to be unified, and I want a really business-friendly environment within our community to help attract and retain good businesses,” Mullen said.

Elsewhere

Elmhurst Mayor Scott Levin easily fended off challenger Mark Mulliner, a former 7th Ward alderman, in a rematch of sorts. Levin, an attorney, had 6,267 votes, versus 2,523 for Mulliner.

Four years ago, Levin bested three mayoral contenders — Mulliner finished in third place then — to secure his first term.

In Warrenville, Andrew Johnson was headed to victory over Michael Hoffmann in the contest to replace five-term Mayor David Brummel.

Johnson, a former school board president in Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, had 1,746 votes, while Hoffmann, a former Ward 3 alderman, had 744.

In Glendale Heights, Rebecca Giannelli was leading three other candidates vying to become the next village president. Giannelli had 979 votes, Michael Light, a village trustee, had 809 votes, Michael Ontiveroz had 787 and falling out of contention was James Francis Sullivan with 448. Current Village President Chodri Khokhar was removed from the ballot by the village’s electoral board.

Voters in Addison chose Tom Hundley as the town’s first new mayor in 12 years. Hundley, a village trustee, had 2,206 votes, versus 821 for Eddie Castillo.

Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Paul Esposito was narrowly leading challenger Joseph Beckwith. Esposito, appointed acting mayor in 2020, had 343 votes in his bid for a second elected term, while Beckwith, an alderman, had 293.