Election 2024: Thomas leading Suffield in McHenry County Board District 7 GOP primary

Voters in McHenry County Board District 7 appear to be leaning heavily toward Paul Thomas of Wonder Lake over Peter Suffield of Woodstock as the Republican nominee to represent them on the board.

With early voting and mail-in ballots counted and most precincts reporting, Thomas had garnered about 65% of the votes, according to unofficial vote totals on the McHenry County Clerk’s website. Results will be unofficial until the post-election canvass is complete. The winner will face Democratic incumbent Lou Ness in the general election on Nov. 5. Ness is one of five Democrats currently serving on the county board.

District 7 covers Wonder Lake and parts of Woodstock, McHenry and Bull Valley and was one of two contested GOP primaries for the board, the other being District 3.

[ See McHenry County’s unofficial election results for the 2024 primary across all races ]

Neither candidate in District 7 is an incumbent, and both are relative political newcomers. Suffield previously served as a Republican Party Committeeperson in Algonquin Township, according to his candidate questionnaire.

Politically, the candidates views’ overlapped quite a bit. Both stressed a desire to lower taxes in the county and Thomas expressed support for Tuesday’s referendum that would change the McHenry County Mental Health Board funding structure from a property tax to a sales tax if it passes. Suffield was less clear on his stance on the referendum, saying he supports increased funding to the Mental Health Board but didn’t explicitly state support or opposition to the referendum.

Infrastructure was another area of overlap, with Suffield saying it’s not a good idea to invest heavily on Pace buses and Thomas saying McHenry County doesn’t need the Pace bus system. Both candidates preferred to spend tax dollars on maintaining and repairing roads instead.

The winner of the primary election will take on Ness for the District 7 seat. The other board member from the district is Republican Brian Sager of Woodstock and Republican win in November would flip the second seat.