Republicans drop objections to Democratic opponents in 2 county board races

Deena Krieger, the Republican running in District 5, and Carl Kamienski, the incumbent Republican running for re-election in District 6, both filed challenges against Democratic opponents who were slated by the party. Neither Krieger nor Kamienski had a primary election opponent.

Krieger objected to Democrat Steve Firak’s candidacy, and Kamienski challenged Democrat Arne Waltmire’s candidacy. Waltmire and Firak were slated by the Democratic Party, who did not have a candidate file for the seats in the March primary election.

Krieger and Kamienski, who had the same attorney, both said in their objection filings that Firak and Waltmire were improperly slated by the Democratic Party. The GOP candidates had argued the slating should have been from the Democratic precinct committee people in their districts, not the county Democratic Party.

The electoral board initially met June 13 to discuss the challenges, but reconvened Thursday. That hearing lasted about 45 minutes and after some deliberation, in which the election board suggested it might not side with the GOP, Robert Hanlon, the lawyer for Krieger and Kamienski, told the election board they were withdrawing the objections.

Krieger and Firak are trying to succeed county board District 5 Democratic incumbent Kelli Wegener, who declined to seek reelection and is instead running for county board chair against GOP incumbent Mike Buehler in the Nov. 5 election.

With the objections dropped, Waltmire and Firak are scheduled to appear on the ballot in November.

Last year, District 3 incumbent Eric Hendricks tried to have his GOP opponent Bob Nowak kicked off the ballot because “Republican” was misspelled on Nowak’s nominating petitions. The election panel allowed Nowak to stay in the race but he narrowly lost to Hendricks, who now faces Democrat Rester Dogboe in the general election.

All of the county board seats that are up in November are contested between a Republican and a Democrat.

Independent Connor Corr, who filed in McHenry County Board District 2 against Democrat John Collins and incumbent Republican John Reinert, was the only independent who filed for any office in the county, McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio said. Corr’s name had been dropped from the candidate list as of Friday. A Democrat in District 2 needed 29 signatures while a Republican needed 25 for ballot access.