It’s the Joliet council seat Hispanics said Hispanics could not win

It wasn’t that long ago that Hispanic political leaders called for the elimination of the three at-large Joliet City Council seats on the theory that they were a barrier to Hispanics getting on the council.

Cesar Guerrero, who as his name suggests is Hispanic, just won one of those at-large seats.

Remember the Joliet for Eight Districts campaign in 2014?

The campaign was aimed at eliminating the three at-large seats on the City Council. In their place, the number of district seats on the council would be expanded from five to eight. The thinking was that Hispanics and African Americans had a better chance of gaining representation on the council by replacing the three citywide council seats with with three additional districts that would better reflect minority populations in the city.

The current council structure of five districts, three at-large seats, and a mayor was created by referendum in the 1950s.

Changing that structure requires another referendum, and the Joliet for Eight Campaign never made it to the ballot when it was thrown out with a Joliet electoral board finding that the petitions lacked enough legitimate signatures.

Now, Guerrero is on track to be an at-large councilman for the entire city of Joliet when the new council is sworn in on May 3.

It’s not a sure thing yet.

The 11-vote margin of victory held by Guerrero over Wunderlich could be challenged if Wunderlich pursues a recount.

Wunderlich has not shown much enthusiasm for a recount but has not ruled it out.

In his comments to me, Wunderlich showed more respect than resentment at the prospect of losing to Guerrero.

“He worked his butt off,” Wunderlich said this week of his opponent.

Guerrero at age 25 was making his first run at elected office.

Wunderlich has had more than four decades of successful elections as a 44-year veteran of the Joliet Junior College Board of Trustees.

But Wunderlich was once in Guerrero’s shoes.

Wunderlich was 24 when first elected to the Joliet Junior College board.

He appeared to be making a transition to the Joliet City Council on election night when Wunderlich had a 55-vote lead over Guerrero.

But Guerrero’s strong showing in the early voting and mail-in votes reported on Election Day carried through as late-arriving mail-in ballots were counted in the last two weeks. That was no accident, according to Guerrero, who said his campaign encouraged mail-in voting.

“This is almost a case study of what a local election looks like in that we continued to work hard every step of the way,” Guerrero said, describing the campaign from the day he began circulating petitions to get on the ballot.

Or, as Wunderlich put it: “He worked his butt off.”