Naperville’s Two-Candidate Mayoral Race

When Naperville’s 2015 mayoral election began a few months ago after petitions were submitted, there were five candidates hoping to replace retiring Naperville mayor George Pradel after his 20-year reign.

One candidate (Matthew Dubiel) quickly exited after determining he did not meet the residency requirement. Living in unincorporated Naperville doesn’t work, when it comes to getting elected mayor.

Then two of the remaining four candidates each said something, that in essence eliminated themselves from serious consideration. Jim Haselhorst said, “I don’t think there’s a person on the planet that could take George Pradel’s place”, and retired fire fighter Marty Walker said, he doesn’t suppose anyone can replace George Pradel. If what they are saying is true, and they must believe it,  then neither can replace Pradel so that brings it down to a two-candidate race for mayor of Naperville, either councilmen Doug Krause or Steve Chirico.

Krause, 67, a realtor by profession has been on the council since dirt was new in 1989; that’s a total of 26 years. This is his fifth attempt to take the gavel from Pradel. Krause is going for double or nothing; he’s putting it all on the line for one roll of the dice. He either gets elected mayor, or he departs from the city council, and becomes a footnote in Naperville politics.

Chirico, 54, a life-long resident of Naperville, is a local businessman (owner of Great Western Flooring) and has been on the council for four years. Chirico is also putting it all on the line. He either becomes the mayor of Naperville, or takes his council nameplate and goes home.

Krause often finds himself on the short-end of the vote. He is quick to take the minority or opposing view point, and his position gets voted down. He has been an advocate for the residents of Naperville, and seems to relish in being a swizzle-stick at the dais. Krause likes to ‘mix it up’ wanting to drive change, but unable to build a consensus, he is left to hang-out to dry.

Chirico on the other hand, attempts to build through consensus which is a strong leadership dimension. He also seeks to drive change, but does so in a less abrasive manner. He has the temperament to ‘tell someone to go to hell’ and make them happy they are going. In politics, as in business, that’s a gift.

Should Krause get elected and possibly serve three terms until term limits force him out, he could hang on until he’s almost 80 with almost 40 years of total service in council chambers.

If Chirico wins and Krause losses the election, the real question will be, what in the world will Krause do with almost 30 years worth of those green ‘Elect Krause’ campaign yard signs. Could that be part of the reason the recycling center was located in Naperville?

Show 7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Gerard H. Schilling

    Unfortunately Bob, you will rue the day Chirico is elected mayor. BTW it is a done deal since the entire political and commercial sector as well as the connected lawyer class is financially and actively supporting him. Chirico will end up cutting deals only for his buddies not to mention himself and or relatives, block any kind of citizen oversight of his and the administrations action and will use the cities agencies to attack his opponents.

    As to Krause he is at least a honest broker who cares about Naperville and its citizens.

  2. Buck Naperville

    At best this is a “hold your nose” mayoral election. In my opinion, the moronic statement below demonstrates functional illiteracy. How can anyone say that the drug problem is intangible? The parents see their dead children, they find the drugs and arrests are being made. The heart breaking problem has been in Council’s face for years. A courageous person would say, “On my watch we will save our children and we will put an end to this.”

    Naperville Sun:

    “Also a concern is “the whole drug and alcohol thing,” Chirico said, noting that many communities are beginning to struggle with it.It’s just a scary thing, such a difficult, intangible problem to try and solve.”

  3. marty

    The beauty of a Krause win is sending narcissist chirico down a notch…1 term on a council seat and running for mayor? No thanks!

  4. Fed-up

    To: Buck Naperville
    Perhaps he was thinking of the word, “intractable.” He must not know what “intangible” means to have used it in that way.

  5. Say it isn’t so Naperville Councilman Paul Hinterlong… was that you that I recently saw on stage kissing up to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel during his televised Run-off speech on Feb 24, 2015. It is clear who you represent in Naperville. And it is definitely not the average taxpayer or citizen in town. But the “Big Government Left”. This snapshot represents the incestuous relationship of all our city and state Political Class and the big moneyed left leaning interests they represent. We passed term limits in Naperville to slow this type of behavior down only to have the incumbent Naperville City Council members work to upend it. But please let’s be honest of whom you represent in Naperville and it’s not the hard working tax payer, but instead the elite big moneyed ruling class who supports ever increasing governmental expansion. Your support for Rahm shows us along with your poor voting record, support for the Water Street TIF using public tax money, and our ever escalating tax bills, and the transforming of downtown Naperville into the new “Rush Street”. PATHETIC!

  6. Brenda

    http://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/2014/10/05/when-interests-overlap-for-durbin-lobbyist-wife-a-563414.html#.

    Mayor Pradel’s close friend, Dick Durbin’s wife was paid $425,000.00 plus expenses by the City of Naperville as a lobbyist. To help fund Durbin’s decades of legislation and regulations Naperville hired Loretta Durbin to bring home the bacon. It is reported that her firm was responsible for the Federal grant money for the smart meters, which was followed by a local fiasco.

    Sing along, “Everything is awesome, when you’re part of the tribe, everything is cool when you’re on the inside.

  7. Renae

    I am very disappointed that Watch Dog supports Chirico and so gushingly. I can’t respect anything else I read on this site. I won’t be back.

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