OP_041317

4 | April 13, 2017 | The orland park prairie Election 2017
opprairie.com
Keith Pekau to be Orland Park’s next mayor
Bill Jones, Editor
Keith I. Pekau is to be
the Village of Orland Park’s
next mayor.
After campaigns that got
heated in the closing weeks,
it all came down to Election
Day.
When the numbers were
tallied April 4, Pekau, the Republican
challenger, earned
6,958 votes (54.37 percent),
while incumbent Mayor Daniel
J. McLaughlin counted
5,840 (45.63 percent), with
51 of 51 precincts reporting
across Cook and Will Counties
according to unofficial results
from both county clerks’
offices.
“It felt great,” Pekau said
of seeing the results tallied.
“I’m relieved. I’ve been on
the go since 4 in the morning.
It really hasn’t set in yet.”
The decision by Orland
Park taxpayers ended
McLaughlin’s 24-year reign
as mayor, after the Village
Board recently voted to
make the position full-time
with a $150,000 salary for
the next four years.
“They clearly didn’t like
what the mayor did,” Pekau
said of residents’ response
to the increase. “It’s wrong,
and it shouldn’t be happening
anywhere.”
McLaughlin said he did
not see it as something that
impacted the decision.
“I think most people
thought the mayor was already
full-time, so I don’t
think that was it,” he said.
In Cook County, Pekau
earned 6,933 votes (54.43 percent)
to McLaughlin’s 5,804
(45.57), with all 50 precincts
reporting. In Will County,
McLaughlin earned 36 votes
(59.02 percent) to Pekau’s 25
(40.98 percent), with its one
precinct reporting.
Pekau said he thought he
ran a “clean and honest” campaign,
and that is a big part of
why Orland Park taxpayers
responded well to him.
McLaughlin conceded the
race just before 9 p.m. April
4, and then gave a speech to
his supporters, which included
other First Orland Party
members and incumbent
Trustees James V. Dodge,
Daniel T. Calandriello and
Kathleen M. Fenton, along
with Village Clerk John C.
Mehalek, all of whom were
re-elected unopposed.
“We gave it a good fight,”
McLaughlin said during
the speech, while alluding
to how much money Pekau
and his supporters put into
Mayor Dan McLaughlin (right) goes over the results of the
race with Trustee Michael Carroll.
his campaign. “I guess we
didn’t handle it right.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed.
We worked hard,
and I think we had a good
story to tell. I think people
bought a different story than
we were telling.”
McLaughlin said despite
the loss, he appreciated all
of the support he had in Orland
Park.
“We had a lot of great
workers and a lot of people
volunteering,” he said. “I
feel bad for them, as well.”
Dodge, despite his own
re-election, called it a “tough
night.”
“A lot of people were fired
up emotionally about the issues
brought out in the campaign,”
he said. “I thought
Dan was going to win, but it
might of been close because
of the intensity of the campaign.”
Dodge, like McLaughlin,
pointed to advertising campaigns
that hit a peak in the
closing weeks of the election
cycle and included anti-
McLaughlin television commercials
paid for by Liberty
Principles PAC as a key reason
for the mayor’s loss.
In the closing weeks of the
election cycle, the action devolved
into endless mailers,
robocalls, arguments over
the facts, television campaigns
and claims of outside
influences. Cook County
voter turnout across the village
was 26.55 percent.
Mayor-elect Keith Pekau (right) poses for a photo with his
wife, Betty, after learning of his victory the evening of April 4.
Photos by Brittany Kapa/22nd Century Media
“I think you see a lot of
people responding to factoids,
and the problem with
factoids [is], absent of context,
they’re almost always
built to establish a narrative,”
he said. “The narrative by the
outside interests against Dan
was inherently negative.”
Fenton, who also won reelection,
shared similar sentiments.
“It’s a very sad day for the
Village of Orland Park,” she
said. “Mayor McLaughlin has
dedicated 24 years of service
to this community. This community
is what it is because
of him — his leadership with
the board. Now, to have somebody
come in with absolutely
no experience, and someone
[who] has degraded the Village
in all of his literature —
I’m very sad.”
Additional reporting by Assistant
Editor Brittany Kapa.
Residents say ‘no’ to both household hazardous waste pickup, outdoor multipurpose sports facility
Bill Jones, Editor
In addition to local races
for Village of Orland Park
mayor and seats on the Orland
School District 135
Board of Education, Orland
Park voters were faced with
two advisory/non-binding
questions — designed to
gauge public opinion —
from the Village when they
went to their polling places
April 4.
In both cases, the majority
of Orland Park residents voted
“No,” according to unofficial
results from the Cook and
Will County Clerks’ Offices.
The first question focused
on an “At Your Door Special
Collection” for electronic
and hazardous waste.
It asked, “Shall the Village
of Orland Park be authorized
to impose an additional
monthly charge of no more
than Two Dollars ($2.00) on
residential garbage bills for
the new ‘At Your Door Special
Collection’ supplemental
electronics and hazardous
waste removal program,
which includes the on-call
pick-up of electronics, batteries,
chemicals and other hard
to recycle home products?”
Orland Park residents
across Cook and Will Counties
cast 7,112 “No” votes
(56.81 percent), while 5,406
(43.19) said “Yes,” with 51 of
51 precincts total reporting.
Across Cook County,
7,093 voters (56.84 percent)
from Orland Park said “No,”
while only 5,386 (43.16) said
“Yes,” with 50 of 50 precincts
reporting. Voter turnout
for the race in the county
was listed at 26.55 percent.
Across Will County, 20
Orland Parkers (51.28) said
“Yes,” while 19 (48.72) said
“No,” with its one precinct
reporting.
The second question focused
on the possibility of an
outdoor multipurpose sports
facility. It read as follows.
“Should the Village of Orland
Park enter into a publicprivate
partnership for the
construction and maintenance
of an outdoor multipurpose
sports facility?”
When it came to that question,
voters responded with an
even more resounding “No.”
In total, across Cook and
Will Counties, 8,442 voters
(67.69 percent) said “No,”
while 4,029 (32.31) said
“Yes,” with 51 of 51 precincts.
Across Cook County,
8,413 Orland Park voters
(67.70 percent) said “No,”
with only 4,014 (32.30) saying
“Yes,” with 50 of 50 precincts
reporting. Voter turnout
for the race in the county
was listed at 26.55 percent.
Across Will County, 29
voters (65.91) said “No,”
while 15 (34.09) said “Yes,”
with its one precinct reporting.