Vote 2005
If national elections in the United States have been boiled down to red states vs. blue states, a similar analogy could be made in Brookfield. Only a more apt comparison might be the Civil War, since vote totals in last week’s village elections boiled down to North vs. South.
Challenger Michael Garvey and the rest of his PEP Party slate rode a solid majority of votes north of Southview Avenue?”in Proviso and Riverside Townships?”to victory over Village President Bill Russ and the VIP slate.
But in Lyons Township, that part of Brookfield south of Southview Avenue, Russ and VIP walked away with a majority of the votes.
The difference is that Proviso and Riverside townships accounted for roughly double the number of votes cast in Lyons Township, and PEP won by a much larger margin on the north side of town.
Looking strictly at the race between Garvey and Russ, in Lyons Township Russ garnered 888 votes to Garvey’s 770 and won seven of the township’s nine precincts.
Russ’ biggest supporters were voters in his home precinct, the 3rd, where he won by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin, and in the 102nd precinct (south of Congress Park Avenue between Elm and Deyo), where he won by a 62 to 38 percent margin. Russ also finished strong in the 91st Precinct, where he won 54 percent of the vote.
Perhaps not coincidentally, those three precincts are home to a number of the village’s special service areas. Russ and VIP trustees led a charge in 2004 to abate special service taxes for property owners in those areas, and promised to do the same in 2005 if he was reelected. Garvey has pledged to reverse that policy during his administration.
In Proviso and Riverside Townships, Russ didn’t win one precinct. His best showing was in Riverside’s 16th precinct, where he won 42 percent of the vote. Overall in the two Riverside township precincts in Brookfield, Garvey won 61 percent of the vote.
In Proviso Township the story for Russ was worse. Garvey swamped Russ by a 70 to 30 percent margin overall, 1,830 votes to 768. In the 109th Precinct (bounded by Harrison and Kemman avenues on the east and west, Jackson and Lincoln on the north and south), Garvey gobbled up nearly 81 percent of the vote.
In the 63rd Precinct (an area surrounding the vacant Buresh Lobster House property) Garvey won by a 79 to 21 percent margin. Garvey was also very strong in the 31st Precinct (bounded by Lincoln, Southview, Maple and Harrison) where he won 78 percent of the vote.
Garvey’s worst showing in Proviso Township was in the 32nd Precinct (just north of the 109th), where he still managed to win 63 percent of the vote.
The numbers were pretty similar with the rest of the candidates. In Lyons Township, VIP clerk candidate H. Jeane Eineman narrowly edged incumbent Dan Raddatz by a 51.5 to 48.5 percent margin. In Proviso and Riverside townships, Raddatz won 71 and 61 percent of the vote respectively. Like Russ, Eineman’s strongest support came from Lyons Township precincts 3 and 102 and 91.
Despite getting fewer votes in Lyons Township as a whole, however, Raddatz won five of the nine precincts.
In the race for the three village trustee seats, VIP candidates were also successful in Lyons Township, edging out all three PEP candidates there. Wil Brennan was the VIP slate’s top vote getter in Lyons Township with 917 votes, followed by Thomas Nowicki (813) and Mitch Mierop (777).
Kit Ketchmark led PEP candidates in Lyons Township with 775 votes, followed by Catherine Colgrass Edwards (761) and Michael Towner (690).
As with Russ and Eineman, the three VIP trustee candidates swept precincts 3, 91 and 102. The only precinct in which all three PEP candidates won a plurality was the 45th Precinct (bounded by Southview, Rochester, Prairie and Oak avenues). Garvey and Raddatz also carried the day in that precinct.
Broken down by individual precinct, Brennan carried eight of the nine Lyons Township precincts, while Nowicki carried four and tied with Ketchmark for another. Mierop carried three precincts. Edwards and Ketchmark each carried five Lyons Township precincts, while Towner carried just one, the 45th.
In Riverside Township, Brennan, Edwards and Ketchmark carried both precincts; Brennan and Ketchmark both live in Riverside Township.
But in Proviso Township, all three PEP candidates carried the day by large margins, each getting between 18 and 25 percent of the vote in every precinct. The best showing for any VIP candidate in Proviso Township was Brennan, who picked up 14 percent of the vote in both the 27th and 32nd precincts.
Mierop and Nowicki fared poorly in Proviso Township. Mierop won less than 10 percent of the vote in seven of the township’s 11 precincts; Nowicki fared only slightly better; fewer than 10 percent of voters opted for him in six precincts. In the 109th Precinct, where Garvey won in a rout, Mierop received just 5.7 percent of the vote.
The newly elected president and board will be sworn in at the regularly scheduled village board meeting on May 9.
