With less than three weeks remaining before candidates for the spring 2009 elections can begin circulating nominating petitions, there’s a whole lot of mystery surrounding Brookfield.
While PEP, the party of Village President Michael Garvey and the entire village board, remain coy about their plans, the Landmark has confirmed that the VIP Party candidate for village president will be Wil Brennan and that a former village president, Bill Russ, will run as VIP’s candidate for clerk.
“Suffice it to say, I think we’re headed in the wrong direction,” said Brennan, who ran unsuccessfully for reelection to his trustee position in both 2005 and 2007.
Brennan was VIP’s top vote-getter in both those elections, however, which make him a logical candidate for the top spot on the ticket.
Russ, who lost his reelection bid for president in 2005 to Garvey, and finished fifth in a six-person race for trustee in 2007, said last week, “I don’t want to be a trustee, but I want to be at those meetings.”
Regarding his wish to be village clerk, Russ said, “I have more experience, and I’d get the job done better than [village clerk] Brigid Weber.”
Russ called Brennan an excellent choice for president.
“He’s been in town a long time; he’s been watching this board,” Russ said. “He’s got my endorsement hands-down.”
Neither Brennan nor Russ would reveal the rest of the VIP slate, though both said it was pretty much ready to go.
“We’ve got everyone selected, and they’ve agreed,” Brennan said.
Russ said that the slate includes “a couple of new names,” indicating perhaps that Linda Stevanovich, who ran unsuccessfully for trustee in 2005 and for clerk in 2007, could be on the ticket.
Brennan said that the party would announce the full slate via press release by Oct. 25.
Meanwhile, PEP is keeping their slate under wraps. In addition to Garvey and Weber, there are three trustee positions up for election-belonging to Cathy Colgrass Edwards, Michael Towner and Kit Ketchmark.
Edwards has already expressed an interest in another term at the board table, and Towner would seem to be a likely candidate to run for reelection.
Ketchmark, who has served two terms on the board since 2001, is out as trustee due to the village’s term-limit statute. The board’s finance chairman and a fighter at the board table, losing Ketchmark would be a big blow to PEP.
Reached last week, Ketchmark wouldn’t speculate on PEP’s ticket or his own political future.
Neither would Garvey, who also brushed away a rumor that he’s in line for a judgeship in DuPage County and that Ketchmark might run for president at the top of the PEP ticket.
“I think it’s wishful thinking on the part of others,” said Garvey. “I’m absolutely, positively not moving out of Brookfield.”
As for the thought that Ketchmark might be running for president, Garvey demurred, but added, “I think Kit would make a tremendous village president.”