In county-wide races, no Democrats filed to run for sheriff or treasurer in LaSalle County. Republican Adam Diss filed for sheriff. Republican James Spelich filed for treasurer. Both are on the job now.
Lori Bongartz is the County Clerk and the only Democrat asking for that nomination. Two Republicans want to run for it. They are Steven Stohr of Ottawa and Jennifer Ebner of Peru.
Four LaSalle County Board districts will have Republican primary contests. Incumbent Catherine Owens of Sandwich and John Middleton of Leland filed to run in district 5. Ray Gatza of Peru and Joseph Nuske of LaSalle are in district 9. In district 11 are Rick O’Sadnick and Martin Rue, Jr., both of Peru. And in district 16 are William Brown, Jr. and Nicole Mertes, both of Utica.
Seven districts have no Republican candidates and 16 have no Democratic candidates. In those cases where no one filed petitions signed by voters to run in the primary, the party can pick candidates. For now, there are no LaSalle County Board candidates in two districts.
Incumbent Republican Ryan Spain of Peoria is the only candidate who filed in the 73rd Illinois House district. Two Republicans from Dixon, Bradley Fritts and Liandro Arellano, Jr., are in a primary in the 74th. Incumbent Republican David Welter of Dixon has Jed Davis of Newark as a challenger in the 75th. No Democrats filed in the 73rd, 74th, and 75th districts.
In the 76th, Jason Haskell of Peru is asking for the Republican nomination. Incumbent Lance Yednock of Ottawa filed for the Democrats.
Four Republicans filed in the 105th: Donald Rients (REENTS) of Benson, Dennis Tipsword of Metamora, Mike Kirkton of Gridley, and Kyle Ham of Bloomington. And just one Republican, Thomas Bennett of Gibson City, filed in the 106th. No Democrats filed in the 105th and 106th.
Win Stoller of E. Peoria and Brett Nicklaus of Dixon will face each other in a Republican primary in the 37th Illinois Senate district. Republican Sue Rezin of Morris is unchallenged in the 38th, as is Republican Jason Barickman of Bloomington in the 53rd. Only Republicans filed in those races.
One Democrat and six Republicans filed for the 14th district Congressional race. Lauren Underwood of Naperville is the Democrat, and she’s already in Congress. Any of the six Republicans who filed would be new there. Incumbent Republican Darin LaHood of Peoria and three other Republicans are asking for the party’s nomination in the 16th district. No Democrats filed.
There are three candidates for appellate judge in the 3rd district. Liam Christopher Brennan of Wheaton is the Republican. Sonni Choi Williams of Lockport and James A. Murphy of Shorewood are the Democrats. For the 3rd district Illinois Supreme Court, Republican Michael Burke of Elmhurst and Democrat Mary K. O’Brien of Essex are the candidates.
Jason Helland of Mazon and Christina Cantlin of Ottawa are the candidates for judge in the 13th Judicial Circuit. Helland is the Grundy County State’s Attorney and a former Secretary of State candidate. He’s to be on the Republican ballot. Cantlin is a Democrat and has the judge’s job now, having been appointed to fill the vacancy when Gene Daugherity moved up to the appellate court.
There are two weeks for people to challenge the signatures the candidates filed. And there’s more time for the political parties to pick people to fill ballot spots that would otherwise be blank.