Countryside voters evidently don’t like change and are happy with the way things are.
Faced with races in each ward, they gave four-year terms to the three incumbents by impressive margins Tuesday.
“I’m doing just fantastic tonight,” Ald. Mark Benson (3rd) said from the victory party at the clubhouse of Flagg Creek Golf Course where he, John Von Drasek and John Finn celebrated with their supporters.
Benson was the biggest vote-getter in the city, garnering 336 votes to Larry Howard’s 61, giving Benson a whopping 84.6 percent of the votes cast in the ward, according
to complete but unofficial totals from the Cook County Clerk’s office.
In the 2nd Ward, Ald. John Von Drasek won his sixth consecutive four-year term in office.
Von Drasek received 301 votes to 115 for challenger John Harris, an impressive 3-to-1 margin for the longtime alderman.
And in the 1st Ward, Ald. John Finn received 158 votes, more than doubling the 73 votes for challenger Rosemary Dostal.
It was a clear mandate that Countryside voters like the direction the city is heading and don’t want to change things.
“It was an overwhelming victory for the residents of Countryside, “Benson said. “They put their trust in us and they know we are doing the right thing.”
“If the residents don’t like what we’re doing, they can vote us out,” Benson added.
Shortly after the polls closed, Dostal texted to a reporter, “It’s not looking good for us.”
The group had gathered to watch results at Ledo’s Pizza on La Grange Road.
She deferred comment to Harris, who texted a statement for the People For Change party.
“We have spent the greater part of four months knocking on doors, shaking hands, speaking with amazing people and sharings our ideas and concerns. We thank you for taking your precious time and listening to us.
“Although we have not won our individual ward elections, we appreciate all of the support we have received from you. We congratulate our current aldermen on their win,” he texted.
Harris later texted that “we had offered our ideas for change to the residents. However, it seems that they are not ready for a change and are happy with the status quo. I could come up with multiple scenarios as to why I think change didn’t resonate with the residents, but now is not the time or place for that.” Harris texted.
One of the main bones of contention was the challengers’ frustration with re-development of the long vacant former city hall site at 55th Street and East Avenue.
The challengers had also called the incumbents “a rubber stamp,” an accusation that angered the three aldermen each of whom denied the charge, saying individually that things are debated at length in committee meetings, meetings they say the challengers do not attend.