Partisan politics in Naperville's nonpartisan election raises questions over how future races will be run

Chicago Tribune

03-04-2025

Just after unofficial results in the race for Naperville City Council rolled in Tuesday night, Ian Holzhauer weaved through supporters to make a speech. Packed into a room at the back of Lou Malnati's in downtown Naperville, eyes turned to Holzhauer as the incumbent positioned himself under an arch of red, white and blue balloons.
'Look at what we did,' Holzhauer said to the audience, 'four out of four.'
Holzhauer joined fellow incumbent Benny White and newcomers Mary Gibson and Ashfaq Syed in securing the four open seats.
In the months leading up to Election Day, the group coordinated their campaigns and were often seen pictured together on flyers and promoting one another in messaging and across social media.
But beyond just aligning themselves, the candidates received the backing of both prominent Naperville Democrats and the party itself, a move that has raised questions over the role political parties are playing in traditionally nonpartisan races.
'You need to be up front with voters'
Over the first few weeks of March, White, Holzhauer, Syed and Gibson each took to social media to make an announcement: they had been endorsed by Democratic U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood and Bill Foster, both Naperville residents. The candidates circulated pictures of themselves standing alongside the congressional members.
Underwood endorsed through her Farm Team political action committee, which she created in 2019 to help elect candidates to state and local office across Illinois' 14th congressional district. In addition to weighing in on the council race, Underwood's PAC also endorsed four candidates for Naperville Park Board: Rhonda Ansier, Leslie Ruffing, Alison Thompson and Aishwarya Balakrishna. Foster issued the same endorsements, according to a campaign spokesperson.
It was a clean sweep for all eight endorsed candidates Tuesday night, with Underwood and Foster's picks slated to win.
Although they were running for a nonpartisan position, White, Holzhauer, Syed and Gibson deciding to join forces and securing Underwood and Foster's endorsements sent a clear message about where they stood, they said.
'A lot of this comes down to where your values align,' White said, 'and with our congressional representatives, there was synergy as far as alignment on values there.'
'You need to be up front with voters,' Gibson said. 'Just because you say I align with one party or the other party doesn't mean you can't work with everyone. If we're all involved with public policy, which we are as council members, you should have opinions on policies. And if you're saying you don't, I think it's a little disingenuous.'
'We were very clear,' Syed said, 'about what we are … and very clearly we said yes, 'I have democratic values, and I am running on these values.''
That transparency is, in part, what Syed believes stuck a chord with voters Tuesday, he said.
Holzhauer echoed Syed, saying that for him, 'I feel like my No. 1 duty is to be truthful to voters. So, if they ask me where I stand on national issues I'm just going to be honest. And I think for a lot of voters that resonated in this election.'
For some, though, the approach has sparked concerns over partisanship bleeding into nonpartisan matters.
'Unprecedented' partisanship
To DuPage County Republicans Chairman Kevin Coyne, the tactic was 'unprecedented locally,' he said.
'They ran an overtly partisan slate for city council,' he said, a move he says is a 'frightening sign of things to come for Naperville.'
DuPage Republicans did not formally endorse anyone in the race for council, Coyne said. Coyne's political action committee, Safe Suburbs USA, did, however, endorse three candidates: incumbent Jennifer Bruzan Taylor alongside challengers Derek McDaniel and Meghna Bansal. The PAC also backed two candidates for park board, Zachary Jarrell and Natalia Dagenhart.
In unofficial returns, all five lost their respective bids. Bruzan Taylor, who has sat on council since 2021, was out of the running for reelection by just over 2,000 votes, dependent on mail-in ballots yet to be counted. For park board, the difference between the fourth- and fifth- highest vote-getters was 2,281 votes.
DuPage Republicans did, on occasion, signal support for the same candidates on social media but Coyne says that was a reaction to involvement across the aisle.
'It was somewhat of a surprise that you had high-ranking party leaders involved in a local race like that … and so we saw (some candidates) getting out there and getting beat up a little bit by the other side and we wanted to do what we could to help them. Obviously, it wasn't enough, unfortunately.'
Bansal, who was the sixth-highest vote-getter in unofficial returns, said she was 'completely stunned' when results came in Tuesday. 'It was very clearly visible that the slate is winning because they are totally attached with one party line,' she said.
McDaniel in an emailed statement said, 'We ran this campaign the Naperville way — by focusing on issues, not party identity.'
Jaiswal could not be reached for comment but said in a social media statement Wednesday that in a 'city polarized by party lines, the outcome did not align' with his 'independent agenda.'
Bruzan Taylor said that since the election, she's had 'such an outpouring from people shocked … saying that they're sad to see this was about partisanship.' She added that she wouldn't change anything about the campaign that she ran.
'I stayed focused on the issues only,' she said. 'I stayed nonpartisan, as these are supposed to be.'
Still, others say partisanship isn't — and shouldn't be — necessarily unwelcome.
Drawing on party lines
Dianne McGuire, vice chair of the Democratic Party of DuPage County, says she's 'not a big fan of nonpartisan races, frankly.' They depress turnout, she said.
'I'd like to see more openness about where people are in their value system,' McGuire said, 'and party labels say something about where your values are.'
The sentiment was shared — and promoted — across the state.
The Democratic Party of Illinois (DPI) backed 280 candidates in Tuesday's election, according to DPI Executive Director Ben Hardin. Among those included Naperville's now eight apparent winners for council and park board.
'It's something the party hasn't done in the past, right? Working in these nonpartisan municipal elections,' Hardin said. 'We came to the decision (of), you know, screw precedent here. We need to defend our values. And we did.'
DPI supported candidates by sending mail, digital and SMS communications to Democratic voters, Hardin said. Ultimately, of the candidates DPI supported, 222 — or 79% — won their races, Hardin said.
Speaking to the results in Naperville, he said, 'We are so thrilled … I mean we, like, cleaned house.'