Area hopefuls file papers to run in primary election
Republican voters in northwest Champaign County apparently will have an unusual three-way race for a single county board seat in the Feb. 2 primary election.
On the first day of candidacy filing Monday, two Mahomet residents entered petitions to run against incumbent District 1 board member Chris Doenitz, 48, a rural Mahomet resident who last summer was ordered to get anger-management counseling after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. Doenitz was charged after he slapped another man in the face during a confrontation at the Anderson's grain elevator in rural Champaign.
District 1 is probably the most Republican of all the county board districts. Even in 2008, the two Republican county board candidates there averaged 5,589 votes to 3,269 votes for the two Democratic candidates. One of those Democrats, Eric Thorsland of rural Mahomet, submitted petitions Monday to run again in 2010.
Neither of the Republican challengers – 69-year-old Gary Maxwell or 48-year-old Stephanie Holderfield – mentioned Doenitz's legal problem in announcing their candidacies on Monday.
"I really am running to ensure that the strongest possible candidate is available to represent the Republican Party in District 1," said Maxwell. Asked if he thought that Doenitz could not be a strong candidate, Maxwell said, "This is really all I want to say. The strongest candidate will emerge in the primary."
Holderfield, who was government affairs chair for a local Realtors group, said she was unhappy with Doenitz because he had not answered questions she had about a wind turbine issue in the Mahomet area.
"He hasn't responded to any concerns that we have in our community," she said. "I know that people who serve on boards and commissions are inundated, but with the position I was holding at the time, we needed some clarification and we approached him. There was no response. Nothing. Nothing in public and nothing in private. I was disappointed with that."
Doenitz said he could not recall having been contacted by Holderfield.
"If I had," he said, "it had to be in an e-mail because I've never talked to her on the phone."
At one time, Doenitz said, he had considered not running for another term.
"The land resource management plan that we are considering right now is of great concern to me and that's probably the main reason I decided to run again," he said. "I think the county does need some kind of a plan because there isn't even a comprehensive plan. But I think we have to be careful about what it says and what it does."
Maxwell is a former county engineer for a number of southern Illinois counties. He was born in Charleston, grew up in Rantoul and moved to Mahomet in 1996 after retiring. He has been "slowly easing into retirement," he said, while doing hourly consulting work for HDC Engineering in Champaign.
Holderfield has been a Realtor for 15 years. She said she recently completed the Illinois Lincoln Series, a training program for Illinois women entering politics.
"I felt that it was time, especially after graduating from the Illinois Lincoln Series, that the taxpayers and the voters need someone who will ask probing questions and get answers," Holderfield said.
Other county candidates filing Monday included:
– District 2 incumbent Republican Stan James of Rantoul;
– District 3 incumbent Republicans Brad Jones and Jonathan Schroeder;
– District 7 Democrat Alan Kurtz of Champaign, who was appointed to the board in August 2008;
– District 9 Democrats Scott M. Bennett and James P. Quisenberry, both of Urbana, who are seeking to replace retiring Democrats Barbara Wysocki and Steve Beckett.
Also filing petitions were Sheriff Dan Walsh, County Treasurer Dan Welch and Clerk Mark Shelden, all incumbent Republicans.
In Springfield, state Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign, filed to run for a second term, and incumbent state Reps, Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana; Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet; and Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, also brought in their petitions of candidacy.
Chad Hays of Catlin filed to become a Republican candidate in House District 104, to replace Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, and Norman Davis of Champaign filed to be the GOP candidate in Jakobsson's 103rd District.
Also on this date
- Prosecutor: Affluence may have led to couple's murder
- Danville man pleads in 2006 shaking death of child
- First Busey loss for 3rd quarter: $283 million
- UI faculty members applaud outgoing leaders
- Lane closure planned on Neil Street for sewer work
- County's bomb-sniffing dog dies
- Man accused of molestation has next court appearance
- Glimpse of new Washington School presented
- Trick-or-treat hours in area communities
- Obituaries