Meet the new Mayors

Five new mayors were elected around DeKalb County in the 2013 Consolidated Elections but incumbents were only defeated in two contested races.

Richard Olson defeated Tom Thomas for Mayor of Sandwich in a heated contest. Thomas was first elected as a write in candidate in 1989. Olson, a former police chief, received more than 70% of the vote. One of his primary goals is to promote a spirit of cooperation between city government and the community’s businesses and organizations.

In Cortland another former police chief, Russell Stokes, received more than 51% of the vote in a three man race for mayor. Bob Seyller was seeking his third term as mayor but received only 26% of the vote. Current and long time serving trustee, Chuck Lanning, finished with 22% of the vote.

Les Bellah was re-elected as Village President for Kirkland by a 64% to 36% margin over challenger Tony Parker. In Malta, Vince McCabe defeated challenger Sean Conlon by a similar margin (67% – 33%).

Genoa has a new mayor as Todd Walker did not seek re-election. Mark Vicary defeated Jayson Hansen by a 56% – 44% margin.

Low voter turnout was again the news of the election. Only 13,043 of 58,550 registered voters in the county voted. That’s 200 less voters than participated in the 2009 Consolidated Elections.

John Rey is the new Mayor of DeKalb. He won with a plurality of votes (33%) over a field of four candidates. Kris Povlsen, the current mayor, did not seek re-election.

Ken Mundy in Sycamore, Richard Boris (Lee), Thomas Eckle (Waterman), James Roderick (Hinckley) and Aaron Grandgeorge (Somonauk) all won uncontested races.