Pekau holds 500-vote lead over McLaughlin in bid for re-election as Orland Park mayor
While mayoral race awaits mail-in ballots, People Over Politics team scores three trustee spots; One Orland Party candidate nabs clerk position
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau waits for election results to come in Tuesday, April 6, before supporters arrive at the People Over Politics campaign party at Papa Joe’s in Orland Park. Pekau holds a 500-vote lead over challenger Dan McLaughlin, per unofficial results from the Cook and Will county clerk websites. However, mail-in ballots have yet to be counted. JON DEPAOLIS/RICHARD FREE PRESS
By Jon DePaolis
ORLAND PARK, Ill. – Village of Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau appears to have won his bid for re-election Tuesday, April 6, according to unofficial results from both the Cook County Clerk and Will County Clerk websites.
With all 50 precincts reporting in Cook County and the one precinct reporting from Will County, Pekau received a total of 6,884 votes, while challenger Dan McLaughlin received a total of 6,372 votes. However, mail-in ballots have yet to be counted.
Pekau said he had not received a call from McLaughlin’s campaign conceding the election as of 10:30 p.m. But he said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the results.
“Even with the mail-in ballots that we know are outstanding, it does not look like [McLaughlin] can cover that gap,” Pekau said. “It looks like we have won, but I’m not expecting a call tonight.”
If the unofficial results hold, Pekau will have been not only re-elected to a second term but also helped seat all six Village trustees during the 2019 and 2021 elections, as his People Over Politics slate also captured all three open trustee seats.
“We’re going to continue the forward momentum, and we’re going to continue doing the things we’ve done in the last four years that have put [Orland Park] in such a good position,” Pekau said. “Now, we get an opportunity to see it through.
“I think we will have a board that will work together. My first two years, I had six trustees attacking me fairly regularly. The last two years, there were three that were constantly attacking all the time and – in my opinion – not working in the best interests of Orland Park. [They were] acting politically. I think that’s behind us now, so it’s time for us to move forward.”
Pekau said he will meet with the newly elected trustees and Village clerk after the election to discuss moving forward after a divisive campaign season. He also expects his role to change somewhat in his second term, as the mayor position was rolled back from a full-time job to a part-time job starting in May.
“I said that I would treat it as a full-time position, and I did,” he said. “I was very hands-on doing a lot of things. That was very helpful during COVID, and it was really helpful when you change 12 leaders out in your Village. But now we have a team that shares my vision, so now I will have to transition to a little bit different of a role because I still have to earn a living as well.”
Dan McLaughlin stands outside Silver Lake Country Club greeting voters about a half-hour before the polls closed Tuesday, April 6. JON DEPAOLIS/RICHARD FREE PRESS
Meanwhile, McLaughlin confirmed to Richard Free Press that his campaign was waiting until the mail-in ballots were counted before issuing a statement on the election results.
Earlier in the evening, just before the polls closed, McLaughlin spoke to Richard Free Press about how he felt the 2021 campaign went as compared to the 2017 election.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I’ve been knocking on doors and talking to people and getting a very positive response. But I’ve been in enough campaigns to know that there are a lot of things that can happen. Until that final vote is counted, I’m not going to assume anything.
“[I feel] way different [about this campaign]. We did things this year that we’ve never done before. I made a mistake four years ago … and we just didn’t run the best campaign. One mistake was to do coffees thinking they’d give me a chance to sit down with people for a length of time to explain the background and history of the issues, as well as why we voted or did certain things. But as it turns out, you’d get some coffees with very small crowds or you’d be preaching to the choir. I wasn’t picking up a lot of support that way.
“This time, I just knocked on doors. I probably [did that] somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,500 doors. We actually got ahold of about 1,000 people. We also did a lot of social media this time, when we did very little [of that] last time. That’s why I feel way different today than four years ago, because we just did so much more or did other things way better.”
People Over Politics team captures 3 trustee spots, lose clerk’s race
The People Over Politics team dominated the race for three open Village trustee positions, taking all three spots according to the unofficial results from the Cook and Will county clerk websites.
Sean Kampas was the top vote-getter, with 6,530 ballots cast in his favor. Coming in second was Brian Riordan, with 6,439. Placing third was Joni Radaszewski, with 6,399 votes.
The three candidates for trustee under the One Orland Party umbrella finished in the fourth through sixth slots: Amy Burrell (6,137); Chris Kasmer (6,018); and Derek Rinaldi (5,859).
However, it was not a total sweep for the People Over Politics team, as One Orland Party’s Patrick O’Sullivan bested Constantine “Gus” Lekas in the Village clerk race 6,648 to 6,350, according to the unofficial results.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available on the mail-in ballots and the status of both campaigns for mayor.