Sodaro Still Alive in 3rd District Village Trustee Race

It ain’t over until the fat lady sings, and in at least one contentious local race, the fat lady is still sitting in her dressing room yanking up her panty hose.

The Dist. 3 race for the Oak Lawn Village Board is still too close to call when unofficial polling results showed that at least 700 voters had cast write-in ballots.

Oak Lawn Village Board Trustee Bob Streit whose name appeared alone on the ballot racked up 735 votes—including those cast in early voting—according to unofficial results from the Cook County Clerk’s office.

Challenger Dan Sodaro ran as a write-in candidate after he got off the ballot because of issues with his nominating petitions. As of Tuesday night, at least 700 voters cast write-in ballots in the 3rd District. Until the county clerk individually canvases those votes, it may be two weeks before a winner is declared in that race.

Factoring in ballots cast in early voting—the county does not canvass write-in votes until after regular ballots are counted—Sodaro could possibly squeak out a victory against the senior trustee.

“I have said all along that I was in the race to win,” Sodaro said Tuesday night. “Surely there were moments of doubt, but as we got closer to today, I knew it was going to be close and right now we’re close.”

In a race marked by twists and turns, and , and accusations of, Sodaro said he stopped fighting the objection against his nominating petitions because he ran out of money to pay his attorney.

A dismally low voter turnout on Tuesday may also have helped keep Sodaro alive late in the game.

“I know that a lot of my supporters voted early so they could help me out today,” Sodaro said.

Sodaro currently sits as president of the Ridgeland Dist. 122 School Board and has said that if he wins village trustee, he would resign from his school board seat.

Over at De Ja Brew, where Streit had set up camp awaiting the election returns along with Village Clerk Jane Quinlan, Village Manager Larry Deetjen, Trustee Tom Duhig and supporters, Streit said he was surprised by the high number of write-in ballots cast in the 3rd District.

“I was, no question about it,” Streit said, “but I was probably more surprised at the low turnout. I ran a good campaign. I’ve always gone out and worked hard on behalf of the people in my district and in Oak Lawn. Right now I’m ahead and I feel confident that my lead will hold.”

Did he regret the that was filed putting Sodaro off the ballot?

“I think what it did was give him an issue that he otherwise didn’t really have because he didn’t run on any real issues. They were all fake issues,” Streit said. “I think to some degree he was able to energize his base and that issue helped.”

Asked if he would still have supported the challenge to Sodaro’s nominating petitions considering the still too-close-to-call race, Streit said, “hindsight is 20/20.”

“I still think the objection was legitimate,” Streit said, “but it is what it is. I work very hard not just on behalf of the people in my district but all of the people in Oak Lawn. I’d like to continue doing that. I hope to continue, but I can certainly accept what the results are and we’ll see what they are. It is what it is.”