DuPage Leader Likely Not Running Again

HINSDALE, IL — No official announcement has been made yet, but it appears as if DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin is not seeking a fourth term.

In early June, Cronin, an Elmhurst Republican, donated $10,000 in political money to the campaign fund of Greg Hart, a Republican board member from Hinsdale. Hart is planning to run for board chairman in 2022, according to reports filed with the state Board of Elections.

It's highly unlikely Cronin would contribute to a potential rival in the Republican primary in June 2020. He did not return a message for comment left at his county office Wednesday.

Cronin appointed Hart to the board in 2017. Hart won re-election in his own right a year later.

Another County Board member, Republican Pete DiCianni of Elmhurst, has also indicated in election board documents that he is running for board chairman. Neither DiCianni nor Hart has publicly announced his plans.

Cronin has his differences with DiCianni. Last year, Cronin took issue with DiCianni's handling of Black Lives Matter supporters and his contention that some County Board members were trying to defund the police. Under pressure from Cronin and others, DiCianni stepped down from a key committee chairmanship.

At the end of June, Hart had $267,627 in his campaign account, nearly all of which he raised in the last quarter. Meanwhile, DiCianni lent his campaign a quarter million.

In the 2018 election, Cronin defeated County Board member Lynn LaPlante, a Democrat from Glen Ellyn, with 51 percent of the vote. Four years earlier, he cruised past his Democratic opponent, Robert Peichert, with nearly two-thirds of the vote. Like suburbs across the country, DuPage County is becoming increasingly Democratic.

With the 2020 election, Cronin presides over a Democratic board majority — a big change in the historically Republican county.