Candidate Believes Objection Petition Motivated by Political Agenda

Despite an objection filed against his nomination petitions, Chris Frank isn’t worried about being thrown out of the the race for a seat on the Hinsdale Township District 86 school board.

The objection was filed Dec. 31 by Bruce Davidson, a Hinsdale resident and registered voter, who stated in the objection that he examined the signatures on Frank’s petition and found at least 14 of the 60 signees were not registered voters.

The Illinois Election Code requires at least 50 registered voters be included in a nominating petition.

Frank said he checked the voter signatures in question on the nomination petition he filed Dec. 18, and he’s confident he can defend 53 of the 60 signatures at the Jan. 7 hearing with the DuPage County Election Commission.

Frank said some of the signatures don’t appear to belong to registered voters because of a mix up between married and maiden surnames, nicknames and full names and other technicalities.

“I believe I’m at 53 qualified signatures, so I feel really good heading into the hearing Wednesday that I’ll meet the 50 signature minimum,” Frank said.

Frank said the objection was an attempt to keep him out of the April 7 election so he wouldn’t take votes away from candidates Fred Cappetta, of Oak Brook, and Greg Gershuny, of Hinsdale, who are running on the Friends of District 86 slate with incumbent Rick Skoda.

Frank said Davidson wanted him to join the Friends of District 86 slate, and Frank said Davidson even filed his statement of economic interest disclosure form for him on Dec. 12.

But Frank decided to run as an independent candidate, and he said he now believes Davidson is trying to block him from the race over concerns that Frank will take votes away from the slate candidates.

When asked if his objection was politically motivated, Davidson told Patch that some of the people who signed Frank’s nominating petitions aren’t registered voters.

“If I went to the [DuPage County] election commission and told them I was concerned about [Frank siphoning votes from the slate], they’d laugh me out on the street,” Davidson said. “They’re interested in whether there are 50 signatures. He can imagine anything he wants to. The rules are clear.”

The DuPage County Officers’ Electoral Board will meet at 4 p.m. on Jan. 7 to hear the objection to Frank’s petition, according to the election commission website.

In addition to Frank, Skoda, Cappetta and Gershuny, other candidates for the Hinsdale Township High School District 86 school board include incumbent Jennifer Planson, and newcomers Kathleen Hirsman, of Clarendon Hills, and Bill Carpenter, of Darien, according to the candidate listing on the DuPage County Election Commission website.

Planson, Hirsman and Carpenter are also running together as a slate that is said to be financed by the Dist. 86 Education First political action committee.

Correction: The Hinsdale High School Teachers’ Association has not endorsed or announced support of any of the Dist. 86 school board candidates. We have corrected the statement and apologize for the error.

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