​Potential candidates who might challenge Orland Park Mayor Pekau

Potential candidates who might challenge Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau

By Ray Hanania

The rumors are ripe about all the people who want to run to unseat Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, the accidental mayor who stumbled into office in 2016 after the former mayor screwed up.

Some of the rumored candidates are surprising. Others are expected. None have formally announced, of course. The electioneering won’t start until after the November 3, General Election for President is over. Petitions will circulate in December for the Spring elections.

My guess is Pekau will run as a Republican, even though he could never truly represent the Republican Party in Orland Park, while his challengers will most likely run on independent, non-partisan slates as they all should. Pekau is so far to the right he’s wrong in every sense of the word.

But party labels like Republican or Democrat don’t really mean much in local races and local issues that need to be addressed should be addressed in consensus, not in partisan political bickering.

One person not running for the office is Paul O’Grady, who is hailed as one of the region’s best government leaders. O’Grady was elected as the Orland Township Supervisor in 2009 and he has done a great job ever since.

One of his key assets is that he always gives credit to his staff for the Township’s achievements, which are many. But in truth, a good leader nurtures a great staff and together they work to provide phenomenal government services.

Just last week, O’Grady cut the ribbon along with Secretary of States Jessie White on a new Secretary of State Service Center at Orland Township. On the first day after the ribbon-cutting, hundreds of people lined up to take care of their license issues, rivaling the long line that formed alongside for early voting.

The point is that the Secretary of State’s local community service office is extremely popular with the public. It used to be located at Orland Park Village Hall but Pekau, a Tea Party fanatic, shut the center and tried to blame it on White.

No one knows why Pekau would make such a stupid decision to deny such an important service to the residents, except for the fact that Pekau is a Republican extremist and White is a mainstream Democrat.

Another name being rumored as a potential candidate is former Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy. McCarthy built up a sterling career as a cop after being injured as a Secret Service agent during the failed assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

McCarthy’s problem is his political track record, like his failed bid to run for statewide office for Secretary of State in 1998. Jessie White, then the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, ran, and defeated McCarthy by a landslide, 55 percent to 45 percent.

But the election is not what most voters will remember. Instead, they will remember the personal feelings that rose in the political melee between McCarthy and another contender, Penny Severns, a former Illinois State Senator.

Severns was diagnosed with breast cancer after entering the race. She died two days after her fast deteriorating health forced her to withdrew from the race rather than fight a political challenge by McCarthy to her nomination petitions.

Severns’ death came one month prior to the Democratic primary that White easily won.

Prior to her death, Severns slammed McCarthy, who was serving as Orland Park’s police chief at the time, accusing him of "an underhanded effort to deny the voters of Illinois a choice to support" of her candidacy.

Many women who remember that vicious battle may not be too sympathetic to McCarthy, who was viewed as bullying a woman out of the race, rather than having the courage to run against her in the election on the basis of debating issues.

Challenging Severns’ petition was politically cowardly, many felt, and the trauma of that fight contributed to the stress that may have hastened Severns’ death.

You can read the Chicago Tribune report published at the time by clicking here.

McCarthy’s biggest challenge will be explaining to the public why he should replace Pekau when he stood by Pekau’s side in silence as the mayor pursued his personal animus against his critics, including against me. McCarthy was in Village Government everyday that Pekau did what he did, and now you are going to criticize him?

Former Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman, who built a name as a champion fighting for the rights of taxpayers while on the county board, is also perched to announce her candidacy.

If Gorman runs as many expect, she would be the key candidate to take down Pekau, Orland Park’s bully-in-chief who has been criticized for attacking nearly everyone who has disagreed with his leadership decisions.

Although she saved the taxpayers of Cook County thousands in unnecessary sales taxes imposed by then County Board President Todd Stroger, her opponents will dig deep to throw mud, dredging up old stories about her husband’s auto dealership bankruptcy. But while they can criticize the personal side of her husband’s business life from decades ago, they certainly can’t criticize Liz Gorman’s leadership and he prowess as a pro-taxpayer champion.

And of course, when you have been in office as comfortably as Dan McLaughlin was for so many years as Orland Park mayor, it’s hard to accept the fact that it’s time to stay retired.

McLaughlin is also being rumored to be considering a return to office in the spring as a candidate. McLaughlin was always a decent mayor, who was first elected in 1983 as a village trustee. I know because I covered his election and brilliant rise in local politics. Eight years later, he was elected Mayor and held on to the office until losing the election on April 4, 2017. Voters angrily voted against him for the first time in more than three decades.

Click here to read my column from 2017 analyzing that election race.

Why McLaughlin would want to get back into a contentious election after creating the environment which allowed Pekau to stumble into office is perplexing? Why not relax and pursue other options? McLaughlin, who has a great personality, has a lot of experience. It is hard to criticize him. He could easily pursue a less contentious career that doesn’t open old and ugly political wounds.

Running again would only open those old wounds stemming from the hypocrisy of using his political office to give himself a massive salary hike and a huge pension benefit.

Keith Pekau, of course, has announced he is running. His ego wouldn’t have it any other way. Although Pekau’s campaign achievements basically are laundered achievements that were initiated by McLaughlin and the board before he got to office, he’ll claim them as his own.

Pekau’s poor leadership in the wake of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is staggering. He failed to be a role model for caution by constantly not wearing face masks. It’s irresponsible. His failed lawsuit against Gov. J.B. Pritzker was a waste of taxpayer money that had only one benefit, creating an issue to use in his re-election literature. “I Challenged Pritzker, Illinois’ unpopular Governor,” I can imagine his mailers asserting!

Instead of expanding Orland Park, he has tightened his grip on the village, consolidating committees and eliminating their independence, and constantly bullying and name calling against other officials on the Village Board, like Dan Calandriello and Jim Dodge.

We have about two months before we know who will jump into the race. All of these rumored candidacies might fizzle after careful self-review, or more may enter the race. We’ll just have to wait and see.

(Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and political Opinion columnist. You can reach him on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.)