In Tuesday’s consolidated election, Aurora voters appear to have mostly kept incumbent candidates on City Council — except in the alderman at-large race.
Incumbent at-large Ald. Ron Woerman trailed challenger Keith Larson with his 41.95% of the vote to Larson’s 58.05%, according to unofficial results Tuesday night from Kane, Kendall, DuPage and Will counties, with all precincts reporting.
Larson told The Beacon-News that he “wasn’t expecting this” but that it “feels really amazing,” and he is grateful to everyone who helped to make it possible.
“I could never have done this by myself, so it’s really a group effort,” he said. “I want that to be how our city is operated: just group, community effort.”
A political ally to apparent mayor-elect John Laesch, Larson said in a speech at Laesch’s election watch party held at the Two Brothers Roundhouse Tuesday night that he and Laesch plan to push ethics reform, especially around campaign donations, to limit the influence of special interests.
The race for 7th Ward alderman was close, with Tuesday night unofficial results showing incumbent Brandon Tolliver with 50.48% of the vote and challenger Javier Banuelos with 49.12% of the vote.
With a difference of less than 20 votes between Tolliver and Banuelos, yet-to-be-received mail-in votes could still swing the 7th Ward aldermanic race.
Other contested races for Aurora City Council had larger margins, according to unofficial results.
In the race for 1st Ward alderman, unofficial results Tuesday night showed incumbent Dan Barreiro had 42.51% of the vote while challengers Hugo Saltijeral had 26.66%, Ray Hull had 17.88% and Jeffrey D. Donelson had 12.95%.
In the race for 2nd Ward alderman, unofficial results Tuesday night showed incumbent Juany Garza with 58.78% of the vote and challenger Alfonso Santoyo with 41.22%.
There was no incumbent in the 4th Ward alderman race. Jonathan Nunez appeared to have won the race with unofficial results showing him receiving 60.81% of the vote to Jeffrey Hansford’s 39.19%.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com