Jim Dodge will remain on the ballot as candidate for Orland Park village president against incumbent Keith Pekau after an objection to his nominating papers was withdrawn Monday.
Dodge said he plans a lawsuit to recoup legal expenses he incurred defending the challenge.
John Hartmann filed a challenge to Dodge’s nominating petitions to challenge Pekau, claiming paperwork by Dodge, a former village trustee, is confusing as to whether he’s running for mayor or village president, although the terms are often using interchangeably.
But at a meeting Monday of an Orland Park Electoral Board, Dennis Reboletti, an attorney representing Hartmann, said Hartmann was withdrawing the objection.
Reboletti said it was simpler to withdraw the petition because he could not amend it after an error was made in composing the objection. The filed objection asked the Electoral Board to declare Dodge ineligible for the office of village clerk in Lombard, rather than Orland Park village president.
The attorney said Monday he did not draft the objection and was not sure how the error was made. Once filed, however, the objection could not be amended to correct the mistake.
Dodge said after the objection was pulled that his “petitions were flawless” and called the objection “frivolous.”
He said that he had spent several thousand dollars hiring attorneys with the firm Ancel Glink to defend the objection, and planned to file a lawsuit to try to recoup the money.
At Monday’s session, court-appointed members Laura Jacksack and James Carroll had replaced two Orland Park trustees who were originally part of the Electoral Board, along with village Clerk Brian Gaspardo.
When the Electoral Board first convened Dec. 2 to hear the objection, attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer said she asked Cook County Judge Maureen Ward Kirby to appoint an electoral board comprised of members who have no connection with Orland Park.
Trustees William Healy and Cynthia Katsenes were on the Electoral Board along with Gaspardo, recently appointed by Pekau as village clerk.
Krafthefer said state election board filings show all three have made contributions, either directly to Pekau’s campaign committee or to the People Over Politics party, which includes the Pekau and incumbent trustees.
The attorney said because of the contributions, the panel members were not objective.
Krafthefer said even if the composition of the board remained, the remedy or outcome of what Hartmann is seeking can’t be accomplished by the Orland Park panel. She said Hartmann is barred by state election law from filing a new, corrected objection to Dodge’s paperwork.
Dodge heads the Orland Park For All ticket, and is running with clerk candidate Mary Ryan Norwell and trustee candidates John Lawler, Dina M. Lawrence and Joanna M. Liotine Leafblad.
Dodge became village clerk in 1989 was appointed trustee in 1996. He did not seek reelection in April 2021.
Pekau heads the People Over Politics ticket in the April 1 election, and running with him are Gaspardo, trustee candidates Sean Kampas and Brian Riordan, both incumbents, and Carol McGury.
