Lake County Board Democratic incumbent Sara Frederick Knizhnik is defending her District 18 seat against Republican challenger Alexander Sofronas, with both emphasizing fiscal responsibility while questioning the other’s capabilities.
District 18 includes portions of Buffalo Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, Lake Zurich, Long Grove and Vernon Hills. Knizhnik was elected to the board in 2022.
Knizhnik is a graduate of Northwestern University, and attended graduate school in Monterey, California to study Russian translation and interpretation. She lived in Russia twice during the 1990s before earning a master’s degree in teaching in 1999. She moved to Buffalo Grove, and spent 17 years teaching at several universities in the Chicago area.
She’s lived in Vernon Hills since 2002, and has worked full-time as a gun-safety advocate on the local, state and federal level since 2017. She previously served almost two years as a Vernon Township trustee.
Prior to joining the County Board, Knizhnik was part of advocating efforts to create the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative, a first-of-its-kind agency with the State’s Attorney Office which is meant to “interrupt” cycles of gun violence through various means.
Knizhnik said the primary issues of the upcoming election are the protection of access to reproductive rights, increasing public safety by “fully supporting” law enforcement and correction agencies and their staff, business development, affordable housing, climate change solutions and maintaining fiscal responsibility.
“As County Board members, we’re entrusted with making good decisions about what to do with taxpayer funds, so I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this current board,” she said.
Knizhnik emphasized her experience as an elected official over her opponent, understanding “inside and out” how local government works. She also pointed to her experience as an advocate working at the federal level.
“It takes a great deal of both soft and hard skills, knowledge about how to work with people successfully … and how systems work within government,” she said. “In this case, I feel confident I’m the best candidate.”
Sofronas is a lifelong resident of District 18. He studied marketing and data science at DePaul University, and said he’s managed many millions of dollars in marketing budgets over his career. He hopes to bring those business skills to the County Board.
“I have a lot of experience in understanding marketing and how to make data-driven decisions, how to manage budgets,” he said.
Sofronas, who has not previously held an elected position, said he was driven to run because he feels the district is “going downhill.”
“The leaders are focused on the wrong things and overspending,” he said. “They’re focusing on things that aren’t relevant to our district specifically.”
As a born-and-raised resident of the area, he described himself as “a product” of District 18 who, “understands our community’s needs.” He criticized Knizhnik’s strong stances on guns and climate, which he felt weren’t issues on which the county should focus. Gun-related deaths in Lake County are low, he said.
“Meanwhile, chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes account for over 60% of preventable deaths in the county,” Sofrons said. “Yet my opponent focuses on stricter gun control, which doesn’t address these larger concerns. I believe in practical, targeted solutions that protect our residents and keep taxes low.”
He repeatedly criticized the county’s bird windows policy, which Knizhnik supported. The policy was passed earlier this year and requires bird-friendly glass on new and renovated county-owned buildings.
“The district spends a lot of money fixing some windows to be bird-friendly, but the vast majority of windows are not bird-friendly,” Sofronas said. “They’re spending a lot of money to save a very small number of birds.”
It was “ a perfect example” of what he said are “expensive climate policies” that “don’t actually fix the problem” while raising taxes.
Looking ahead, he emphasized fiscal responsibility. Lake County has the highest property taxes in the state, with the median tax bill around $8,000, according to the Tax Foundation research think tank.
Sofronas said the county could “easily” reduce the annual budget by $20 million to $40 million through an independent audit to “eliminate waste,” including “overlapping administrative roles, reducing outdated capital projects and renegotiating expensive contracts.” Nonessential projects could be cut through “careful review.”
“We need to streamline spending to focus on infrastructure, healthcare and education, that actually benefit District 18,” he said.
Sofronas said this year’s election will have a broader political impact on Lake County. The board, which has been majority Democrat for several years now, could even out drastically depending on the election results.
“This is a crucial voting year for Lake County,” he said.
In response, Knizhnik was critical of Sofronas’ comments about her regarding gun safety and the bird-window policy.
While she agreed more people die from disease than crime, Knizhnik said the long-term impact on families and the community from violence has a “downstream effect” that can impact businesses, property values and other factors.
“I think anybody that can’t see the intersectionality of social issues really has no business running for local office,” she said.
Knizhnik said she also felt the county was taking health risks such as heart disease seriously, with the Lake County Health Department having the largest staff of any department and receiving “universal recognition” as “the most effective public health department in the country.”
Efforts to save “thousands of birds” are important in helping to protect the environment, Knizhnik said, since the county is a major thruway for birds. Birds dying through window strikes negatively impact the food chain, she said, and his responses “reflect profound differences” between them.
“I am trained and very good at seeing how complex systems interact, and I recognize there’s always more to the story than what may appear on the surface,” Knizhnik said.