Illinois votes: Larry Dominick wins another term in Cicero, Irvin and Laesch advance in Aurora
Town President Larry Dominick won a sixth term in the mayoral election in the near western suburb on Tuesday.
Dominick, a former member of Cicero Police Department, has been on the job 20 years. He is facing a challenger which does not happen every cycle in Cicero.
Challenger Esteban Rodriguez was executive director of a youth-focused nonprofit. Rodriguez received about 43% of the vote, or 3,412 votes, in the nonpartisan election, while Dominick prevailed with 57%, or 4,586 votes.
Rodriguez had campaign on flooding issues in Cicero, as well as issues regarding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protecting migrants.
Just to the west in Berwyn, incumbent Mayor Robert J. Lovero appeared to prevail with 54% of the vote in the nonpartisan election there, compared with 36% for challenger Rafael "Ralph" Avila, and 10% for Alicia Maria Ruiz.
It was critical that Lovero's share of the vote exceeded 50% to avoid a runoff.
In Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois, five people — including incumbent Richard Irvin — were running to be mayor. The top two vote-getters will face a runoff round — Irvin, and Navy veteran and former local school board member John Laesch.
Irvin and Laesch have faced off before, and have exchanged heated political back-and-forth over the years.
Turnout was quite low in the primary Tuesday, as is common when there are not big races like president or governor. Overall, turnout in Cook County was just above 20% — which means only one in five registered voter bothered to cast a ballot.
The highest total was in Dolton, where embattled and controversial Mayor Tiffany Henyard lost in a landslide to Trustee Jason House. In that race, about 27% of voters turned out.
On the low end was south suburban Riverdale, where barely 13% of voters cast ballots for village president. That amounts to under 1,000 votes total.
