Aurora's City Council races just got a lot more crowded. Twenty-five candidates filed to run for six council seats up for grabs in the city's April election, with a wide-open at-large race featuring a former alderman, a dance-studio owner and a Kane County Board member, alongside ward battles.
Candidate filings opened Oct. 19 and closed Oct. 26, setting up the field for the April 6 election, according to the Chicago Tribune. City Clerk Jennifer Stallings noted that everyone who filed remains subject to objections, meaning the field could still shrink before ballots are finalized. The seats in play include the at-large position along with the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th ward seats.
If more than four candidates submit valid petitions for a single office, Aurora law requires a February primary, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the April ballot. That threshold matters most in the 5th Ward, where incumbent Carl Franco's decision in July not to seek reelection opened the door to eight petition filers vying for his seat — more than any other race on the ballot, per the same filings reported by the Tribune.
At-Large Race Draws a Crowded Field
Will White, who was appointed to the council's at-large seat in May 2025, is now facing his first election for the position — and he'll have five challengers to get past. David E. Smith Jr., who founded At Risk Mentoring and operates a youth and family community center in Aurora, is among them, as is Judd Lofchie, a self-employed attorney and commercial real estate broker who previously served as alderman of Aurora's 10th Ward and ran for mayor in 2025. Lofchie moved to Aurora roughly three decades ago.
Guillermo Rodriguez, who has been endorsed by the West Suburban Democrat Socialists of America and has publicly opposed both a mayoral recall referendum and a proposed city-manager referendum, is also in the at-large race. Rodriguez filed alongside Alex Arroyo, a Kane County Board member who previously served on the East Aurora School District 131 Board of Education, and Charmaine Petersen, who owns the Dream School of Dance inside Fox Valley Mall and is involved with the nonprofit Color of Excellence. The three of them filed within the final hour before the deadline, just before 5 p.m. on Oct. 26.
Ward Races Pit Incumbents Against New Faces
In the 1st Ward, incumbent Daniel Barreiro filed for reelection and will face Hugo Saltijeral Sr., executive director of Valley Sheltered Workshop in Batavia, an organization that helps adults with disabilities build skills and independence. Saltijeral also serves on Gov. JB Pritzker's task force for employment and economic opportunity for people with disabilities.
The 3rd Ward pits incumbent Ted Mesiacos, who filed for reelection, against Arriana Dallmann, a 14-year resident of the ward who earned a master's degree in criminal justice from Aurora University this spring. Dallmann has been involved with Hesed House, the ACLU and local political campaigns. In the 6th Ward, incumbent Michael Saville filed for reelection and will face Cassandra Echeverria, a community organizer and activist involved with the Aurora Neighborhood Safety Team.
The 8th Ward features the most crowded challenger field against an incumbent: Patty Smith, who filed for reelection, faces Ali Kazmi, Ghousia Wajid, Tony Michelassi and Jennifer Pazos. Kazmi has lived in Aurora for more than a decade. Wajid, an 11-year resident of the 8th Ward, serves on Aurora's Indian American Community Outreach Advisory Board and Naperville's Advisory Commission on Disabilities, sits on Aurora's Planning and Zoning Commission, and previously served two terms as an elected Democratic precinct committeeperson. Michelassi is a former DuPage County Board member.
Eight-Way Scramble for the Open 5th Ward Seat
With Franco stepping aside, the 5th Ward race has splintered into eight candidates: Sandra Schmitt, Kendala Coleman, Rani Esposito, Miguel A. Diaz Jr., Sharron Mayes, Andrea Jones, Deena Sherman and Emmanuel S. Llamas. Esposito, an educator in West Aurora District 129, formed her campaign finance committee in early summer. Sherman previously ran for the same 5th Ward seat back in 2015.
Llamas resigned as 1st Ward alderman in 2024 to care for his father and now chairs the ballot initiative committee seeking to change Aurora's form of government to a city-manager system. That push is separate from the April election but shares a timeline: Franco himself has since launched a website and formed a committee advocating for the same city-manager model, according to the Chicago Tribune. He needs at least 1,900 signatures by Dec. 1 to put the question on the April 4 ballot and had collected more than 300 as of late August, with the first of three town hall meetings held to discuss the idea.
Ethics Rules Loom Over the Race
Every candidate on the ballot will also have to navigate Aurora's ethics reform laws passed this past summer under Mayor John Laesch, which the April 6 election will serve as an early test of. The ordinance requires candidates to disclose economic interests to the city, including outside employment, political committee affiliations, real estate holdings, entity ownership, membership in city-funded organizations and gifts over $150.
The rules also cap campaign donations from businesses holding city contracts at $1,500 in local elections and bar public officials, city employees and lobbyists from soliciting or accepting campaign contributions on city property, with an exception for city parks subject to the public's standard park fees. Some aldermen have voiced worry that the added restrictions could complicate candidacies and discourage first-time local candidates from stepping forward, the Tribune reported.
For now, the 25 names on file represent the starting lineup for April, though city officials have cautioned that objections filed through Nov. 2 could still alter who actually appears on the ballot.
