2 Challengers Enter Race For Aurora Mayor’s Office

AURORA, IL — The race to be Aurora's mayor is well underway with two challengers launching campaigns to take the seat in 2021.

Alderman Judd Lofchie and former East Aurora school board member John Laesch are the first candidates to announce they are seeking to become Aurora’s next mayor during the April 2021 municipal elections. Incumbent Mayor Richard Irvin has not yet announced his intent to seek re-election.

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Lofchie, who has represented the 10th Ward on Aurora’s Far East Side for the past three years, is running a campaign focused on bringing “much needed fiscal responsibility” to City Hall.

Lofchie pointed to a 2019 report by city officials that shows Aurora has more than $1.1 billion in debts and unfunded pensions. In addition, the city is facing a coronavirus-driven budget shortfall of up to $35 million, Lofchie said.

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He also warned against Irvin’s intent to move Hollywood Casino Aurora from downtown to near the Chicago Premium Outlets, which Lofchie says could cost the city up to $50 million.

“Much of this … will fall on the taxpayers’ shoulders,” Lofchie said of the city’s debts and liabilities.

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Lofchie is a well-known advocate for homeless residents in the Aurora area. He launched StreetWise in 1992 to provide jobs and services for homeless people, and the organization has helped more than 13,000 people in the nearly three decades since.

While announcing his campaign, the alderman hit out at Irvin after city inspectors ordered Hesed House, Aurora’s largest homeless shelter, to cut its maximum capacity in half earlier this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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Former school board member John Laesch launched his mayoral campaign Saturday with a speech outside Aurora City Hall.

Laesch wants to transform Aurora into an “epicenter” for green-collar jobs in the alternative energy industry, which would “carve out a long-term sustainable future for Aurora’s residents and economy."

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While serving on the District 131 board from 2015-2019, Laesch advocated for paying all district employees a living wage and creating a gender-neutral bathroom in response to students’ requests. Laesch also pushed for using electric school buses, creating a green-building curriculum and retrofitting the new administrative center to be more energy efficient, according to his campaign profile.

As part of his platform, Laesch is calling for the city to fund job-creation programs, community and youth services, and education and job training programs as ways to prevent crime, while shifting some duties from police officers to community service officers.

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He opposed the City Council’s recent purchase of new riot gear for Aurora police officers, criticizing members and Irvin “for considering purchasing riot gear before they buy body cameras for police.”

A son of missionary parents, Laesch was born and raised in Liberia before moving to the Fox River Valley when he was 12. He served as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Navy after graduating from Illinois State University.

Laesch moved to Aurora in 2008 and is a member of the Joliet-based Carpenters Union Local 174.

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