Palermo will run for second term on village board, but says he cannot seek backing of Citizens Council

La Grange Trustee Jim Palermo Monday night said he will run for a second term on the village board, but that he is prohibited by a condition of his employment from seeking the endorsement of the La Grange Citizens Council.

La Grange Trustee Jim Palermo
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Palermo, a director and securities analyst with Chicago Equity Partners, said that new rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission resulted in an internal policy change at the company that "would limit my ability to participate in a party organization."

Consequently, Palermo said he will run as an independent candidate.

While the village board is non-partisan, and the council is not aligned with any major political organization, council members in the past often have formed an independent political party in order to support and fund the council's slate of candidates for the boards of the village, library and park district.

Palermo sought and won the endorsement of the council in his first successful bid for a village board seat in 2007.

While many La Grange candidates believe that obtaining the endorsement of the council is tantamount to winning the primary in a one-party race, council-backed candidates have not always emerged as victors on Election Day.

Jim Boo was one of three candidates endorsed by the council in 2009 who ran for three seats on the park district board of commissioners. But Boo came in fourth as Tim Kelpsas, an incumbent park commissioner who sought but failed to gain the council's backing, ran as an independent and got more votes than any of the council's candidates.

Kelpsas attributed his victory to a vigorous door-to-door campaign effort.

Palermo said he will adopt the same tactic.

"I knocked on a lot of doors four years ago, and I'll knock on a lot of doors this time," he said.

Although Palermo will run as an independent, he will still be able to accept financial contributions, and participate in non-council candidate forums, such as the one sponsored four years ago by an eastside residents group.

Another incumbent village trustee, Mark Kuchler, reportedly is once again seeking the council's endorsement.

But Tom Livingston, a third trustee whose term also expires next May, said Monday night that he will not run for a third term, fulfilling a campaign promise he made when he first sought the office eight years ago.