File photo of Robert Jaskiewicz (Left) and Michael Carpanzano at a 2014 Bolingbrook Chamber of Commerce event.

By Dale Onofrey
Political Columnist

With Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar retiring this week, I decided to use our exclusive Babble Poll to see who the residents want to be Bolingbrook’s next mayor.  It turns out they narrowly favor Trustee Robert Jaskiewicz over Trustee Michael Carpanzano:

Trustee Robert Jaskiewicz 30%
Trustee Michael Carpanzano 20%
Trustee Mary Basta 10%
Trustee Michael Lawler 10%
Village Clerk Carol Penning 10%
Trustee Maria Zarate 10%
Beg Naperville to annex Bolingbrook instead 10%

Conventional wisdom says Michael Lawler, a member of the ruling First Party for Bolingbrook party, has the advantage in the race for interim mayor.  However, I think if there’s enough popular support, enough FPB trustees might break with Roger, and support Bob.  While that might seem like a promotion for Jaskiewicz, it could be a clever trap.  With the new co-executives running the day to day operations of the village, and FPB still in control, a Mayor Jaskiewicz would have no real power.  In what I call the Nightmare Scenario, Roger’s allies would run the village, and “Blame Bob” whenever things went wrong.  Unless Jaskiewicz is able to use the position of Mayor to build up his base and lead BU to victory.

Carpanzano, on the other hand, might be able to persuade the other Trustees that he’s the most qualified candidate to replace Claar.  After all, he could argue, he is the Bolingbrook Patch Mayor.  Is it really that different than being Bolingbrook’s mayor?

The biggest surprise of all is Trustee Sheldon Watt’s abysmal showing in this poll.  It seems like more residents would rather disband Bolingbrook than have him serve as mayor.  He has a lot of work to do if he wants to catch up with the other trustees in the race to be interim mayor.

I can’t wait to see how the next few weeks play out.  No matter who wins, Bolingbrook will end up with its first new mayor in over 30 years!

From the Webmaster: This poll has a margin of error of over 30 percent, and that’s being generous for an online poll.  It’s also likely that Claar selected his successor before he announced his retirement, and the vote next month will just be a formality.  In other words, my brother is not Nate Silver.