Progress Illinois

Back in May, Adam profiled several young progressive candidates running for public office around Illinois.  Among them was Tony Michelassi, a 23-year-old Democratic candidate for the GOP-dominated Dupage County Board:

After receiving his Associates Degree in Political Science from the College of DuPage in December, Michelassi decided that government service was the career that best suited him. “Politics gets a bad rap in our society as being something that people go into if they can’t make it in the private sector, and that’s not true,” he says. “Politics can and should be treated as a profession.”

If elected to the DuPage board, Michelassi hopes to ease the county’s growing pains. He says that the board is struggling to balance its budget and the steps members have proposed to alleviate excessive outlays -- cutting funding for the public safety department or charging fees for storm water drainage service – aren’t appropriate responses.

Well, last week Michelassi -- who works at a Jewel-Osco photo desk in Naperville -- won election to the board.  And no seemed more amazed than himself:

Michelassi was ahead of [GOP candidate Garry] Cassioppi the first time he checked the votes online.

"I was absolutely stunned but I thought, it's early voting and a lot of Democrats went to early vote and this is going to change when they get to Election Day votes," Michelassi said. "I thought, yeah, I'll probably finish an admirable third at best."

He began to hope by the end of the evening, when he still hovered above Cassioppi. After he won by a margin of 2,193 votes, he said his phone began to ring with calls from friends and family members who shared his astonishment.

"They're all pretty amazed," Michelassi said. "They're all very proud of me and it's just an amazing feeling to have all this support coming in."

Michelassi is the youngest person to ever sit on the board.  He said he plans to leave his job at Jewel-Osco and pursue a political science degree at Aurora University.

Of the candidates we profiled earlier this year, Democrat Jehan Gordon was the only other victor.  She defeated Republican Joan Krupa in the race for the Illinois House seat in the 92nd District, formerly held by GOP congressman-elect Aaron Schock.