Dupage Policy Journal

Safe Suburbs PAC founder Kevin Coyne said his group’s endorsed candidates saw success in the April 4 election. 

“It looked like it was a very good night in Naperville and a couple of other communities for our supported candidates," Coyne, a former Naperville councilman, told DuPage Policy Journal. "Naperville in particular was a really good showing for candidates that were running on public safety and pro-police candidates and so we're really excited with the results.” 

Safe Suburbs endorsed Josh McBroom, Meghna Bansal, Nag Jaiswal, and Nate Wilson for Naperville City Council.

The council race featured a crowded field. McBroom won with 12,767 votes and 12.25% of the electorate, according to Positively Naperville. Wilson also won with 10,111 and 9.7% of the vote. Other endorsees, Bansal and Jaiswal, lost.

The campaign featured controversy after Coyne and others called out Naperville council member Theresa Sullivan over the Naperville Forward mailer for misleading voters. Sullivan runs the Naper Forward PAC, which supports leftist politics.

According to Coyne, “Exactly zero local candidates have voiced any support for banning books." He added that libraries are not being pursued by any local candidates seeking to ban books. 

"There are also no book ban controversies now - or known to be coming - before the Naperville Library Board," Coyne said in an email. "This mailer, sent by the group Naperville Forward (chaired by Naperville City Councilwoman Theresa Sullivan), is a complete fabrication. Every word of this mailer is a lie.”  

The mailer, Coyne said, was the lowest form of campaigning and was an "attempt to deceive voters and to incite outrage and angst amongst our residents. 

"It is one thing to engage in some puffery during election season. It is something else entirely to outright lie about people." Coyne said the mailer was "dangerous."

Sullivan was also criticized by Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico. He admonished Sullivan for engaging in “dirty politics.”