Gurnee Mayor Tom Hood appeared headed for a second term in office after his opponent, Trustee Quin O’Brien, conceded the election Tuesday night.
Hood was leading 69.5% to 30.5%, or 2,308 to 1,013 votes, according to unofficial results posted late Tuesday night by the Lake County Clerk’s Office. Hood said that he estimated 98% of the vote was in at that time, and he had received a concession call from O’Brien.
Hood ran for his second term in office against O’Brien, who is in the middle of his second four-year term on the Village Board. The two candidates, who have worked together in the past as members of the Village Board, ran a campaign where neither candidate spoke badly about the other.
“The people have spoken, resoundingly,” O’Brien said. “He got more than 60% of the vote, and I got 30%. I called him, I congratulated him and he and I are going to have breakfast in a couple of weeks.”
O’Brien said that he started having conversations with Gurnee residents about him potentially running for mayor two years ago, and in that time thought about what it would mean to run against Hood. The trustee was first elected to the Village Board in 2019. He founded an internet-based real estate company in 2000, but is now “semi-retired.”
If elected, O’Brien intended to focus on turning the portion of Gurnee that’s east of U.S. Route 41 into, “a destination” and a “revenue-producing area.” He also said that he would want the village to focus on replacing underground water pipes.
Despite his loss, he said that the village “won” during the election, because of the “clean campaign” that both candidates staged.
“Everybody wins,” O’Brien said. “Of course, I would have rather have been the one to win, but I don’t think it’s a bad choice for Gurnee. I always said that I was going to be fine no matter what happened, and I truly am.”
An attorney at Hood Law, Hood said that throughout his first term he felt as if he’d established a direction for the village, but still has goals for Gurnee that he has left to accomplish.
“The voters responded saying, ‘Good job for the last four years, we want to see four more,’” he said.
Hood was sworn in for his first term in 2021.
“It was a rough start,” Hood said about being elected during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the village’s ability to rebound from the pandemic is one of the things that has made him the proudest throughout his term.
“I’m really proud of how the businesses have rebounded,” he said. “We’re stronger than we’ve ever been, even pre-pandemic. Our numbers are amazing.”
He said that he looks forward to seeing several recently developed commissions start to take off, including the Arts Commission and the Care Commission.
